After Merrimack defeated Marist 75-53 Thursday night, it opened the door for Quinnipiac men’s basketball to cut down the nets on its home floor — an opportunity the Bobcats were not able to accomplish last season.
The Bobcats secured their second straight MAAC Regular Season Championship with a 79-70 victory over Mount St. Mary’s Thursday night. Unlike last year — when the Bobcats clinched the title on the road in Jersey City, New Jersey — they were able to enjoy the moment on their home court.
“I’ve never done this before,” junior forward Amarri Monroe said. “(I’ve had) a loss in the state tournament in high school by a buzzer beater. We didn’t do this last year, being that we played at Saint Peter’s when we clinched. It’s a blessing. Caught me off guard, I didn’t think we were going to do it. Just being up on that ladder, it feels good.”
Head coach Tom Pecora cut down the nets as a head coach for the first time after previously doing so as an assistant coach in his time at Hofstra.
“As an assistant coach, I had the opportunity to do it a few times when I was at Hofstra when we won the American East,” Pecora said. “Then when I became a head coach, they went and jumped to the Colonial; it was a much tougher league, and we competed hard and well in that, but we never won the championship in the regular season.”
Pecora has transformed the Quinnipiac men’s basketball program into a back-to-back No. 1 seed in his first two seasons at the helm. The Bobcats are 30-9 in MAAC regular season contests over the last two seasons, sitting at 15-4 in league play this season with one game remaining before Atlantic City.
Though it starts with Pecora at the top, the success of the Bobcats stems from the countless people behind the scenes that make the program a family.
“We’re super proud of everybody from walk ons to coaches (and) trainers,” Monroe said. “We let our trainer grow up there, (former head coach) Billy Meca went up there. We’re a family, and that’s what I love the most about this program. We’re all family; nobody worries about themselves. You know, we’re just one big family.”
The Bobcats have been in this scenario before and have not finished the job, being upset last year by Saint Peter’s in the MAAC Semifinals. Each player understands what the goal is and what’s next.
“The job’s not finished,” graduate student guard Savion Lewis said. “We have the main goal of winning the whole thing, but it’s definitely a blessing. So I’m gonna be in the moment right now. Definitely not gonna be the last we cut down.”
The Bobcats will take on Fairfield in the regular season finale on Saturday, March 8. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
“Saturday we go to Fairfield,” Pecora said. “We can play everybody, rest some of the starters, but get our mojo and keep ourselves going and get ready to go down (to Atlantic City) and play on Wednesday.”
