Parents, siblings and students raised their voices to cheer on the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team on Senior Night.
Senior Katie Caputi scored a game-high and career-high 27 points to give Quinnipiac a 72-67 victory over Sacred Heart University on Feb. 21at Burt Khan Court.
The victory assured Quinnipiac (12-13, 9-8) is assured a spot in the Northeast Conference playoffs. Meanwhile, the Pioneers (16-10, 12-5) may have lost their final chance to be the Number one ranked team in the league.
“I was day dreaming before the game,” said Caputi. “It was the last time here and I wanted it to be special.”
Before a crowd of 714 people, Caputi led the way in the second half scoring nine points in the final five minutes of the game, along with her drive lay up to the basket and nailed a foul shot that put Quinnipiac in the lead, 68-67.
Caputi took over again. She gave Quinnipiac a 70-67 lead with two free throws and 13 seconds left to play.
“You can’t teach that stuff,” said coach Tricia Sacca-Fabbri about Caputi’s clutch play. “It was so nice to see Caputi do it.”
In the first half, Quinnipiac was up by 13 points at 26-13, although SHU had the majority of back-to-back three pointers by Ashley Kohl, which led a rally at the start of the second half.
Quinnipiac led at halftime, 31-26, with 34.5 percent shooting(10 of 29) from the field, while holding the Pioneers to 29.7 percent (11 of 37) shooting.
SHU opened up a 9-4 run with 5:19 in the second half on shots by Kate Maher and Brooke Kelly.
The Pioneers had one last chance to tie the game. SHU shot the ball out of bounds, which left a reckless rally and Ashle Durmer gave the ball away.
Quinnipiac’s Kara Cassidy went to the line with six seconds left and made two free throws to win the contest.
“I never had a player (Caputi) make a play and almost come to tears,” said Sacca-Fabbri.
Quinnipiac will face Central Connecticut State University away on Feb. 23 at 3:30 p.m.