The Quinnipiac women’s basketball team won its ninth consecutive game Thursday night, defeating Mount St. Mary’s 75-55 in what was head coach Tricia Fabbri’s 500th career win.

The all-time wins leader in Quinnipiac Basketball history has just reached a new milestone 🐐

Congratulations on 500 career wins @QU_CoachFabbri 👑 pic.twitter.com/fBYM2FsAtr

— Quinnipiac Women's Basketball (@QU_WBB) February 17, 2023

The visitors got the wire-to-wire victory thanks to a fast start, jumping out to an early 7-2 lead midway through the first quarter.

Lately, the Bobcats have been a defensive juggernaut, holding their opponents to just 34.1% shooting from the field this season, good for fifth in the NCAA Division I. That defense came to play tonight, as the Mountaineers converted just one of their first 13 shots. 

Mount St. Mary’s, who was clearly rattled by Quinnipiac’s size, took almost the entire first quarter to settle in. The Mountaineers closed the final couple of minutes of the quarter on a 5-1 run, cutting the Quinnipiac lead to 13-7 when the buzzer sounded. 

Despite all of the positives with the Bobcats defense, they turned the ball over seven times in the first 10 minutes, which helped Mount St. Mary’s stay in the game.

Unlike the first quarter, the Mountaineers got out of their shooting slump, jumping from 11% from the field to 47%. However, the Bobcats were right there with them.

Sophomore forward Grace La Barge continued her impressive stretch of play in tonight’s game, giving Quinnipiac its first double-digit lead of the night after knocking down a three from the wing. 

After the Bobcats finally cracked the 10-point margin, the flood gates started to open. 

Quinnipiac forced back-to-back turnovers, culminating in a transition three from sophomore guard Jackie Grisdale, who led the Bobcats in scoring tonight. Grisdale put the Bobcats up 16 which forced the hosts to call a timeout. 

The visitors headed into the halftime locker room with a 13-point advantage, with Quinnipiac’s depth showing as seven different Bobcats got their name on the scoreboard. 

As if Mount St. Mary’s 13.6% shooting performance in the first quarter wasn’t bad enough, the third quarter was even worse.

The Mountaineers posted a 2-for-17 third quarter, good for just 11.8%. Quinnipiac’s defense continued to impose its will, mixing between 2-3 zone, 1-3-1 zone and man-to-man to make life as tough as possible for the hosts. 

The visitors’ lead ballooned up to 26 by the end of the quarter, as Quinnipiac was well on its way to its ninth-straight win and 18th of the season.

Once the lead hit 30 early in the fourth quarter, Fabbri pulled the plug, calling a timeout to allow the Bobcats to sub out their main rotational players. 

With the bench players in, the Mountaineers scored 10 to make the final score a bit more respectable, but it was all for not as the Bobcats took home the victory, 75-55. \

The win moves Quinnipiac to 13-3 in-conference as it continues to make a push for the MAAC’s No. 1 seed with the tournament inching closer. 

Fabbri won’t have much time to celebrate her historic feat, as the Bobcats are back in action in just two days, when they travel to New Jersey to take on Rider on Feb. 18.