Grace LaBarge had an unorthodox recruiting experience due to COVID-19.
“I wasn’t able to meet anyone in person or really go on a visit,” LaBarge, an Inverness, Illinois, native said. “I did end up coming here and I was only allowed to stay outside, and I did a lot of Zooms with coaches and players.”
Despite being unable to host LaBarge in person, the Bobcats she spoke with left a lasting impression on her.
“It was honestly an easy decision for me because of how they made me feel, what they said would be expected of me and everything like that,” LaBarge said.
Quinnipiac women’s basketball honored its three seniors against Manhattan on Saturday, including LaBarge.
Her parents, Jim and Ann LaBarge, made the two-hour flight to Connecticut for their youngest daughter’s senior celebration.
“It’s kind of weird, because in the blink of an eye this time has gone by and here we are,” Ann LaBarge said.
“I think her experience (at Quinnipiac) has been great,” Jim LaBarge said. “We miss having her closer to home, but I think it’s been an opportunity for her that has been awesome.”
Ann LaBarge smiled as she considered her favorite memory of Grace’s time as a Bobcat.
“When she scored 20 points and didn’t miss one basket the entire game,” Ann LaBarge said of the Bobcats’ game against Princeton in the 2023-24 season.
Jim LaBarge laughed.
“Yeah, that’s a good one.”
While being over 900 miles away from home, Grace LaBarge has found a second family in her teammates and coaches.
“I think we all look at Grace as a big sister,” Quinnipiac sophomore guard Karson Martin said. “She’s an amazing leader, she knows what she’s talking about and she’s fun.”
LaBarge shifted uncomfortably as Martin spoke highly of her.
“I feel weird,” LaBarge said in response at the postgame press conference podium.
“It’s an honor to have played with Grace for the last four years, I feel like we have that special bond coming in together as freshmen,” Grisdale said. “It’s just been really cool to watch her grow and just the confident person that she is… I love playing with her because she gives full effort all the time.”
Bobcats coach Tricia Fabbri said LaBarge’s growth is exactly what you want to see from a player, and that comes with the confidence Grisdale mentioned.
“It was her putting in the work, us coaching her up and then her being able to take those nice incremental year-to-year steps to get to where (she’s) playing and contributing at a really high level to a really good team and (she’s) a reason that’s happening,” Fabbri said. “She literally has a clutch play in a lot of our wins that are tight. She always comes up with that three, the steal, the rebound… and makes a play that we have success in.”
This was evident when the Bobcats faced Iona on the road this season and LaBarge’s steal with three minutes to go led to a Quinnipiac layup to extend the tight lead for the win.
LaBarge is averaging 5.5 points and 2.8 rebounds per game this season, making an impact in many of Quinnipiac’s down-to-the-wire games this season.
The job’s not done for LaBarge and the Bobcats.
Quinnipiac has two home and two road contests left in the regular season, including in-state rival Fairfield, before it heads to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to play in the MAAC Tournament.
LaBarge knows what the Bobcats need to do if they want to take home the conference championship.
“Kill it. Crush it,” LaBarge said on the goal for the rest of her senior season. “Crush every game. Just really take it to them every game, come out really hot, have a hot start, have a hot second half.”
LaBarge will look to implement this mentality as she and her team (22-3, 14-2 MAAC) face the No. 6 team in the MAAC on the road at Saint Peter’s (10-15, 8-8) on Thursday.
When former Quinnipiac men’s basketball head coach Billy Mecca took the floor at the program’s alumni event at Haven Beer Company last Saturday, he was met with raucous applause – even though he kept saying that he didn’t want it.
“I never want this day to be about me, and it never was about me,” said Mecca, now the university’s senior associate athletic director. “It’s about the alumni to start with, whether you were an alumni that played for me or you were here when I was just doing Billy … Y’all don’t just realize the incredible impact you’ve had on my life.”
The annual alumni event, held this year after the Bobcats hosted the Niagara Purple Eagles (which just so happens to be Mecca’s alma mater), welcomed back dozens of former basketball players to honor the now-broadcaster. Some played under Mecca when he was an assistant coach, and a few were on the first team that Mecca led as the head man. Others just had smaller interactions with Mecca that still stick.
