MEN'S BASKETBALL GAMEDAYS

QUINNIPIAC AT SACRED HEART

Where: Pitt Center, Fairfield

When: Tonight, 7 p.m.

Records: Quinnipiac (12-13, 8-5 Northeast Conference); Sacred Heart (9-15, 7-6)

Radio: WQUN-1220 AM

Internet: www.QuinnipiacBobcats.com

Video: NEC Front Row

What to look for

Scouting Sacred Heart: Led by high-scoring Shane Gibson the Pioneers won at Quinnipiac 80-74 earlier in the season. Gibson had 31 in the game and is second in the conference in scoring 20.1 points. Wallingford guard Phil Gaetano is fifth in the nation in assists (7.56). Sacred Heart sits in sixth place in the NEC standings, has beaten the Bobcats three straight times, and needs a strong finish to assure a tourney berth.

Scouting Quinnipiac: The Bobcats look for their fifth straight win tonight when they begin a monster stretch to close the regular season. Quinnipiac will play five teams, all in the tournament hunt, in a span of 10 days. All of the games are 50-50 matchups. If Quinnipiac continues its recent roll it could win the NEC title if they fall apart they could miss out of the tourney all together. Coach Tom Moore's team have made a habit of finishing seasons strongly and the Bobcats have won six of their last seven games.

-- Bill Cloutier

FAIRFIELD — Mired in a dismal stretch the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team always felt it could count on one thing: rebounding.
Though second in the nation in that category, it was their rebounding that failed the Bobcats down the stretch as Sacred Heart pulled out a 78-75 victory in a crucial Northeast Conference game at the Pitt Center Thursday night.

The win capped a season sweep of the Bobcats for the Pioneers, who got a career-high 28 points from Louis Montes and 23 from Shane Gibson, 18 of which came in the second half.
Quinnipiac has lost four of its last five games and fell to 9-9 overall and 2-5 in the NEC, a precarious spot as only the top eight teams in the conference qualify for the postseason tournament. The Bobcats are surprisingly in a three-way tie for eighth place.
“It’s hard losing,” Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore said. “I can’t measure the team’s doubt. We had murderous practices and they responded well. It just came down to our second-half defense.
“This group has wins at Vermont, at Boston University and at Robert Morris. There’s great potential there, but it’s infuriating when we look like a young team.”
Dave Johnson led Quinnipiac with 18 points and James Johnson. But James Johnson missed a designed 3-pointer that would have tied the game with 21 seconds left. He finished 2 for 10 from 3-point range in the game and the Bobcats went 4 for 19 behind the arc.
But offense aside, Moore was more concerned with his team’s defense in the second half when Sacred Heart shot 58 percent from the field.
“They made huge plays down the stretch,” Moore said. “But the tale of our NEC play is our defense. We’re not guarding long enough in games and we’re not guarding long enough in possessions.
“We try to play 28 seconds of hard defense and then we stop guarding.”
Quinnipiac led by as much as eight in the first half before Sacred Heart took a six-point lead in the second half. The game was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way.
Montes gave Sacred Heart a 74-71 lead with 2:08 to play. James Johnson cut it to 74-73 with two free throws with 1:39 left. But that’s when their rebounding failed the Bobcats.
Twice Sacred Heart missed shots but both times the Pioneers got the rebound, chewing up valuable time. After the second miss the Bobcats fouled Montes with 31 seconds left and he buried both free throws.
“That’s the best shellacking in rebounding we’ve ever had,” Sacred Heart coach Dave Bike said. “They beat us by 11 but if we didn’t come up with four or five of those rebounds it would have been a different game.
“It started with Stan Dulaire’s rebound and then Nick Greenbacker got one and Phil Gaetano got involved in another one and they all were big. We respect their rebounding but we were able to come up with a couple of big ones.
“If Dulaire doesn’t get that rebound I think the whole game could turn around.”
Gaetano, a freshman from Wallingford, finished with seven points and had a big 3-pointer in the second half for Sacred Heart.
Quinnipiac hit 8 of its first 11 shots but only finished at 40 percent from the floor in the game and once again free throws were a problem. It went 13 for 20 from the line.
Ike Azotam finished with 15 points and eight rebounds for the Bobcats, who got the services of forward Jamee Jackson back. Jackson finished with nine points and eight rebounds after missing seven games with a foot injury.

