Jackson Benigni tees up his fourth three-pointer of the game en route to 18-point performance. (PHOTO BY Brian Foley)

HAMDEN, Conn. (November 26, 2023) – Stonehill men's basketball dropped a non-conference matchup against Quinnipiac, 80-69, at M&T Bank Arena Sunday afternoon as the Skyhawks concluded a five-game road trip.

LEADERS

• Graduate student Max Zegarowski (South Hamilton, Mass.) and senior Jackson Benigni (East Hampton, Conn.) tallied 18 points and knocked down four three-pointers apiece to lead the Skyhawks.
• Benigni also grabbed five rebounds to lead Stonehill on the glass while sophomore Tony Felder (Brockton, Mass.) tied a career-high and set a new season-high with seven assists.
• Felder swiped two steals in the loss while fifth-year Pano Pavlidis (Queens, N.Y.) notched the lone block for the Skyhawks.
• Quinnipiac was led by Matt Balanc who shot 6-7 from downtown for a game-high 24 points in 29 minutes.
• Rihards Vavers was the game's leading rebounder with six for the Bobcats.
• Amarri Tice was the best defender on the floor on Sunday, blocking five shots and securing three steals for Quinnipiac.

FIRST HALF

• The Bobcats opened the game with back-to-back threes to take a 6-0 lead before Zegarowski hit one of his own to get the Skyhawks on the board.
• An 8-0 run from Quinnipiac put them ahead 14-3 just over four minutes into the game but the run was ended by another Zegarowski bucket from deep.
• The Zegarowski three-pointer sparked a 7-0 Skyhawk run, capped off by a layup from sophomore Chas Stinson (Charlotte, N.C.) that made the score 14-10 with 13:34 left in the half.
• The two teams went back and forth trading runs with Quinnipiac going back up by 11 points, 23-12, but Stonehill responded as the Skyhawks made five of their next six shots to tie the score at 23-23.
• Seven straight points from the Bobcats gave them a 30-23 lead with less than eight minutes to play in the half.
• Quinnipiac secured its largest lead of the first half with 1:27 left to play thanks to a 17-6 run as Vavers knocked down a corner three to give the Bobcats a 47-29 advantage.
• At the half, Quinnipiac led 47-31 as Matt Balanc netted 17 points for the Bobcats and Zegarowski tallied 10 points, playing all 20 minutes.

SECOND HALF

Ethan Meuser matched his career-high, tallying 10 points in Sunday afternoon's loss. (PHOTO BY Brian Foley)

• Quinnipiac began the half on a 9-3 run, making their first four field goal attempts to go up 56-34.
• Sophomore Ethan Meuser (Shavertown, Pa.) scored five of the next eight Stonehill points for his first points of the season, cutting into the Bobcat lead, making it 63-42 with 16:09 left to play.
• A 28-point gap between the two teams was the largest margin of the game as Balanc completed a four-point play with Quinnipiac leading 72-44 nearly halfway through the second.
• During a 19-5 run for the Skyhawks, Benigni got it rolling from beyond the arc, sinking four three-pointers without a miss to cut the Bobcat lead in half with 2:08 remaining in the game.
• Stonehill ended the non-conference matchup on a 25-8 run, but the scoring surge was too late in the contest as Quinnipiac won 80-69.
• The Bobcats shot 49.1% (27-55) from the field and 51.9% (14-27) from three while the Skyhawks shot 45% (27-60) and 48% (12-25) from deep.

NOTEWORTHY

• Stonehill is now 23-20 all-time series Quinnipiac, marking the second time the two teams have met at the Division I level. The Bobcats defeated the Skyhawks 102-95 last season at Merkert Gym as the long-time opponents first played each other in 1954.
• Before today, Stonehill had won three straight at Quinnipiac, but the Skyhawks had never taken on the Bobcats at M&T Bank Arena before. The last meeting in Hamden, Conn. was during the 1997-98 season.
• Stonehill has now shot over 40% from deep in back-to-back games after making 12 of 21 (41.2%) from long-range in Monday's loss at Texas A&M-Commerce.
• The Skyhawks concluded a five-game road trip in four different states, Connecticut (at UConn, at Quinnipiac), Pennsylvania (at St. Joe's), Kentucky (at UK), and Texas (at Texas A&M-Commerce).
• Four Skyhawks scored 10+ points for the second time this season, falling to 0-2 in such games.
• Meuser tallied double-digits for the first time this season, matching his career-high of 10 points that he set last season at UMass Lowell.
• Zegarowski has now scored at least seven points in six of the first seven games this year, the most such games for Stonehill.
• Benigni reached double-figures for a team-high fifth time this season through seven games.
• Felder has scored 11+ points in four straight games as he improves his season average to 11.4ppg.

UP NEXT

• Stonehill is back at Merkert Gymnasium for its second home game of the season when UMass Lowell travels to Easton on Wednesday, Nov. 29 for a 4:30 p.m. non-conference matchup.

Tickets for the 2023-24 men's and women's basketball season are on sale now and can be purchased at stonehillskyhawks.com/tickets. Season ticket options are available including a men's and women's combination pass, valid for all 27 home games this year.

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