STORRS — Jen Fay led a balanced ninth-seeded Quinnipiac offense with 19 points and the Bobcats beat Miami 86-72 on Saturday, eliminating the Hurricanes from the women’s NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive season.
Paula Strautmane added 15 points and Edel Thornton and Carly Fabbri each had 14 for Quinnipiac (28-5), which extended its winning streak to 23 games, a new school record.
Next up for Bobcats is a game against in-state neighbor UConn. It’s the first meeting between the schools in 20 years.
Erykah Davenport led all scorers with 21 points for Miami. Emese Hof scored 16 and Endia Banks added 15 points in the losing effort. The eighth seed finishes its season at 22-11.
Miami, which lost to Quinnipiac at home in the second round of the NCAAs last year, led by three points after the first quarter, 35-32 at the half and 54-53 after the third.
But a 3-pointer by Brittany Martin and a traditional three-point play by Edel Thornton sparked a 15-1 fourth quarter Quinnipiac run. That gave the Bobcats a 74-61 lead and control of the game,
A 3-pointer by Fabbri, daughter of coach Tricia Fabbri, made it 80-65 with less than two minutes to go, securing the win in front of a rowdy pro-Quinnipiac crowd about 60 miles north of the school’s campus in Hamden.
The Bobcats were 10 of 31 from 3-point range after hitting 15 of 26 from behind the arc in last year’s 85-78 second-round victory in Miami.
BIG PICTURE
Quinnipiac: The Bobcats had six players in double figures. Aryn McClure filled the stat sheet with 13 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. Martin chipped in with 11 points off the bench.
Miami: The Hurricanes were in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth year in a row for the first time in program history.
UP NEXT
Quinnipiac takes on UConn, the tournament’s top seed on Monday night. The Huskies beat Saint Francis (Pa.) 140-52 in the opening game. The two Connecticut teams have played just once before, a 117-20 UConn win back in 1998.
