NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK — Quinnipiac men’s basketball edged out Iona 63-62 Sunday afternoon in a game that can be summed up in one sentence.
“We just kept competing,” Quinnipiac head coach Tom Pecora said.
Iona had two double-digit leads in the game, one in each half capitalizing on the Bobcats’ ongoing shooting struggles. At the half, Quinnipiac clawed back from an early deficit to pull within four.
“The big thing for us at the half, we wanted to get it down under 10 and we got it to four,” Pecora said. “We have got seven veterans out there tonight, so they’ve been through some battles, and they don’t get rattled and that had a lot to do with it.”
However, the inconsistent shooting bug continued into the second half. The Bobcats opened shooting 0-15 from the field before graduate student forward Paul Otieno — who had a double-double — ended the drought with a layup with 12 minutes to play.
“We’ve been down before,” junior forward Amarri Monroe said. “You just learned to stay composed. And we just weren’t playing that hard out the gate. We went down double digits, but we played the same game whether (we were) up 10, down 10. And it was a great team win.”
With freshman forward Spence Wewe likely missing the next few weeks with a foot injury, according to Pecora, Otieno has stepped into a bigger role — playing 31.8 MPG since Nov. 25.
With more minutes come foul trouble, the Nairobi, Kenya native fell into it checking out with 11:31 left in the game with four fouls. Until Otieno checked back in with 2:23 left on the clock, the Bobcats stormed back to take a three-point lead.
But how?
The Bobcats ran a small ball lineup of senior guard Doug Young, freshman guard Jaden Zimmerman, freshman forward Grant Randall — who came out for sophomore guard Khaden Bennett with 5:45 to go in the game — graduate student forward Alexis Reyes and Monroe.
“It makes it harder for us,” Iona head coach Tobin Anderson said. “We got mismatched by Monroe a couple of times … we weren’t matched up. That’s the kind of stuff that kills you.”
This lineup change helped the Bobcats cut their eight-point deficit to three.
After not playing against Siena on Friday night, Young was put back into the lineup as graduate student guard Savion Lewis missed the game with a lower-body injury. With the loss of Lewis it opened the role of the main ballhandler role to Young at the end of the game. Young made his presence felt by scoring four points, grabbing two rebounds and a steal to start the comeback.
“Doug always competes,” Pecora said. “I knew after him not playing on Friday, he’d be locked and he’ll do whatever we need him to do”
Powered by overcoming two double-digit deficits the Bobcats managed to pull off a narrow victory improving their conference record to 5-1.
“We just kept competing,” Pecora said. “It’s a great skill you could have. You just keep coming down and competing every possession. And they did that, felt very proud of them.”
The Bobcats ride their two-game win streak back to Hamden on Jan. 16 when they take on an undefeated in-conference Merrimack at 7 p.m.
“Can we handle a day like this and having a little bit of success,” Pecora said. “The term we use all the time is just a one-game winning streak.”
