‘Be great today’: How and why Quinnipiac are undefeated in MAAC play

Though the game had ended, the freshman was at the free throw line with a basketball — donning a white undershirt and gray shorts, still wearing her vibrant pink and black game shoes. With her feet pointed at ten o’clock and in one upward motion, she releases the ball.

Swish. One. She gets the ball back. Swish. Two. Again. Swish. Three. She stops at 10. 

Raviv’s 16.3 points per game leads Quinnipiac and have elevated the Bobcats atop the MAAC (7-0) and to a 15-1 overall record. As the fourth leading scorer in the conference she’s also established herself as the leading candidate for MAAC Rookie of the Year. She’s won MAAC Rookie of the Week five times with a sixth likely on the way following a career high 27-point performance in Quinnipiac’s 72-67 win over Merrimack on Jan. 16.

Raviv plays with a fluidity and ease that’s well beyond her years as she’s able to slice through defenses and glide upcourt like she’s playing pick-up at the local YMCA. She’s an excellent finisher at the glass — leading the team with 5.3 two-pointers made per game — and also averages 4.9 rebounds per game and 3.8 assists per game.

“Gal is probably the best point guard I’ve ever played with,” teammate Karson Martin said on Dec. 19. “She knows the game like nobody else. It’s absolutely incredible.”

A three-headed monster

Raviv has impressed in her first collegiate season and, together with senior guard Jackie Grisdale and sophomore guard Karson Martin, forms a three-headed monster that has propelled the Bobcats ato the top of the MAAC.

Grisdale, who co-captains the team with senior forward Grace LaBarge, missed most of last season with a hip injury. Prior to that injury, the Poland, Ohio, native led the team in scoring and was emerging as one of the best players in the conference. 

This season, she’s picked up right where she left off. In the second game of the season against a Harvard Crimson team who now sits at No. 37 in the NET rankings, Grisdale erupted for 33 points, seven rebounds and one assist in the 23-point win on 7-for-8 shooting from three. 

“We knew it was coming, and I was just really happy for her,” Quinnipiac head coach Tricia Fabbri said following that game.

On top of her offensive production, Grisdale has proven to be the Bobcats’ best defender. Quinnipiac has routinely matched her up against an opposing team’s best player, and Grisdale has shut them down. 

Harvard senior guard Harmoni Turner, who is averaging 20.3 points per game this season, notched just nine against Quinnipiac. Rider’s Gabby Turco is averaging 13.7, but she scored 12 against the Bobcats. Siena’s Teresa Seppala is averaging 18.3. She mustered only three points against Quinnipiac.

What’s the common denominator for those poor performances? Grisdale. She’s the heart, soul and backbone of the Bobcats. She’s the first one to lift someone up when they succeed, but also the first one to bring energy to Quinnipiac when it needs

If Grisdale is the engine of the Bobcats success, Martin is the gas pedal.

The Woodstock, Georgia, native is averaging 10.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. Her marquee performances this year were a 25-point outburst in the season opener at Holy Cross and 19 points against Marist on Jan. 4. 

One significant strength of the three-headed monster, and generally speaking the Bobcats, is their shooting from beyond the arc. Quinnipiac’s 36.7% 3-point shooting percentage leads the conference and is good for 18th in the country. 

The architects are Grisdale (42.9% from downtown), Raviv (33.3%) and graduate student forward Caranda Perea (45.2%). As a team, the Bobcats do an excellent job of moving the ball to find an open look thanks to the aforementioned players and sophomore forward Anna Foley, who averages 3.6 assists per game.  

Grisdale has the green light to shoot from three, sometimes releasing the ball right off a pass or letting the rock fly if she individually creates enough space.

Poised post presence

Quinnipiac has a lot of confidence in its 3-pointers, and rightfully so, but a lot of the space beyond the arc only opens up thanks to the Bobcats’ ability to score from all three levels. That largely comes from excellent bigs.

“[The bigs] know their roles, their plays, what we’re running, where they need to be,” Fabbri said on Jan. 2. “We’re really dynamic offensively.”

Quinnipiac’s post is solidified by Foley and O’Donnell who both can work and win matchups down low. O’Donnell is more of a traditional post player — she hasn’t taken a three this year — but that doesn’t mean O’Donnell isn’t any less formidable. The Shankill, Ireland, native tallied a career high 24 points against Sacred Heart on Dec. 21.

She’s played less minutes in the past five games and her scoring has been in the single digits, but that’s largely because Coach Fabbri has looked to Foley, Perea and LaBarge as her bigs.

LaBarge is a winger, her biography on Quinnipiac Athletics’ website may say forward, but that’s inaccurate. She inhabits the wing and either lets a three fly or drives toward the basket.

Fabbri has the ability to play the bigs in pairs. When she does, she pairs Perea and Foley together and LaBarge with junior forward Ella O’Donnell. What these pairings have in common is one big who can play the post and one who plays from the wing.

Both Foley and Perea are comfortable shooting the three too — Perea leads the team in three-point percentage and Foley has an impressive 41.7% mark from deep. However unlike LaBarge, Foley and Perea often score from mid-range too. Together, the Bobcats bigs create three-level scoring opportunities that can overwhelm opponents.

What comes next?

Quinnipiac’s next four games are against Mount St. Mary’s, Rider, Fairfield and Siena. Mount sits tied for fifth in the MAAC, Rider is 12th, Siena is third, and Fairfield ties Quinnipiac for first. Both the Stags and the Bobcats are undefeated — however, Quinnipiac has played one more game.

The Stags matchup on Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. will be the Bobcats biggest test so far. It will prove whether or not Quinnipiac can win the MAAC. Last season, Fairfield went on to win the conference with an undefeated record, along the way beating the Bobcats by 15 and 18, respectively. 

But for now, Quinnipiac will focus on “be[ing] great today,” as Fabbri says, with the hopes of getting its sixth shot at the NCAA Tournament in program history.