ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The No. 1 seed in the conference is hard to obtain because of the stars; it takes every player on the floor to produce. And that’s how Quinnipiac men’s basketball took care of business against No. 8 Rider in a 14-point win in the MAAC Quarterfinals Wednesday night.
Rider got off to a strong start, with graduate student forward Tariq Ingraham dominating down in the post against graduate student center Paul Otieno to open the game. The Broncs kept it close early, cutting the deficit to four points late in the first half. But the Bobcats went to another level once sophomore guard Khaden Bennett drilled his first three-pointer.
“(My teammates) see me putting in the work every day,” Bennett said. “Them just having the confidence in me all year no matter what, and believing in me and telling me to shoot the ball is what I needed tonight.”
Bennett, who started slow with three missed layups, found his rhythm and scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half. He hit three three-pointers, a rare commodity for the Bobcats, who sit last in the MAAC in three-pointers and shot 24% from behind the arc in the game. Quinnipiac then went on a 14-3 run to cap off the first half, where it led by 16.
A key factor in that first half was Quinnipiac’s balanced scoring, as seven of 10 players found the bottom of the cup. Whether it was just two points for junior guard Ryan Mabrey or 10 points from junior forward Amarri Monroe, the scoring was distributed evenly.
“Every award is given out already; now we’re all about winning,” Monroe said. “Today we should have six, seven, or eight, guys in double figures. And it kind of showed today. It kind of just shows how deep our team is.”
One of those double-digit scorers was graduate student guard Savion Lewis. The Dix Hills, New York native, not typically known to drop double-digit points, but in the past five games Lewis has done it three times. The Broncs cut off passing lanes, forcing Lewis to score, and he did, recording 14 points, his second-most of the season.
“Him just being aggressive kind of takes away the fire soldiers as well,” Monroe said. “He just kind of read what the defense was giving him. Everyone says he’s kind of passive, but you know, today and in the past few games as well, he’s been aggressive to score the ball.”
Rider didn’t just lay down to the Bobcats, Ingraham (18 points and eight rebounds) and graduate student forward TJ. Weeks Jr. (23 points and nine rebounds) — in his final collegiate game — provided a spark for the Broncs.
“Our guys love him, man, and they all fought for him, and that’s why they were so happy for him yesterday,” Rider head coach Kevin Baggett said. “That’s the game of basketball. They’re disappointed. They feel like they let them down, but we all let one another down today.”
Otieno (10 points and nine rebounds), Monroe (23 points and eight rebounds) and senior forward Alexis Reyes (eight points, nine rebounds and two assists) proved too much to handle for Rider.
Reyes, whom Pecora has been labeled the “glue guy,” accomplished that feat and more against the Broncs, being everywhere where the ball was. After subbing out after a bad turnover, the Roxbury, Massachusetts, native flipped a switch, totaling eight points and eight rebounds when he came back.
“I gave Lex Reyes one of the gloves because he had eight points, but he did every little thing that we talk about,” Pecora said. “He defended, he got his hands on balls, he rebounded the basketball, and he was a great leader out there.”
The Bobcats will have a tall task ahead of them when they face off against either No. 4 Iona or No. 5 Manhattan on March 14 at 6 p.m.
“It’s a special time of the year,” Pecora said. “College basketball is like no other sport; March Madness is just an incredible journey, and this is part of it. You know, it’s not just the NCAA Tournament. It’s the battle to get there.”
