MARCH 20, 2024 • VOLUME 94 • ISSUE 20
The official student newspaper of Quinnipiac University since 1929
Olian ranks 21st on Hartford Business Journals’ ‘Power 50’ By ALEXANDRA MARTINAKOVA News Editor
OUT OF TIME
TYLER RINKO/CHRONICLE
Quinnipiac’s title hopes end with Saint Peter’s buzzer beater in MAAC semifinals By ETHAN HURWITZ Sports Editor
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — There are 18.7 seconds left on the clock. Quinnipiac men’s basketball is coming out of a full timeout, still down 60-57 in Friday’s MAAC semifinals. Graduate student guard Savion Lewis — who had 14 points, five rebounds and seven assists — gets the inbound pass and starts to dribble left to right. 16.9, 16.8, 16.7 He passes to the elbow. The receiver? Graduate student guard Matt Balanc. He hasn’t had the best game up to this point. Neither have the majority of the Bobcats — “We struggled at the foul line,” Quinnipiac head coach Tom Pecora said. They missed 10 from the stripe, including five from senior forward Paul Otieno. It wasn’t the best night for him either, despite his 12 points. He was shut down in the paint and any potential maneuvering was rejected. “(Defense) is what we lean on,” Saint Peter’s senior guard Latrell Reid said. “60 (points allowed), we win ball games.” 14.4, 14.3, 14.2 Balanc stops, pivots and heads to the sideline after a screen from Otieno. He launches a three that should not have come close to the rim. In his face was Peacocks redshirt sophomore forward Mouhamed Sow. The desperation triple arches high. Swish. The Quinnipiac bench erupts and the Bobcats — who have trailed by as much as 10 in the second half — have new life. “I was hype, but we had to get back and get a stop,” Balanc said. “We didn’t win the game, we tied it.” It’s true, the game wasn’t over. Peacocks
head coach Bashir Mason, coaching in just his second season for Saint Peter’s, calls a timeout with 10 seconds remaining. 5.2, 5.1, 5.0 After some give-and-gos between Sow and Reid, the latter takes the ball at the top of the key and drives to his right. He stops, then picks up steam in the paint. “We butchered the play, there was supposed to be a back screen,” Mason said. “We didn’t do that, but it was supposed to be in (senior guard Roy Clarke’s) hands.” Clarke’s game was subpar. With only five points, his head coach wanted the senior to have his hero moment. Instead, it was Reid taking it to the rim with the game on the line. 3.3, 3.2, 3.1 Otieno, Balanc and junior guard Alexis Reyes contested the layup. Reid missed, but the Bobcats — who outrebounded Saint Peter’s, albeit by just four — couldn’t corral the loose ball. “Something we talked about … It’s not about the game-winning shot,” Pecora said. “It’s about making sure there’s not a second opportunity.” 0.9, 0.8, 0.7 After just six three-pointers all season, Sow’s semifinal performance was a breakout of sorts. He had drilled three from beyond the arc and was setting the tone for the No. 5 Peacocks all night. “Everybody has faith in me,” Sow said. “I’m just trying to hit one, two, whatever comes my way.” Sow crashes the paint. He has 13 points, far and away his most of the season. He’s playing valuable minutes because the Peacocks’ other big man — junior forward Mi-
chael Houge — had fouled out. The missed shot falls right into the hands of Sow, who instantly goes right back up to the rim with under a second remaining. “I had faith in him that he was gonna make it,” Sow said. “I was like, ‘If you don’t make it, I’m just going to try and get the offensive rebound.’” And just like Balanc’s out-of-body threepointer seconds prior, Sow puts his team’s fate in the air with 0.6 ticks on the clock. Down the net it goes, and onto the MAAC Championship the Peacocks go. 0.0 “We were right there physically,” Lewis said. “Obviously, they got the last effort and finished it.” The physical atmosphere of the game was turned up a notch. It’s something that the Peacocks have preached all season long, even having Mason yell mid-press conference to demonstrate how he wants his team to sound in practice. It got the better of the MAAC’s top-seeded Bobcats, who bested Saint Peter’s twice in the regular season, including a statement win to close the schedule. “Early on in the game, we never really got our flow offensively,” Pecora said. “I think that was the difference maker.” For Quinnipiac, a Hollywood ending for Balanc’s career and a chance to win a MAAC title evaporated in an instant. For Saint Peter’s, a trip to the conference championship and eventual NCAA Tournament awaits — “survive and advance,” Mason preached. Now the two programs head their own ways, separated by just a matter of seconds.
Hartford Business Journal ranked Quinnipiac University’s President Judy Olian among its 2024 Power 50 list on March 4. The Power Players list is a section that highlights private- and public-sector, nonprofit, higher education, real estate and healthcare officials in Connecticut, who are not only top leaders within their organizations but also the broader business community, per the journal’s website. Olian ranked No. 21. “This is really a recognition for Quinnipiac University and the increasingly impactful role our university plays in the civic life of Connecticut,” Olian wrote in a March 6 statement to The Chronicle. “We all need to be engaged in lifting the communities in which we live.” She wasn’t the only individual from Quinnipiac to make the list. Quinnipiac School of Law alum and Hartford’s newest mayor Arunan Arulampalam was featured at No. 7. The No. 1 spot belonged to Gov. Ned Lamont and first lady of Connecticut Annie Lamont. The Journal’s editorial staff chose and ranked the fifth-annual Power 50 class. Though it is not an official ranking, the staff identifies newsmakers and swindlers who have a broad impact within the region and state, according to the website. The article attached to Olian’s profile recalled the Quinnipiac men’s hockey 2023 NCAA Championship win, and her seizing the opportunity of the school’s sudden popularity to cast a positive spotlight on the small private college. The article also highlighted the South Quad project and quoted Olian on the Hartford HealthCare partnerships that expanded hands-on learning opportunities for students in health care and other industries. Hartford HealthCare’s President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Flaks sat at No. 2 on the list. However, Olian wasn’t the highest ranked college president on the list. The No. 3 spot belonged to Radenka Maric, president of the University of Connecticut. Justin Elicker, New Haven’s mayor, made the list at No. 14. Benjamin Zachs, chief operating officer of Fine Fettle, a cannabis company with several retail dispensaries, rounded out the list at No. 50.
CAT MURPHY/CHRONICLE
Hartford Business Journal ranked Quinnipiac University President Judy Olian on its ‘Power 50’ list alongside figures including Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont.