STOP #7: William H. Pitt Center, Fairfield, CT
Saturday, February 23, 2013 – 1pm
Quinnipiac Bobcats (23-2, 14-0) at Sacred Heart Pioneers (18-7, 10-3)
Watch on NEC Front Row
QU Game Notes
SHU Game Notes
In a showdown between the top two teams from last year’s NEC standings, and the two teams currently topping this year’s standings, the Sacred Heart Pioneers host the Quinnipiac Bobcats on Saturday afternoon at the Pitt Center. SHU and QU are the two hottest teams going right now in the Northeast Conference, with the Pioneers riding a nine game win streak, and the Bobcats winning each of their last 15. The game will also have a little extra added sizzle to it by the fact that Quinnipiac can clinch the program’s second ever regular season championship with a victory. To do that, they’ll have to get past last year’s regular season champion, the Sacred Heart Pioneers, who can spoil their rival’s perfect conference regular season record with a win, and move a step closer to clinching a playoff spot of their own.
We already know that the 2013 NEC regular season
championship can only be won by one of these two schools, and Saturday’s game
will be a major factor in deciding it. How important is it to be the #1 seed
come tournament time? In NEC women’s basketball history, top seeds have
advanced to the championship game 22 out of 26 times (or 84.6%), and top seeds
have walked away with the championship trophy in 15 of the previous 26
tournaments (57.7%). While #1 doesn’t guarantee anything, history shows that being
the top seed certainly increases your chances to be ‘dancing’ come March. We
will see on Saturday if Quinnipiac can make good on their first opportunity to
wrap things up, or if Sacred Heart can pull off the upset and extend the race for
the top spot down to the wire.
ALL
TIME SERIES
In what
may be the last ever Northeast Conference meeting between these two Nutmeg
State rivals, separated by just about 23 miles of Merritt Parkway, Saturday
marks the 61st all-time encounter. Sacred Heart leads the all-time series 34-26. The
history between these two programs goes back to 1976, in their Division II days,
and has continued on since each school joined the NEC in the late 90’s, one
year apart. The Pioneers are 11-1 all-time against Quinnipiac at home, with the
Bobcats lone victory coming just last January. This season, they met up in
Hamden back on January 12th, with the Bobcats earning a convincing 74-45
victory. Brittney McQuain recorded a double-double on that afternoon with 21
points and 10 rebounds. (Check out my blog recap of that game here). This time the
Pioneers will need to shoot much better and avoid costly turnovers, they
committed a season high 28 the first time around against QU.
Ironically,
while Sacred Heart and Quinnipiac are two of the most frequent participants in the
NEC Women’s Basketball Championships, their paths have very rarely crossed.
Quinnipiac has already clinched a spot in the 2013 NEC postseason, ensuring appearances
in 13 straight NEC Tournaments and 14 overall. Since joining D1, the Bobcats
have appeared in the NEC playoffs all but one season (2000). Sacred Heart has
appeared in the NEC Tournament 13 straight times, reaching at least the semis
in eight of their previous 13 trips, and has not ever finished lower than
third. During their respective playoff appearance streaks, Quinnipiac and
Sacred Heart’s paths have only crossed twice, in a 2002 quarterfinal game won by Sacred Heart, and, perhaps their most memorable matchup, the 2006 NEC Championship Game.
On that day, Amanda Pape led the Pioneers with a game high 25 points, and
completed a double-double with 14 rebounds, to earn Tournament MVP honors. The
Pioneers took home their first ever tournament title with a 69-65 victory.
TALE OF
THE TAPE
Scoring
Offense: SHU (3rd – 63.2), QU (1st – 72.1)
Scoring
Defense: SHU (1st – 55.9), QU (2nd – 58.2)
Field Goal
%: SHU (4th - .385), QU (1st - .400)
Field Goal
% Defense: SHU (3rd - .370), QU (2nd - .359)
3 point Field
Goal %: SHU (7th - .302), QU (1st - .356)
ABOUT
THE PIONEERS
The Sacred
Heart Pioneers kept rolling along last weekend, earning a sweep of the NEC’s Keystone
State clubs at home. After a 1-3 start, their worst since joining the Northeast
Conference, the reigning NEC champs have won each of the last nine games to
take over sole possession of second place in the conference standings. Over the
last 50 days, since a 29 point loss to the Bobcats and an overtime loss to
in-state rival CCSU on the weekend of January 12th, the Pioneers haven’t tasted
defeat. The current win streak is Sacred Heart’s longest since they won 21
straight games to go 18-0 in the NEC and win the conference championship in 2009.
