Home sweet home! Bobcats start home schedule with solid effort

By Kevin Lo

HAMDEN – The Bobcats returned home from a six-game road trip in which they went 3-3 to defeat the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights 73-52 in their home opener on Saturday. Quinnipiac is now 4-3 overall, and 1-0 in the Northeast Conference. With the loss, Fairleigh Dickinson drops to 1-7 and 0-1 in the NEC.

Junior Justin Rutty led all scorers with 23 points, chipped in eight boards and recorded two steals. Junior James Feldeine finished with 22 points and five rebounds.

“First six games I’ve been on, he’s been off, he’s been on and I’ve been off; it was the first time we both connected on most of the shots we took today,” said James Feldeine.

Rutty attributed some of his 23 points to a noticeably improved 15 foot jump shot.

“I been playing all summer, it’s starting to come around,” Rutty explained, to which Feldeine jokingly replied, “’I’m teaching him, he’s under my wing.”

Bobcat fans were quickly introduced to more pleasant surprises including two of their newest recruits, Dave Johnson and Jamee Jackson.

Dave Johnson entered into the game with 16 minutes to go in the first half and made his presence felt immediately, connecting on a three-pointer. Feldeine hit another three-pointer on the ensuing possession, spurring an early Bobcats run.

“Dave Johnson, offensively, was fantastic early,” said coach Tom Moore. “He might have the highest offensive IQ out of anyone we have on the team.” Johnson established career highs in points (10), assists (6) and steals (3), while shooting 4-5 from the floor, 2-2 from three and committing no turnovers.

Feldeine was hot early, hitting all of his three shots from beyond the arc in the first half. The Bobcats were able to take a 14-4 lead seven minutes into the game, and never looked back.

The second half began with more of the same. The Bobcats stretched their 36-26 lead to a 16-point lead, 47-31, with 15 minutes left to play.

Quinnipiac’s lead continued to build, and with just over five minutes to play, the Bobcats had extended their lead to 28 points.

“We played with a little bit better focus in the second half,” said Moore. “I like how we took the lead from 10 and expanded on it. That’s a real dangerous team we played today, to hold them to 32 percent field-goal percentage is a pretty significant achievement.”

FDU surged late in the first half cutting the lead to six, the closest margin in the game, until Feldeine converted a three-point play on a fast break lay-up, stretching the lead back to nine.

FDU’s only lead was by two, a mere 10 seconds into the game.

Tom Moore’s squad is back in action on Tuesday when they hit the road for a non-conference tilt at Rhode Island. Opening tip is set for 7 p.m. The game is set to be televised live on NESN.

Devils left blue in the face after loss

By Kevin Lo

(HAMDEN, Conn.) – The Quinnipiac Bobcats celebrated Senior Day in fashion, doing something that hasn’t been done since 1981. For the first time in almost 30 years the Bobcats defeated the Central Connecticut Blue Devils at home, 69-55.

Head coach Tom Moore said the victory was, “a nice step for us.” When referring to the team’s accomplishments he tries to “sell them on being pioneers and setting milestones for this organization.”

James Feldeine finished with a game-high, 25 points including 5-6 shooting from behind the three point arc. “He’s always the first guy to jump in the pool,” said Coach Moore when referring to his teams occasional lack of aggressiveness in the half court set.

Senior Bryan Geffen added 12 points, five assists and four steals and senior Louis Brookins added five points respectively.

Despite shooting only 41 percent from the field in the first half, the Bobcats found themselves ahead 33-31 at the half.

With 18:40 to go in the second half the Bobcats found themselves down 34-33.

Over the course of the next six minutes Quinnipiac applied their signature full court press, stopping CCSU’s up-tempo offense.

The Bobcats led 44-36 with 11:53 to go thanks to a 6-0 run. Jeremy Baker finished a tough and-one play at the rim spurring Quinnipiac’s backcourt duo of Geffen and James Johnson. The two went on to connect on back to back layup establishing Quinnipiac’s largest lead since the first half.

With 7:55 to go CCSU cut the lead to 50-44. A 9-4 run capped off by a high arcing bank-shot from behind the 3-point line courtesy of Geffen allowed Quinnipiac to take the lead 59 48.

The Blue Devils would grow no closer to the lead as the Bobcats led 61-51 at the 2:22 mark.

