By Carlos Calo and Connor Wilson
The Quinnipiac Bobcats (17-10, 13-3 MAAC), last year’s MAAC regular season champions, and the team that punched their ticket to March Madness last season, the St. Peter’s Peacocks (10-14, 5-11 MAAC) are set for a nationally televised matchup on ESPNU.
Quinnipiac head coach Tom Pecora’s team has won four of the last five games against the Peacocks but lost the most important one — last year’s conference semifinal. The Bobcats started this year with a rematch and won 59-46 in Jersey City on Jan. 3. They meet again, now at Lender Court, where the Bobcats are 10-2 at home and tied for first place in the conference. On the other hand, the Peacocks are battling to just be among the ten teams that make it to the conference tournament.
There are four games left for both teams. Winning three out of the four final contests for the Bobcats will enhance their chances to clinch another MAAC regular season championship.
In their final four games, the Peacocks will play against the top two teams in the conference – Quinnipiac and Marist – and then the bottom two -Niagara and Canisius. Winning is the only way they will have a chance to go to Atlantic City, but they also depend on how teams in the middle of the standings do on the last stretch of the regular season.
Here are some of the key storylines that should give you a reason to tune in tonight:
Back to back?
After winning the first MAAC regular season title in program history a year ago, the Bobcats are fighting for another with just two weekends left in the regular season. Heading into the day, Quinnipiac is tied with Marist for first place in the conference with the Red Foxes holding the tiebreaker thanks to their victory in the teams’ lone matchup back in January.
“You have to focus on one-game winning streaks,” junior forward Amarri Monroe said after a Jan. 17 win over Merrimack. “Prepare for every week like it’s the last game of the season, follow the game plan and don’t worry about who’s next, worry about the team who’s coming up and not who’s after that.”
Quinnipiac hasn’t been a consistent team during games this season. It has been either a great first half team and spends the second half hanging on to an early lead or the complete opposite. Last game against Manhattan on Feb. 23 the Bobcats came back from a 17-point deficit to win the contest 74-71 with five points from sophomore guard Khaden Bennett in the last 40 seconds of play.
“We have these peaks and valleys,” Pecora said after the contest against the Jaspers on Feb. 23. “And they’re gonna bite us in the tail come tournament time.”
Winning a MAAC regular season title would also likely mean the Bobcats would win their most conference games in a single season since joining the Division I level in 1998. Last year’s squad won 15 games in league play, and if they were to clinch another championship they’d likely need at least 16.
Player of the year chase
Speaking of Monroe, the junior is very much in position to be the second-consecutive Bobcat to take home MAAC Player of the Year, following in the footsteps of guard Matt Balanc. Overall, Monroe is averaging 17.9 points and 8.9 rebounds per game, but in conference play those numbers rise to 20.6 and 10.2, both of which lead the league.
As of late, Monroe has been on a tear. So far in February, he’s averaged 23.8 points per game and 12.3 rebounds and has recorded five straight double-doubles. There have been games in which Monroe has single-handedly given the Bobcats the boost they needed to win, such as his program-record eight steal performance in December against Sacred Heart.
Monroe is joined in the player of the year race by Merrimack’s Budd Clark and Marist’s Josh Pascarelli. Clark is averaging 19.8 points and 6.2 assists per game in conference play while Pascarelli is putting up 16.1 points per game and shooting an efficient 42% from three.
Do-or-die time for St. Peter’s
The Peacocks are in danger of missing the MAAC Tournament all together after cutting down the nets in Atlantic City last March. When Merrimack and Sacred Heart joined the league and expanded the conference to 13, the MAAC decided to drop the number of teams that make the tournament from 11 down to 10, leaving three schools without the chance to play for the auto-bid into the NCAA Tournament.
St. Peter’s comes into the day with a 5-11 conference record, good for 11th in the MAAC, half a game behind Rider for the final tournament spot and one game behind Fairfield for ninth. The Peacocks are also tied with Niagara, which puts four teams just a game apart in the hunt for two spots. With time running out, every game feels like a must win for a team vying to just get the chance to make it to its third March Madness tournament in the past four seasons.
All eyes on U
The MAAC has had the spotlight on national television for the past seven weeks, having a weekly Friday night game featured on ESPNU. Quinnipiac’s 99-90 Valentine’s Day win over Sacred Heart in Fairfield was the first time the Bobcats were featured on a nationally-televised game since their Nov. 9 game against St. John’s was aired on FS1.
The past two seasons, Quinnipiac has hosted ESPNU games against Fairfield, going 1-1 in those two contests. With the Bobcats competing for a MAAC championship, having more eyes on the game than you would on a normal night may add some pressure.
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