SHU can clinch a playoff spot on Saturday with a win and some outside help.
The nine
game win streak started back on January 19th with a road win on NEC-TV against
the St. Francis Red Flash. On Monday night, the Pioneers once again handled SFU,
with an 81-56 victory. Last year’s NEC Tournament MVP Ericka Norman recorded
her first double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 assists. The
Pioneers fielded two 20 point scorers for the first time since December 2011,
with senior Kiley Evans leading the way with 23 points and sophomore Gabrielle
Washington adding 22. The Pioneers shot an incredible 51.7% from the floor on
the evening. The 81 points SHU put up on the scoreboard marked a
season high.
ABOUT
THE BOBCATS
All season
long the mission and the focus for the Quinnipiac Bobcats has been March 17th,
the date of the 2013 NEC Women’s Basketball Championship Game. The Bobcats, who
have only appeared in one championship game in program history, can take
another step toward making that mission a reality by clinching the regular
season title with a win on Saturday. QU has only won the NEC regular season
title once, in 2008, when they finished a league best 25-6 and 16-2 in conference play, but lost in
the semi-final round of the conference tournament to LIU Brooklyn. It should be
noted though that in 2008, the first two rounds were held at LIU, so despite
being the higher seed, there was no real advantage for the Bobcats. This
season, should QU clinch the league’s top spot, they will be assured of home NEC
playoff games at the TD Bank Sports Center for as long as they are still alive.
At 14-0 in
conference play, the Bobcats are just four wins shy of becoming the sixth NEC
team to record a perfect regular season, and the first since the 2009 Sacred Heart
Pioneers. Four previous times in NEC history a team has run the table in the regular season and won the NEC championship (see chart below). For QU, it has been 354 days since they last tasted defeat against a
NEC opponent, in last year’s conference tournament semi-finals, against the Monmouth
Hawks.
On
Wednesday night, the Bobcats gained a small measure of revenge by defeating the
Hawks 72-45. QU extended the nation’s fifth longest win streak to 15 games, as
they put together a dominant defensive effort. Monmouth turned the ball over 27
times, leading to 33 Bobcat points. Monmouth was also held to just 32.7%
shooting from the floor. Quinnipiac’s “Gold Rush” also stole the show,
contributing 39 points. In fact, the QU bench outscored their starting five,
39-33. The Bobcats also welcomed back sophomore forward Samantha Guastella, who
had missed the previous 11 games due to injury. Guastella, who was a starter until she went down with the injury, only adds
another weapon to what may already be the deepest team in NEC history.
ODDS
& ENDS
Sacred
Heart is an amazing 11-1 at the Pitt Center in 2012-13, and 26-2 at home since
the start of last season…There will be several celebrations taking place at the
Pitt Center on Saturday afternoon. First, SHU will be conducting special “Senior
Day” ceremonies, honoring seniors Morgan Merriman and Kiley Evans prior to the game. It
will also be “Alumni Day” as the Pioneers will welcome back former students.
Finally, Sacred Heart will also be hosting “Newtown Community Day” which
includes a clinic and autograph session with SHU men and women student athletes
and members of the Newtown, CT community. A portion of the proceeds for the
game will benefit the Newtown Scholarship Association’s Sandy Hook Elementary School
Memorial Scholarship Fund…Both head coaches are not just the best in their
respective program’s history, they are also the top two winningest head coaches NEC
history. Ed Swanson is in his 23rd season leading the Pioneers and has amassed
over 400 career wins. Tricia Fabbri is in her 18th year with Quinnipiac and is
the school’s all-time winningest head coach...One of the key reasons for SHU’s
nine game winning streak has been the solid play of their defense. Over the
last nine games, the Pioneers are only allowing an average of 50.6 points and
are forcing an average of 22.2 turnovers per game. SHU has either won or tied
the turnover battle in each game during their current streak.