A Geffen 3-pointer secured the lead, 67-54.

The Bobcats shot well from 3-point land all game long.

In the first half Feldeine was 4-for-5 from behind the line with 16 points. The team was 4-for-9 while CCSU struggled shooting 1-for-5.

The two James, Feldeine and Johnson, ignited Quinnipiac’s offense accounting for their first 11 points and  20 in the first half.

“Teams’ attention to Justin Rutty frees everyone else up creating an in and out game which allows us to play the other end of the court,” Moore said.

CCSU held a firm four-point lead for most of the first half.

Quinnipiac was able to take a 26-24 lead with 5:32 the first lead change since 19 min in the first half.

At the 1:16 mark in the first the Bobcats led 31-30 finishing with a 33-31 lead at the half.

The Bobcats shot 49.0 percent (25-for-51) while their defense on the other end held the Blue Devils to a 39.3 percent (22-for-56) clip. In the second half QU shot 64.7 percent (11-for-17) compared to CCSU’s 29.6 percent (8-for-27). The Bobcats shot 50 percent
(7-for-14) to 22.2 percent (2-for-9) from 3-point land.

The fifth-seeded Bobcats take the court Thursday, when they travel to No. 4 Long Island for the first round of the NEC Tournament.

Click here to view the box score from this game.

Busy Saturday on sports stream

By Andrew Fletcher

The Quinnipiac Bobcats baseball team has a double header tomorrow, beginning at 10:55 a.m. with Mike Radomski on the call.

The women’s basketball game against CCSU called by Aaron Tanguay, Andrew Gau and Katie Meline will be archived.  The men’s game against CCSU called by Jay Slater, Jeremy Schilling and Tyler Chaput will also be archived.

As always, you can listen on our sports stream.

Athlete of the Week: Justin Rutty

Photo Credit: QuinnipiacBobcats.com

By Tyler Chaput

Justin Rutty has earned WQAQ Athlete of the Week honors for the second time this semester after being named Choice Hotels/NEC Co-Player of the Week on Monday, Feb. 23.  He is recognized after leading Quinnipiac to victories against Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday, Feb. 19, and Long Island on Saturday, Feb. 21.

Overall, Rutty averaged 18.0 points and 11.0 boards in those two wins.  He busted out for 23 points and 16 rebounds in the 78-73 win at LIU.

The sophomore leads his team in rebounding with 245 total boards, and is second on the team in scoring with 398 points and scoring average with 15.3 points per game.

Rutty is also second in the country in offensive rebounds per game (4.54), 13th in field goal percentage (.615), and 23rd in rebounds per game (9.42).

Men’s basketball live on sports stream

By Andrew Fletcher

The Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s basketball team is taking on Wagner tonight at the TD Banknorth Sports Center at 7 p.m.

Alex Birsh, Robin Schuppert and Andrew Gau will bring you all the action live on our sports stream at that time.

Fairleigh easy victory for Bobcats

By Kevin Lo

(HAMDEN, Conn.) – Jeremy Baker finished with a career-high 20 points to lead the Bobcats men’s basketball team to a 78-62 romping of the Fairleigh Dickinson Thursday night at the TD Banknorth Sports Center. With the win the Bobcats are now the proud owners of the fifth position in the NEC standings at 12-14 (8-7 NEC). The Knights fall to 7-20 (6-10 NEC).

James Feldine, Bryan Geffen and Justin Rutty also finished in double figures. Eric Coggins finished with nine point and six rebounds, setting a new career-high in points scored.

Cameron Tyler was the game’s second leading scorer with 17 but only shot 6-for-18 from the field.

A Bobcats’ 9-0 run at the end of the first half eventually led to a 17-point lead to start the second.

Despite much improved play the FDU in the second half, a 35-34 point disparity, the Bobcats were able to hold onto their lead.

Quinnipiac got off to a six-point lead in the second half to stretch the lead to 23 points, 50-27, at the 17:53 mark.

Good defense and strong 3-point shooting helped ignite several runs by the Bobcats. Quinnipiac held FDU to a 37 percent field goal percentage and made seven of their 3-point attempts compared to FDU’s one.