Quinnipiac at Sacred Heart
♦When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
♦Where: Pitt Center, Fairfield
♦Records: Quinnipiac 9-8 (2-4 Northeast); Sacred Heart 8-11 (2-4)
♦Radio: WQUN-1220

♦Scouting Sacred Heart: The Pioneers snapped a five-game losing streak to the Bobcats with a 68-55 win at Hamden earlier in the season. In that game, Shane Gibson led the way with 21 points. SHU beat St. Francis (Pa.) last week but lost to Robert Morris, both three-point decisions. The Pioneers got 55 points in the two games from Gibson, who leads the NEC in scoring at 20.3 ppg.
♦Scouting Quinnipiac: The Bobcats are desperate for a win after losing two of their last three games. Their one win in the stretch came against league power Robert Morris, but they have been wildly inconsistent. While Quinnipiac continues to be among the best rebounding teams in the country, it was outrebounded 74-71 by St. Francis (Pa.) last game.

Phil Gaetano keeps proving the naysayers wrong.
Said to be too small and too slow to play Division I basketball, Gaetano not only landed a D-I scholarship, but the 5-foot-10 freshman is already starting for Sacred Heart.

The Pioneers host Quinnipiac in a crucial Northeast Conference matchup tonight at 7 at the Pitt Center in Fairfield. Both teams are 2-4 in the NEC standings, tied for eighth place. The top eight teams in the conference earn a berth in the postseason tournament.
“I’ve heard it all along that I was too small and I wasn’t athletic enough,” Gaetano said. “But you can’t listen to it. I always had confidence in myself and I knew that I had to prove what I could do.”
Gaetano, from Wallingford, has started the past four games since sophomore guard Evan Kelley injured his ankle. He has quickly adapted to the college game and played 38 minutes for the Pioneers in Saturday’s 70-67 loss at Robert Morris.
The son of Sheehan boys’ basketball coach Joe Gaetano played four years at Sheehan before spending a prep season at Choate. At Sheehan he averaged 16 points and 11 assists to help the Titans win the 2010 Class M State title.
Then at Choate, an important year for his development on the court, he teamed with fellow Wallingford native John Papale to lead the Wild Boars to a 21-3 record and the school’s first New England Prep School Athletic Conference Class A championship.
Choate beat Salisbury in the final, a team which featured current Quinnipiac freshman Zaid Hearst.
Papale signed with Boston University in November. Gaetano had signed with the Pioneers the summer before he headed to Choate.
“All I ever wanted was to get a scholarship,” Gaetano said. “In my senior year at Sheehan I got a lot of Division III offers and then I started to get some Division II ones. Continued...
“For me it was never really about playing Division I over Division II. I would have gone to a good Division II program.”
But playing at Sacred Heart has been a dream come true for the basketball junkie. He got a chance to play at Notre Dame a month ago and then at Boston College.
“I wouldn’t say I was in awe playing there, but it was really cool,” Gaetano said. “It was something just to go into the arena — places you always watched on TV — and look around, but once the game starts you don’t even think about it.”
Since then things have progressed quickly. But on the court Gaetano said the biggest key for his success has actually been how the game has seemed to slow down. Averaging 4.1 points and 4.3 assists a game while committing just 44 turnovers on the season, Gaetano can calmly beat opponents’ pressure defense and set up the Pioneers’ offense.
And the offense revolves around high-scoring junior guard Shane Gibson, who leads the NEC with a 20.3 scoring average.
“I have the green light to shoot, but I’m looking to make the right play,” Gaetano said. “If I’m open and (Gibson) is open, I’m giving it to him.
“He’s one of the best tough-shot makers I’ve ever seen. Even with the defense all over him he can still score.”

