Quinnipiac University was feeling charitable Saturday night, and the men's basketball team was happy to cash in. Brown used efficient shooting from the charity stripe to earn an 80-74 victory over the Bobcats.
Brown shot 60 free throws on the night and made a school-record 47 of them. The win moves the Bears to 3-5 on the season.
Brown pulled out the win without the services of its leading scorer, Keenan Jeppesen '08. Prior to the game, the team released a short statement saying Jeppesen had left the team for personal reasons. Head Coach Craig Robinson said he was not informed of Jeppesen's decision until after Friday afternoon's practice when the guard called him to announce he was leaving the squad.
"He called me and said that he was no longer going to be with the team for personal reasons," Robinson said.
"I don't think he's coming back," Robinson added when asked if he would be open to welcoming Jeppesen back if he had a change of heart. "We're operating as if he's not (coming back)."
Despite Jeppesen's absence, the Bears took control of the game from the outset. Mark McAndrew '08 opened things up by drilling a three from the top of the key with a hand in his face on Brown's first possession.
"(Scoring first) is something that we focus on in practice," McAndrew said. "I don't want to give away all of our secrets, but right out of the gate we try to run a good set that will get us on the scoreboard early."
McAndrew benefited the most from Quinnipiac's frequent fouling. The co-captain made 15 of 16 free throws on the night and led the team with 18 points. Brown also received a major boost from the return of guard Damon Huffman '08 and forward Chris Skrelja '09.
Huffman had not seen action since an opening night loss to Michigan State University when he suffered a partial tear of his left MCL shortly before halftime, and Skrelja had not played all year because of a leg injury.
Huffman played 24 minutes and made six of his seven attempts from the line, including going 3-of-3 early in the first half after he was fouled hard on a three-point attempt. He finished with nine points on the night.
Skrelja went 7-of-8 from the line and sank the biggest shot of the night for the Bears. With Brown clinging to a two-point lead and five minutes remaining, Skrelja drained a three-pointer to give Bruno its biggest lead since the 19-minute mark of the second half. From there, the Bears' free throw shooting down the stretch proved to be the difference.
After Brown's first three possessions in the first half, the game was bogged down in a flood of fouls. Both teams had accumulated seven team fouls by the 13:08 mark.
The Bears held a 39-33 lead at the break largely because they shot 33 free throws and made 26 of them. For the half, McAndrew, Huffman and Steve Gruber '10 were all miserly with their misses, each going a perfect 6-of-6 from the line. In his first collegiate start, Gruber played 17 minutes in the half and added three assists as he and Becker split the main ball-handling duties.
Free-throw shooting was Brown's Achilles' heel last year. The Bears shot only 66 percent as a team and only three players shot higher than 67 percent. After Saturday's game, the team is shooting 72 percent on the year and has been over that mark in four of its last five games.
Robinson, who was hired in June, said he has had little to do with the turnaround.
"To be quite honest with you, the guys work on it on their own because I don't have time in practice (to work on free throws)," Robsinson said. "These guys have classes, homework. We're practicing at 5:45 in the morning, so I can't keep them shooting foul shots (after)."
McAndrew, who made seven free throws in the last 2:10 of the game to close out the Bobcats, said whoever is on the floor is comfortable taking free throws down the stretch. Quinnipiac was fouling immediately on the inbounds passes in the last two minutes, so McAndrew knew what was coming each trip and calmly converted at the line.
"(Making my free throws) was pretty much the icing on the cake," he said. "That's the difference between giving them a chance to get back in the game or closing them out."
Though Brown's performance at the line went a long way to securing its third victory of the season, the team's energetic, if at times leaky, defense proved to be the difference.
Brown out-rebounded the Bobcats and held their shooting to 39 percent. McAndrew, however, said the Bobcats did a good job of spreading the Bears' defense out and were able to penetrate Brown's 2-3 match-up and 1-3-1 zones too easily off of the dribble.
To open the second half, Brown seemed to lose track of guard Dale Meinbresse who converted three layups to cut the Bears' lead to 48-46 at 14:42.
Quinnipiac took a 56-51 lead with 10 minutes to go, but forward Sam Manhanga '07 rattled in a three in front of an energetic Brown bench, and a bemused Robinson, and Huffman followed with one of his own to bring Brown back. Skrelja's three at 5:12 gave Brown a five-point lead it would not relinquish.
Brown now turns its attention to another rivalry game against the University of Rhode Island - its second contest without Jeppesen.
Neither McAndrew nor Huffman would give much insight into how much Jeppesen's absence would affect the team moving forward, but both suggested that though his loss would be felt, the return of Huffman and Skrelja would help.
"The effort is always there. ... I just have to teach (the team) how to play better and win games and today we took a big step forward," Robinson said.