The
Bobcats aren’t just beating all NEC challengers this year, they are doing it
rather convincingly. Quinnipiac’s margin of victory in conference games is 17.4
points. Only three of their NEC games have been decided by single digits, and
no games have been decided by two possessions or less…With four regular season
games and postseason play still to come, QU stands two wins shy of matching
their 2008 team Division 1 wins record of 25 in a single season. The NEC record
for wins in a single season was set by the Sacred Heart Pioneers, who won 26
games in 2006, and again last year…Quinnipiac and the Big East’s UConn Huskies
are the only two loss teams in all of New England…The Bobcats are tied with the
Florida Gulf Coast Eagles for the fifth longest active win streak in the nation
at 15 games…In this week’s College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 Poll, the Bobcats ranked
ninth, their highest showing since joining Division I…QU stands second in the
country in turnover margin with a + 7.96, just behind national leader Kentucky.
The Bobcats have forced 578 turnovers on the season, compared to giving the
ball away only 366 times. The team also ranks 13th in the nation in steals per
game, and senior Felicia Barron ranks seventh in the nation individually in
steals per game.
AROUND
THE NEC
With just
two weeks remaining in the Northeast Conference’s regular season, there are 10
teams still mathematically alive, fighting for eight exclusive reservations
into the NEC playoff party. Of course, one ticket, the Quinnipiac Bobcats, has
already been punched, leaving seven spots still unclaimed. Five of the six
games on the Saturday schedule will have a major impact on the playoff picture
and could result in some more teams cementing their spot into the NEC’s ‘March
Madness.’
While the
NEC’s top two teams meet in Hamden, the teams currently placed at third and
fourth in the standings will collide in Loretto, PA. The Monmouth Hawks hold a
slim one game lead over the St. Francis Red Flash for third place. A Monmouth
win and some outside help could wrap up a playoff spot for the Hawks before the
day is done. However, a Red Flash win ties them with the Hawks and would also give
them the 2013 series sweep, and thus the head to head tiebreaker advantage. Monmouth,
the two-time reigning NEC runners up, had won four straight before their defeat
at the hands of the Bobcats on Wednesday night. St. Francis is looking to shake
off a three game slide, and are hoping that home cooking will do the trick. The
Flash have played five of their six February games, so far, on the road. Saturday’s
game at DeGol Arena will be the first home game in two weeks and just the
second in the last four weeks.
The teams
currently sitting at fourth through seventh place are separated by just one
game in the loss column, meaning that one good or one bad weekend by a team
could result in a significant change in the standings. That extreme makeover
could very well take place this weekend as all of those teams, jammed right
next each other in the standings, meet in head to head action on Saturday.
First, the
St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers travel down to Maryland to meet Mount St. Mary’s.
The Terriers are tied for fourth, while the Mount is just one game back, in a
tie for sixth. The Mount came away with a 49-45 victory in Brooklyn back in mid-January.
The game was tied in the final minute before Tara Lonergan delivered the game
winning layup with 35 seconds to spare. After a SFC miss, Selina Mann tacked
on the game-clinching free throws. A Mount win on Saturday would tie them with St. Francis,
give them the head to head tiebreaker, and could put them back in the
discussion to possibly finish in the top four and host a first round tournament
game. A Terrier win would give them 9 conference wins, clinching their first
winning NEC regular season since going 9-7 in 1987, the first year of NEC
women’s basketball. A SFC victory would also inch them closer to clinching
their first playoff spot since 2008. The highest the Terriers have ever been
seeded was a five seed, in 1987 and 1998.
Then in
Moon Township, two teams currently on the outside looking in of the top eight,
will look to boost their playoff hopes as the Robert Morris Colonials host the
Fairleigh Dickinson Knights. A Knights loss would put their postseason
aspirations on extreme life support, while the Colonials current run of eight
straight years in the playoffs, would be in danger should they go down in defeat. FDU beat Robert Morris mid-January in the Garden State, so a Knights
win would clinch them the head to head tiebreaker, giving RMU another hurdle to
overcome.
In Rhode
Island, the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils and the Bryant Bulldogs will
meet for the second time this year, with just a half game separating the two,
and separating sixth place from eighth. Finally, the NEC’s bottom two teams
will meet in Staten Island as Wagner hosts LIU-Brooklyn. The Seahawks lone
conference win this year came back on January 14th, 74-70, at the hands of the
Blackbirds.
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