“He just keeps it real, he doesn’t sugarcoat anything,” Quinnipiac Athletics Hall of Famer Joyce Furman (WBB ‘85) said. “If you don’t like it, too bad. You better take it or leave it, (and) he cares.”
So what does Billy Mecca mean to those around the program? For many, the same stories reappear.
Nobody spends as much time with Mecca on-campus nowadays than his broadcasting partners Steve Lenox and Dianne Nolan. This trio calls every Quinnipiac basketball home game — both men’s and women’s — and have been doing so for years. Lenox specifically has been the lead play-by-play announcer since 2017 and has had Mecca as his literal “right hand man” for every game since then.
“You know, at some point on the drive, getting up the hill, a smile comes to your face,” Lenox said. “You know he’s coming in and we’re gonna have a good time. We get to talk about basketball for two hours.”
“Talking basketball” and Billy Mecca go hand in hand. It almost has to, seeing that he’s been around Quinnipiac since his first season as an assistant coach in 1978-79. He’s seen it all from the program’s lone NCAA Tournament Division II victory in 1980 over Bryant to last year’s MAAC regular season championship and historic 24 win season, and everything in between.
“He’s worked with different administrators, coaches, he’s done a lot of different things,” Lenox said. “He’s got great stories. He’s a podcast on Quinnipiac history with athletics.”
For Mecca, his relationship with the university and its athletic programs stretches much further than wins and losses on the court. He strives to build a sense of trust with each and every athlete that walks through the doors.
“The student athletes really connect with him, because they know he cares,” Nolan said. “You always connect with people who care. He doesn’t have an ulterior motive. He just wants the best for the student athlete, and I think they sense that.”
Nolan, like Lenox, has worked on broadcasts with Mecca since 2017, but their relationship stems much further back. Nolan was the head coach of the women’s basketball team at Fairfield for 26 years where she also coached current Quinnipiac women’s basketball coach Tricia Fabbri. Once Fabbri took the job in Hamden in 1998, it introduced Nolan to Mecca for the first time.
“We talk about so many different things, but when you talk about a good heart, that’s what he has,” Nolan said. “He bleeds blue. I mean, he loves Quinnipiac, and he is just such a kind person, very much, a God loving person, a wonderful husband and family member.”
What makes Mecca’s bond with the university so special and unique is that it stretches much farther than the arena up on York Hill. Edward C. “Ned” Burt Jr. was among those in attendance on Saturday. Burt wasn’t a former player of Mecca’s or a former teammate, rather an adjunct professor in the legal studies department at Quinnipiac.
“I’ve been friends with Billy since I started teaching as an adjunct at Quinnipiac University — Quinnipiac College back then,” Burt said. “I just wrapped up almost 40 years of [teaching] undergrad in the Legal Studies Department, and Billy and I go back from the moment I hit campus. He welcomed me there. He’s a basketball coach then, and just a great guy from the start.”
It’s rare to see a basketball coach interact much with any professor, albeit an adjunct, but to build up a relationship that lasts over 40 years, that just goes to show the type of person Mecca is.
“Y’all have left your handprint on my heart and my soul,” said Mecca, holding a team-signed basketball. “Y’all matter to me, Quinnipiac matters to me. I don’t know why I feel like this is my school, I don’t know why I do. … For y’all who played for me, and for those who came back, thank you.”
Quinnipiac women’s basketball went 1-1 this past weekend. But it isn’t an ordinary 1-1 for the Bobcats; they played MAAC No. 1 Fairfield on the road and No. 4 Siena at home. Quinnipiac lost to the Stags 72-63, but rebounded for a close 77-74 win over the Saints.
“Even before Fairfield, we knew this was a big weekend,” sophomore forward Anna Foley said Saturday.
The games told us a lot about who the Bobcats are, and what they can become in the MAAC Tournament. QU Sports Page’s Connor Coar and Benjamin Yeargin offered analysis on the team’s performances in both games.
If you want to eat with the big dogs, you have to fight like there is no tomorrow
Coming into an opposing team’s building and trying to steal a win is never an easy task, especially when it is a team that has won 32-straight conference games dating back to last season.
