It only took a matter of minutes for the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team (15-5, 9-0 MAAC) to extend its win-streak to 10 games on Saturday afternoon.

[media-credit id=2228 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]In their 77-45 win over Fairfield (7-11, 4-3 MAAC), the Bobcats started the game out on a 16-2 run, and when the Bobcats took a 13-2 lead six minutes in, the Stags wouldn’t come within 10 points for the rest of the game.

Junior forward Paula Strautmane opened the game up with five points while sophomore guard Taylor Herd finished the run with a pair of 3-pointers. Junior forward Jen Fay and junior guard Aryn McClure also contributed to the run.
“It was a nice way to start out the game. [We] really executed against their zone,” Quinnipiac assistant coach Mountain MacGillivray said. “We passed the ball well, we shoot the ball well. Taylor Herd really came out on fire. Jen Fay was knocking down shots, it was a good way to get going.”

When the first quarter ended, the Bobcats held a 24-7 lead as they were able to make 75 percent of their shots in the quarter and hold the Stags to 18.8 percent shooting in the quarter. The Bobcats also shot 66.7 percent from the field on nine attempts in the opening quarter.

“We knew they were going to come out in a zone and we were going to be ready to shoot whether they were going in or not,” Fay said. “And thankfully they were and we were just going to keep on shooting and it paid off.”

The Stags’ defense improved in the second quarter as the Bobcats were 3-for-18 (16.7 percent) from the field in the quarter. However, Quinnipiac outscored Fairfield in the quarter, 15-14, and carried a 39-21 lead at the half.
“I know were weren’t thrilled with out second quarter, but when we looked at it we won the second quarter,” MacGillivray said. “We went on from there and was real pleased with the wire-to-wire effort.”

[media-credit id=2228 align=”alignright” width=”200″][/media-credit]The Bobcats killed any chance of a Stags rally in the first five minutes of the second half as they went on a 13-2 run that gave them a 52-24 lead. Fay opened the run with a pair of 3-pointers that contributed to her game-high of 14 points. Junior guard Brittany Martin closed the run with five consecutive points. Strautmane scored the other two points in the run.

By the time the third quarter ended, the Bobcats held a 66-33 lead making the fourth quarter a formality where the Bobcats led by as much as 34 points.

Even though the Bobcats are in first-place in the MAAC by a few games, McClure said that the team is taking it one game at a time.

“I don’t think we should take any team lightly,” McClure said. “So we just go into each game with the same mentality as if (the opponent) is the best team in the conference.”

Fay led all scorers with 14 points on Saturday while Strautmane (11), Herd (11) and Martin (10) reached double-figures in scoring. McClure had nine points and 10 rebounds. Senior guard Carly Fabbri led the Bobcats in assists with five while Herd had four of her own.

The win gave Quinnipiac head coach Tricia Fabbri her 394th career victory.

The Bobcats will look to extend their winning streak to 11 on Friday as they travel to Canisius to face the Golden Griffins.