Dave Borges was on the scene as Yale edges Sacred Heart in a state battle of men's basketball teams

Here are some highlights from Monday's night win by Sacred Heart over Quinnipiac

Men’s basketball gameday
YALE AT SACRED HEART
When: Today, 7 p.m.
Where: William Pitt Center, Fairfield
Records: Yale (5-2); Sacred Heart (5-4)
Audio: sacredheartpioneers.com
KEEP AN EYE ON
Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs were dominant in Saturday’s win over Vermont. Greg Mangano scored 22 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Yale has won three straight and four of five. Yale leads the series against SHU but has lost the last three games.
Scouting Sacred Heart: The resurgent Pioneers fell to 1-1 in the Northeast Conference with a tough overtime loss at Central Connecticut on Saturday. Shane Gibson had 32 points in the loss and Justin Swidowski had a double-double.
PROBABLE STARTERS
YALE SACRED HEART
Player Ht. Yr. Pos. PPG Player Ht. Yr. Pos. PPG
Greg Mangano 6-10 Sr. F 16.1 Shane Gibson 6-2 Jr. G 18.8
Reggie Willhite 6-4 Sr. F 13.7 Justin Swidowski 6-9 Jr. F 12.8
Austin Morgan 5-11 Jr. G 15.4 Evan Kelley 6-4 So. G 8.7
Jeremiah Kreisberg 6-1 So. F 9.4 Femi Akinpetide 6-6 Jr. F 2.7
Michael Grace 6-0 Jr. G 5.5 Chris Evans 6-3 So. G 7.1
OFF THE BENCH
Yale — Isaiah Salafia, 6-3, So., G, 1.0 ppg; Brandon Sherrod, 6-6, Fr., F, 2.7; Sacred Heart — Louis Montes, 6-4, So. G, 5.1; Stan Dulaire, 6-5, Sr., F, 4.8.
— Bill Cloutier

Here are Tom Moore's thoughts on the Bobcats NEC loss to Sacred Heart and some highlights from the game.

Men’s basketball gameday previews

Sacred Heart at Quinnipiac

When: Today, 7 p.m.

Where: TD Bank Sports Center, Hamden

Records: Sacred Heart (4-3); Quinnipiac (2-3)

Radio: WQUN-1220 AM

Scouting Sacred Heart: This is the Northeast Conference opener for both teams. Shane Gibson leads the Pioneers. The slashing guard scored all 16 of his points in the second half in the win over Brown. He scored a season-high 26 points at Richmond, taking a career-high 21 shots. He has a pair of 20-point games in the first seven outings this year and 14 for his career. SHU is deep, with 10 players averaging over 10 minutes and game, and seven scoring over five points a game.

Scouting Quinnipiac: The Bobcats have won five of the last six games in the series. Quinnipiac lost its last game at Lehigh but James Johnson once again paced the Bobcats with 25 points. Ike Azotam failed to score in just six minutes of action while battling flu-like symptoms but Garvey Young had his best game as a Bobcat scoring 11 points off the bench.

Projected Starters

Sacred Heart

Justin Swidowski, 6-9,Jr.,F,12.1
Evan Kelley, 6-4,So.,G,,9.7
Chris Evans,6-3,So.,G,7.3
Shane Gibson,,6-2,Jr.,G,16.6
Femi Akinpetide,6-6,Jr.,F,1.6
Quinnipiac
James Johnson,6-0,Sr.,G,19.0
Jamee Jackson,6-7,Jr.,F,8.2
Ike Azotam,6-7,So.,F,13.8
Dave Johnson,5-10,Jr.,G,4.0
Alex Jackson,6-6,So.,F,3.0
Off the bench

Sacred Heart: Louis Montes, 6-4, So., G, 5.0 ppg.; Steve Glowiak, 6-3, Fr., G., 8.1; Quinnipiac: Garvey Young, 6-5, Jr., F, 4.3; Nate Gause, 6-3, Fr., G, 9.0.

-- Bill Cloutier