Fairfield has been a juggernaut the last two seasons. Last season, the Stags had beaten teams by 17.3 points. That is just a few points down from the 20.2 they are beating teams by this season. Quinnipiac did not fall into that average, only losing by nine points.
Head coach Tricia Fabbri emphasized one factor before the game: defensive transition and forcing Fairfield to play a majority of the game in the halfcourt.
Fairfield has 10 players who average over 15 minutes per game. This allows the team to play fast, have more fresh legs and get more possessions that they may not get with a shorter bench.
“They throw a lot of bodies at you,” Fabbri said Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s game. “There’s also a real theme that each player wants to do. So it is going to be really predicated upon that.”
When the first quarter began, the five starters for Fairfield were tormenting Quinnipiac, on both sides of the ball. The Stags opened the game up on a 10-0 run through the first five minutes, forcing Fabbri to call a timeout.
After the full timeout was finished, the Bobcats went on a 6-0 run in large part to the inside play of Ella O’Donnell.
Coming off of the bench, O’Donnell’s six points of the entire night in the first quarter. The only other player to come off the bench and score was Grace LaBarge, scoring in double figures for the first time she had scored in double figures since Jan. 2 up to that point.
Outside of the two forwards, there was zero production offensively against a team that was in the top 10 in Division I scoring defense going into the game – allowing only 53.2 points per game as of publication.
As the game wore on, Quinnipiac handled Fairfield’s pressure better, but the amount of effort that the team had to produce was not sustainable for the entire game.
Guards Gal Raviv and Jackie Grisdale combined for 78 minutes Thursday, something not out of the ordinary for the two. Both are in the top 10 in minutes in Division I, the only set of teammates that can say that.
Throughout the season though, they never faced that much “grit,” as Fairfield’s head coach Carly Thibault-Dudonis said postgame.
“That is something that we have always hung our hat on,” Thibault-Dudonis said. “We have had so many people step up throughout the course of the game. You could look all the way down [the roster].”
Raviv was picked up 94 feet most of the three quarters, which sped up the game and forced the Bobcats to commit 18 turnovers – Raviv having five of them. That’s the second-most turnovers all year, second to the 21 committed against Mount St. Mary’s on Jan. 18 – one of their three losses this year.
“We did have some turnovers trying to get it inside, and they capitalized,” Fabbri said.
Quinnipiac is a good team – there is no denying that. But as this weekend showed, there needs to be steps taken with the bench production, ability to handle pressure like Fairfield gave and taking ownership of the defensive and offensive assignments. that don’t always show up on the stat sheet.
– Connor Coar
Individual greatness, but a lack of collectiveness against Siena
Raviv’s 21 points wasn’t enough to propel Quinnipiac to a win at Fairfield on Thursday night. But a career-high 32 was enough Saturday afternoon.
The Israel native shot 9-17 from the field, 4-4 from three and 10-12 at the line en route to 32 points, a career high. This is the fourth time this year that Raviv topped her career high in points and this performance puts her among the best single-game scoring performances in program history. Oh, she also had eight assists and seven rebounds, just shy of a triple-double.
“She’s so fearless,” Fabbri said. “She’s so confident in her abilities.”
Whatever defensive plan that Siena had for Raviv — which appeared to be switching between length in senior guard Anajah Brown and agility in graduate guard Ahniysha Jackson — didn’t work. Raviv saw there wasn’t a concrete plan, and took advantage of it.
“You can see when someone is scared, and I feel like some of them were scared to guard me,” Raviv said.
Raviv gives good reason for opponents to be scared to guard her. If you contest her with length, she easily creates separation and will shoot over whatever wingspan is in front of her. If you defend her with a guard, she can beat them to the basket, mid-range and knock down her threes.
For whoever is making the game plan against Quinnipiac, it’s hell trying to figure out how to defend Raviv. But fortunately, as of late that’s all who they’ve had to worry about.
Over the weekend, only Raviv and Foley (14 points on Saturday) eclipsed 14 points. Foley averaged 11.5 points per game over the two games, and senior forward Grace LaBarge put up a respectable 11 points per game too.
