In its second game of MAAC play, the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team took down the Niagara Purple Eagles 75-68 in overtime on the road Sunday afternoon. Graduate student guard Matt Balanc was the leading scorer in the contest with 19 points and led the team with 42 minutes in the contest
From the start, Quinnipiac looked good, with its lead ballooning up to 15 in the first half. Junior guard Doug Young provided a spark off the bench, shooting 3-3 from deep in the first half.
For the entirety of the first half, Quinnipiac held the lead, and things were looking up. Freshman forward Ri Vavers was held out of this game, leaving the Bobcats a man down. That didn’t hold them back in this one, as they now have their first conference win of the 2023-2024 season, coming off an opening loss to Canisius on Friday.
The second half saw senior forward Paul Otieno come out on fire, shooting 78% from the field on the day. He came alive in the second half, after making his first career three pointer in the previous half, Otieno had six of his seven made shots fall in the second half. He finished with 15 points to accompany his nine rebounds.
Niagara inched closer in the second half as it shot 50% from three-point range, while Quinnipiac only hit 25% of its triples.. The Purple Eagles finally got their first lead of the afternoon with seven minutes to play, sophomore forward Harlan Obioha made a layup off a rebound. He would finish the contest with 16 points and despite the win, Quinnipiac couldn’t find answers for Obioha in the paint.
Junior forward Alexis Reyes started in place of Vavers, and despite not standing out on the stat sheet, Reyes made two crucial free throws with six seconds remaining to extend the Bobcats lead to seven in overtime .
With the win, the Bobcats split the weekend road trip in Buffalo, losing to Canisius on Friday and responding this afternoon with Niagara to improve their record to 6-2 on the season, and 1-1 in conference play.
Quinnipiac is back in action on Dec. 8 against Navy back on its home court.
