Anthony Militello

Box Score

Canisius Canis 14-18,8-12 MAAC

Quinnipiac QU 24-8,15-5 MAAC

Canisius Canis

14-18,8-12 MAAC

Final

Mar. 13, 2024

Quinnipiac QU

24-8,15-5 MAAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Canisius Canis	27	25	52
Quinnipiac QU	34	42	76

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 3/13/2024 11:00:00 PM

Men’s Basketball Season Comes to an End in MAAC Tournament Quarterfinals

The top-seeded Quinnipiac Bobcats used an 18-0 run that spanned the final 1:10 of the first half and the opening 4:17 of the second half en route to a 76-52 victory over Canisius in the quarterfinal final round of the 2024 Hercules Tires MAAC Men's Basketball Championship Wednesday night in Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

The win improved the Bobcats to 24-8 on the year and moved the team into the tournament's semifinal round, where they will play either Saint Peter's or Rider on Friday evening. The Golden Griffins see their season end with a 14-18 record.

Three Quinnipiac players recorded double-figures in the scoring column in the win, led by Paul Otieno, who recorded a double-double with a game-high 19 points to go with a game-high 12 rebounds. Matt Balanc, the 2024 MAAC Player of the Year, was good for 17 points, and Amari Tice chipped in 13 points and nine boards. Guard Savion Lewis scored eight points and dished out a game-high 11 assists as the Bobcats shot 49.2 percent from the field, made 6-of-14 tries from 3-point land and connected on 8-of-10 from the free-throw line. Defensively, the Bobcats turned the Griffs over 14 times, which Quinnipiac turned into 14 points.

For Canisius, junior Tre Dinkins scored a team-high 17 points to go with four rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots in 40 minutes of action. Sophomore Devean Williams added 13 points, while fellow sophomore Youri Fritz chipped in seven points, five boards and three blocked shots in the loss. As a team, Canisius matched a season-high with eight blocks as a team, but the Blue and Gold shot just 35.5 percent from the field in the loss and the Griffs made just 6-of-26 shots from behind the 3-point line for the night.

GAME RECAP
Quinnipiac scored the game's first 7-0 points to get out to an early 7-0 lead, but the Griffs fought back and eventually took a 10-9 lead 6:50 into the ball game thanks to a 10-2 scoring run that featured six points from Williams. Moments later, Williams knocked down his third 3-pointer of the game with 12:25 left before halftime to give the Griffs a 13-11 lead, but that lead would be short-lived, as Quinnipiac scored five points over the game's next 39 seconds to take a 16-13 lead with 11:26 left in the opening half.

A step-back 3-pointer by Dinkins with 7:16 in the first half tied the score at 20-20, and moments later, and another three-ball from Dinkins had the Griffs in the lead at 23-22 with 6:01 left before intermission. Otieno, Tice and Balanc combined to score the Bobcats' next six points to make the score 28-25 in favor of Quinnipiac, but the Griffs' knocked that cushion down to one point at 28-27 moments later when senior Bryce Okpoh hit a jumper in the paint with 2:05 left in the opening half.

That basket by Okpoh would end up being Canisius' final make from the field until graduate student Davon Ware connected on a pull-up jumper with 12:21 left int the second half to make the scoreboard read 52-28 in favor of the Bobcats. In the decisive Quinnipiac run, Otieno accounted for eight of his team's points as the 2023-24 MAAC regular-season champions sealed the quarterfinal round victory.

Okpoh ended the night with five points and nine rebounds. He also recorded an assist. Junior Frank Mitchell scored six points and grabbed seven rebounds to go along with three blocked shots.

HEAD COACH REGGIE WITHERPSPOON'S POSTGAME COMMENTS
"I am just really proud of the effort our guys gave all year and to get this far. We obviously ran out of gas and we were not able to give our best effort tonight. Give [Quinnipiac] credit. But again, for us to make it here, it took a lot of effort. Beyond anything I have ever seen. Give them credit for fighting as hard as they did."

"I will always remember and appreciate the great perseverance from our guys. Tre [Dinkins] played 40 minutes tonight, he played 40 minutes yesterday. You need to remember that these three guards we started tonight were all guards that came off the bench. Now we are here, and not only did they start, the all played nearly the entire game. They were ready when we called on them and they were able to do what we needed them to do. They were certainly up for the fight. And to see the improvement over the last two weeks, while we didn't win every game, we were certainly better as a team because our guys continued to fight and be a resilient group."

GAME NOTES
• Wednesday was the 24th all-time meeting between Canisius and Quinnipiac. The Griffs lead the series 15-9, but Quinnipiac has won both of the meetings in the MAAC Tournament.
• Despite being out-rebounded in the game, the Griffs closed out the season with 1,181 team rebounds for the season. That number ranks fifth-best in school history, and it stands as the most rebounds for Canisius in a season since the 2009-10 campaign.
• Dinkins played all 80 minutes for the Griffs in the team's two MAAC Tournament games. He ended the season by playing 1,124 minutes in 31 games, making him the 12th player in school history to play 1,100-plus minutes in a season, and he is the first Griff to do so since former Griff Malik Johnson played 1,222 minutes in 2019-20.
• Dinkins' 17 points extended his string of scoring in double-figures to 10-straight games. In that span, he averaged 17.1 points per game.
• Mitchell ended his first season as a Griff with 361 total rebounds, which ranks second-best in school history, trailing only Herm Hedderick's 369 boards from the 1951-52 campaign.
• Mitchell's 11.6 rebounds per game ranks fifth-best in school history for rebounding average, and it serves as the highest rebounding average for a Canisius player in a season since Larry Fogle pulled down 14.0 rebounds per outing during the 1973-74 campaign.

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