But two of the three staples of Quinnipiac’s backcourt did not produce this weekend. Senior guard Jackie Grisdale put up back-to-back eight-point performances and shot a measly 3-11 from three. Sophomore guard Karson Martin had nine and five points, respectively.
That’s been the Bobcat’s biggest weakness this year. They have had amazing individual performances — Grisdale’s 33-point outburst against Harvard, for example, — but they rarely have played as a team.
“I’d like to see us collectively get there, and then we’ll be up and running for the next six weeks to close out the season,” Fabbri said.
Individual performances can lift Quinnipiac over most of the MAAC, but those alone won’t help them hurdle Fairfield. If the Bobcats want to win the MAAC Championship and start to win their games comfortably, they need collectiveness. Raviv can carry them far, but they won’t make the promised land without a whole team effort.
HAMDEN — Friday night’s rivalry showdown between Quinnipiac men’s basketball and Fairfield began with junior forward Amarri Monroe and graduate student center Paul Otieno throwing their weight around against the Stags on the scoreboard, combining for 42 points.
It ended with the duo — and the rest of the MAAC-leading Bobcats — flexing in celebration in the stands of M&T Bank Arena after downing their Connecticut foes 81-69 and extending their winning streak to six.
Monroe led the way for the Bobcats as he was the game’s leading scorer with 27 points, a new career high for the third year player, his third consecutive game being Quinnipiac’s highest scorer. He also added 10 rebounds.
Otieno also did damage in this game with a double-double of his own. He notched 15 points and 13 rebounds.
Led by Otieno and Monroe, the Bobcats were also able to flex their muscles in this one as they outrebounded the Stags 41-28. While the Stags shooting from beyond the arc stalled, the Bobcats took advantage and went to work inside as they outscored Fairfield 28-16 in the paint.
“There’s a stat where every game me and Paul have a double double we always win,” Monroe said. “We haven’t lost a single game when me and Paul have a double double… that’s just something me and Paul have, we’re competitive at it… We’re going to keep doing that cause we want to win, obviously so… we’re going to keep fighting for double doubles.”
Monroe was right; when both players achieved double-doubles, the Bobcats sit at 4-0 with wins over Hofstra, Siena, Merrimack and now Fairfield.
Monroe also had his seventh double-double of the year in a game where he was questionable to play after feeling sick earlier in the week.
“He was sick all week, yesterday we got him for half an hour,” said head coach Tom Pecora. “He had the flu bad earlier in the week, I was concerned he wasn’t going to be able to play, he took an IV on Wednesday.”
Otieno had his 10th double-double of the season, something that the Bobcats have been accustomed to as he is 32nd in the nation in rebounds per game, to go along with his 12.7 points per game.
Otieno shares what the key to success is for the team:
“I would say me and Amarri getting doubles-doubles, that’s some big points,” Otieno said. “Just bring the energy, I think, because win or lose, just be us.”
Led by their star upperclassmen, the Bobcats have been able to meet their high preseason expectations as they currently sit 9-1 in MAAC play, tied for first in the conference standings with Marist.
Head coach Tom Pecora has done an impressive job of not letting the noise get to his team.
“I worked for Coach [Rollie] Massimino, who’s a legend, and he used to have a great saying he would say ‘After Shave, if you put a little bit on it’s nice, if you put on too much it’s tacky, and if you drink it it’s poison’,” continued Pecora. “That’s what success is like for a basketball team, you’ve got to have temperament, bring them back down, let them understand we’re the hunted ones now.”
Otieno and Monroe will try to build off this and extend the team’s winning streak to seven when they take on Siena tomorrow, a team they have both already recorded double-doubles against in a win earlier this year.
Thursday night at Fairfield’s Leo D. Mahoney Arena, Quinnipiac women’s basketball and the Stags — the top-two teams in the MAAC — will square off in their first meeting of the season.
This matchup will bring forth answers about the future of the MAAC come the postseason, But before the game starts, there’s also lots of questions to be answered. How will these two teams match up? Who’s the X-factor? What are the biggest questions each team needs to answer?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each team?
