The Quinnipiac women’s basketball team completed the series sweep against Monmouth on Sunday, dominating the Hawks in an 83-50 win at home. The win improves the Bobcats home record to 9-3.
The 33-point edge was the largest margin of victory the team has had all season. The Bobcats scored 53 points in the second half, more than Monmouth scored all game.
“We’ve scored 80 points in our last three games,” Quinnipiac head coach Tricia Fabbri said. “It’s going to be a balance of continuing to do and be efficient on the offensive end. But it’s really going be about our effort and shutting people down if we’re going to have the success that we want to have come March.”
Quinnipiac is now 4-1 in the month of February, improving its conference record to 11-5. That leaves them a half-game behind Fairfield for third place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Brittany McQuain continued her successful play in the 2013-14 campaign, recording her eighth double-double of the season. She led all scorers with 14 points and added 13 rebounds.
“We’ve got to run everything offensively through her,” Fabbri said. “And, she’s such a good individual defender, she’s such a great stopper, rebounder, shot blocker. Really, she needs to play every possession like it’s her last possession.”
After going into the half with an 11-point lead, the Bobcats came out on fire in the second half, shooting nine three-pointers to help them go up 35 points with 1:15 left in the game.
“I think that when we’re really good on defense, our offense just comes after that,” forward Brittany McQuain said. “It’s hard to be great on offense when the defense isn’t there. When your defense is backing you up it’s good to kind of forget about things.”
A game that was characterized by offensive numbers, defense was the under looked category in this win. After giving up triple-digits to Marist on Friday, the team wanted to give a defensive effort for 40 minutes.
“For us going forward for the remainder of the season, it’s really about the effort on the defensive end,” Fabbri said. “This is a veteran team that has been in big spots in big games and really takes pride in shutting teams down.”
Going up 9-1 early in the first half, the Bobcats were able to achieve a lead that would be managed throughout the rest of the game. Quinnipiac’s bench has been a key reason for its success all year, providing 49 points in the victory.
“We’re still not satisfied,” guard Jasmine Martin said. “We still have a long ways to go. We just showed what we’re capable of and just because we win by 30, we can’t be happy. But I mean everybody played well. Very happy for Jaci [Oskam]. Two back-to-back three’s, that was amazing.”
Oskam was one of many to come off the bench and score today. She scored a season-high eight points with six of them coming off those back-to-back three’s late in the second half.
The Bobcats go on the road Thursday where they take on Siena at 7 p.m. Siena currently sits at the bottom of the MAAC with a 2-13 conference record.