A 20-11 differential in offensive rebounds led to several easy second chance opportunities for the Bobcats. Quinnipiac had 44 points in the paint compared to a mere 22 by FDU.

FDU was much better from the line as they shot 21-for-28 from the stripe, compared to Quinnipiac’s 7-for-19.

The Bobcats resume play on Saturday, when they travel to Brooklyn, N.Y., to take on Long Island University. The game will be live on MSG, with the tip scheduled for 4 p.m.

Click here to view the box score from this game.

Men’s basketball live on sports stream

By Andrew Fletcher

The Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s basketball team will face Fairleigh Dickinson at the TD Banknorth Sports Center tonight at 7 p.m.

Tom Butto, Amanda Pugliese and Andrew Gau will bring you all of the action live on our sports stream at that time.

Bulldogs best Bobcats

By Kevin Lo

(HAMDEN, Conn.) – The Bryant Bulldogs tasted a little bit of what the NEC might be like today and by the looks of things, they might like it.

The future NEC program, Bryant, defeated Quinnipiac 72-68, in a non-conference game at the TD Banknorth Sports Center Saturday. The Bobcats fall to 10-13 with the loss, while the Bulldogs improve to 7-17.

Bryant’s Nick Pontes led all scorers with 21 points, while four starters from Quinnipiac finished with double figures.

James Feldeine led the way with 15 points followed by James Johnson’s 14 and Bryan Geffen’s 12. Justin Rutty continues to establish himself as one of the most dangerous players in the NEC compiling his league-leading 10th double double.

The two teams battled for much of the first half and the game remained close but the second half was a different story.

Head coach Tom Moore noted his team’s hot offensive start in the first half may have led to a lull in defensive intensity in the second.

“A couple guys in their mind became offensive players. We are not an offensive team, we can’t beat teams in shootouts,” Moore said.

The Bobcats led 33-32 at the half but opened up the second down four just five minutes into the game eventually leading to an 11-3 Bryant run.

“We played so poor defensively all game. We had a bad first half defensively and played even worst second half defense,” Moore said.

With 8:40 to go, the Bobcats had put together an 8-2 run and eventually tied the game at 55.

At the four-minute mark, Bryant found themselves up three. The Bulldogs proceeded to go on a 5-0 run over the next minute to lead 67-59.

The Bobcats wouldn’t go down without a fight. James Feldine stole the ball with just under two minutes to go and finished with a lay-up. Just after that possession James Johnson recorded his second steal of the game and was sent to the line where he went 1-2.

Geffen was fouled on the rebound and made his trip to the line where he also missed one of two with his second missed attempt being rebounded and put in by Justin Rutty making the score 70-68.

Bryant was fouled and sealed the game with two free-throws taking the lead for good 72-68.

Quinnipiac returns to action Thursday, when they travel to Pennsylvania to take on St. Francis. Opening tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. at DeGol Arena.

Click here to view the box score from this game.

WQAQ Athlete of the Week: Justin Rutty

Photo Credit: QuinnipiacBobcats.com

By Tyler Chaput

Justin Rutty recorded two double-doubles this past week against Mount St. Mary’s on Jan. 29 and Long Island on Jan. 31, earning him WQAQ Athlete of the Week honors.  Rutty now has a streak of four consecutive double-double games.

Despite Rutty’s 12 points and 14 rebounds against the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers last Thursday, the Bobcats fell 60-42.

The story was different last Saturday when Rutty posted a similar 16 points and 14 rebounds against Blackbirds, this time in a Quinnipiac 69-63 victory.  The Bobcats bettered their record to 9-12 (5-6 NEC).

Rutty now had a conference leading nine double-doubles on the season.  He leads the NEC with a 62.7 field goal percentage, also good for eighth in the nation.

QU tripleheader on sports stream

By Andrew Fletcher

We will have three games on our sports stream this afternoon, so be sure to tune in if you’re around.

First, we have Andrew Gabel, Jon Leach and Andrew Gau bringing you women’s basketball against Bryant at noon.

Then we have the men taking their shots against Bryant, with Tom Butto, Jay Slater and Jeremy Schilling on the call.  The tip is scheduled for 2 p.m.

At 4, the Quinnipiac Bobcats women’s basketball team will take on Colgate.  Dan Coleman, Andrew Gau and Corey Hersch will be on hand.