Connor Coar: The Bobcats’ front court will have to play their best basketball of the season to keep this game close. Sophomore forward Anna Foley leads the way with 10.6 points per game, and her frontcourt counterpart, graduate forward Caranda Perea, has the abilities of a stretch four and is not scared to shoot the ball. Junior Ella O’Donnell and senior Grace LaBarge often sub in for Foley and Perea and bring similar attributes off the bench.
A consistent rotation has worked the entire season, but don’t be surprised if there is a 50-50 split between the two groups to keep their legs fresh.
Khalise Harris: Fairfield has been dominant at home, boasting an impressive 8-1 record at Leo D. Mahoney. The Stags thrive on home court, averaging 72 points per game while holding opponents to just 52.5 points. Their strong fandom adds to this edge. Their last home game against Manhattan was a sellout with an attendance of 3,573. Fairfield’s home dominance isn’t new either — last season, it went undefeated at home (13-0), proving just how difficult it is for opponents to win in their arena.
Benjamin Yeargin: The Stags’ biggest advantage is their defense. Fairfield is top-three in the MAAC in every defensive category you can think of: scoring defense, opponent field-goal percentage, opponent three-point percentage and forcing turnovers. In Hamden, the Bobcats’ biggest advantage is their guard play. Senior guard Jackie Grisdale, sophomore guard Karson Martin and freshman guard Gal Raviv all sit within the top-20 of the conference in points per game at 13, 20 and fourth.
The biggest disadvantage for Fairfield is that it doesn’t shoot free-throws well. Fairfield is tied for third-worst in the MAAC in free-throw percentage with a 66.7% integer. Sure, those free-throws don’t necessarily matter when your average margin of victory is 20.9 points, but going into close MAAC Tournament games and against competitive teams like Quinnipiac, they matter.
For the Bobcats, it’s allowing teams to score in the paint. In its only loss of conference play, Quinnipiac was outscored 24-20 in the paint. Fairfield limits teams to access the post and have guards that aren’t afraid to drive into the paint. To win the game, the Bobcats have to outscore Fairfield in the paint.
Fairfield
Quinnipiac
74.8
Points/G
68.7
53.8
Points Allowed/G
58.7
14.3
Turnovers/G
12.6
33.2%
Three-point %
35%
66.7%
Free Throw %
74.5%
Bold indicates top two in MAAC
How would you describe this game in one word?
Coar: Revealing
When it’s the top two teams in the league, both sides are going to find out a lot about themselves. Raviv had the second-worst day of her collegiate career shooting the ball against Mount St. Mary’s on Jan. 18, due in large part to the defensive guard play from the Mountaineers for the 42 minutes that she was on the floor. Fairfield has 10 players with over 15 minutes played per game this season. Bodies are going to get thrown at Raviv when Quinnipiac is on offense. The question lies in how the first-year will respond to the adversity.
Fairfield lost to Indiana by 33 in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Women’s March Madness Tournament in large part to the height differential between the two teams. The Stags will have the height disadvantage against the Bobcats on paper, so they can’t allow the Bobcats to play inside-out and continue their hot shooting from behind the arc (35%; good for second in the MAAC).
Harris: Tense
A lot is on the line for both teams. A Fairfield loss would mark their first conference defeat since the 2022-2023 season while leaving them and Quinnipiac tied at the top of the MACC, matching 9-1 records. For Quinnipiac, this game is more than just a rivalry, but an opportunity to snap their two-game losing streak against Fairfield. Their last win over them dates back to March 4, 2023, in a 52-39 final.
A victory here would boost momentum for both teams and for Quinnipiac, especially. This would set them up for a crucial showdown on Saturday against Siena, the third-ranked team in the MACC. After suffering their first conference loss against Mount St. Mary’s, Quinnipiac is hungry to get back on track, and this game could be the spark they needed to ignite their energy and reclaim their dominant form.
