HAMDEN — Quinnipiac women’s basketball opened up conference play in dominant fashion, handling the Manhattan Jaspers 78-39 at home on Friday morning. The win moves Quinnipiac to 6-4 on the young season.
“A great way to get a bad taste out of our mouth,” head coach Tricia Fabbri said. “Really pleased with how dominant our performance was today.”
After a tough 65-63 loss against the Maine Black Bears last week, the Bobcats were in desperate need of a strong performance to get themself back on track with a 20 game stretch of conference opponents ahead of them.
A strong performance was exactly what the Bobcats gave, much to the joy of the near capacity “Kids-Day” crowd.
“Kids games are always my favorite home games,” graduate student guard Jackie Grisdale said. “It’s always something special and it’s been really cool.”
From the opening tip-off, Quinnipiac used its physicality and offensive prowess to dominate for a majority of the first quarter. In particular, it was the offensive prowess of junior forward Anna Foley that anchored the Bobcat attack early. Her eight point and three rebound period helped Quinnipiac grow its lead to nine points by the end of the first quarter.
“Being confident in the minutes I’m getting and relying on my teammates,” Foley said. “Just let it come to me and don’t force anything.”
That scoring was spread around the court, as six Bobcats entered the box score in the opening period. The long ball was also a major factor in the success of the Quinnipiac attack, as they netted four three pointers.
The second was more of the same for the Bobcats. Quinnipiac dominated on both sides of the ball, having its way on offense while shutting down the Jaspers on defense, forcing six of 11 total first half turnovers.
The offense continued to spread around the court, with Foley and Grisdale scoring twelve of the 19 total Quinnipiac points in the second quarter.
“My teammates kept hitting me when I was open,” Grisdale said. “They keep trusting me and I’ll keep knocking it down if I can.”
By the time play entered the last 20 minutes, junior guard Karson Martin had reintroduced herself to the Quinnipiac frontcourt after being absent for seven straight games due to injury.
“She keeps things loose and plays with such a moxie,” Fabbri said. “That’s really important to have in a locker room.”
With the game firmly in the Bobcat’s hands entering the fourth, Fabbri would rest the starting five and give opportunities to the girls on the bench. With 22 seconds left to go, sophomore guard Reagan Sipla would put in a layup for her first collegiate points, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
“Getting to see the success of my teammates is almost as great as experiencing that success myself,” freshman guard Ella Ryan said. “There’s really no feeling like it.”
That layup was the exclamation point on the dominant performance from the Bobcats, cementing their win by the largest margin since Nov. 14, 2022, against the University of Hartford.
The Bobcats will travel to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. on Sunday, Dec. 21 to take on the Marist Red Foxes. Tip off is set for 5 p.m.