Yeargin: Difficult
This game will be a true test for both teams. Quinnipiac will have to find ways to defend the floor at all three-levels, mitigate Fairfield’s transition offense and limit its own turnovers. Pretty much, don’t allow the Stags to use their strengths. That will be tough to do; no one in the MAAC has successfully stopped them. With the combination of Fairfield’s dynamic road runners like sophomore Meghan Andersen and senior Emina Selimovic, the Stags can easily access and score at all three levels.
But for Fairfield, the Bobcats will be their biggest test in conference play and could doom them to its first MAAC loss in nearly two years. Quinnipiac’s perimeter defense has excelled this year with Grisdale leading the helm, which will be annoying for the Stags five-out offense. Additionally, the Bobcats have turned the rock over the fewest times in the MAAC and have bigs that are larger and can guard Fairfield’s road runners at all three levels. Both teams hope to flex their strengths to a win and register a statement win in the MAAC.
What are the biggest questions each team needs to answer?
Coar: How does Quinnipiac manage late game situations?
The two Bobcats losses this season have both come in overtime. Players and coaches have said they deserved to win their first game against Miami over Thanksgiving break, giving up 16 points in the overtime frame. The ball is going to be in Raviv’s hands no matter how you want to draw it up for Quinnipiac. The decision making from her and the rest of the backcourt will be one of the biggest factors if Quinnipiac ends up with a win Thursday night. Oh yeah, this game is also on the road.
Yeargin: How do the Stags defend Quinnipiac’s Gal Raviv?
Raviv has been remarkable for the Bobcats. She’s won seven MAAC Rookie of the Week awards, is fourth in the conference in points per game, seventh in assists and seventeenth in rebounding. Even in games where the entire team isn’t performing, Raviv manages to step up, making it crucial for Fairfield to stop her. The Stags could match up sophomore guard Kaety L’Amoreaux with Raviv, and clog up the lanes with their road runners so Raviv is unable to get to the basket, where she excels. No matter what the Stags strategy is, just know that in their scout they’ve highlighted Quinnipiac No. 14, and they will have a gameplan to limit Raviv’s scoring.
Harris: How does Fairfield prepare defensively for this matchup?
Despite Fairfield’s offensive edge — averaging 6.1 more points per game than Quinnipiac — the Bobcats hold the upper hand from beyond the arc, shooting 35% from three. Quinnipiac’s size in the front court also presents a challenge for the Stags, presenting a “mismatch” in the paint. Adding to Fairfield’s concerns, the Bobcats are efficient from the free-throw line, converting 74.5%. If the Stags can’t play disciplined defense, they risk sending Quinnipiac to the line, where the Bobcats can capitalize and pad their scoring.
Who is the X-factor of this matchup?
Coar: Quinnipiac sophomore guard Paige Girardi. The second year has seen a significant drop off in minutes in her second season compared to her first year of almost 14 minutes per game. Due in large part to the team being healthy again, Girardi has played her role with little to no errors. Many times spelling Raviv or senior guard Jackie Grisdale, running the second unit with only six turnovers the entire year. The two starters, Raviv and Grisdale, are both in the top ten in the entire country in minutes, but when Girardi gets into the game, limiting turnovers against the fast paced Stags will be key.
Yeargin: Fairfield sophomore guard Kaety L’Amoreaux. Since the reigning MAAC Player of the Year Janelle Brown went down with a season-ending ACL injury, L’Amoreaux has been forced to step up. She has. Since Brown’s injury, L’Amoreaux is averaging 14.9 points per game, 5.1 rebounds per game and 4.8 assists per game. And she has to continue to do so against Quinnipiac. She’ll face a difficult defensive matchup whether she is guarded by Grisdale, Raviv or Martin and she’ll have to guard one of those three too. For the Stags to succeed, they have to limit the Bobcats guards from scoring and L’Amoreaux should be the center of that gameplan.
Harris: Quinnipiac sophomore guard Karson Martin. With guard Jackie Grisdale’s season-ending injury in 2023, Martin was thrust into a significant role during her first year. She appeared in 24 games last season, starting 21, and she has played and started in all 18 games this season. With defenses primarily focused on other playmakers, including Raviv, Karson takes advantage of the extra space, making her a silent threat on the court. She currently sits third on the team in three-pointers made, with 17 this season, 30 assists and 21 steals so far.
