By Nicholas Williams
**UPDATE: Quinnipiac won Sunday afternoon’s game against Marist, 80-74, in double overtime. The victory clinches the fourth consecutive Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season championship for the Bobcats, who move to 22-5 overall and 16-0 in conference play. Aryn McClure led the Bobcats with a season-high 25 points, while Jen Fay added 21.**
Quinnipiac University women’s basketball head coach Tricia Fabbri collected her 400th career win Feb. 11 against Siena College. It is unlikely that this is on her mind now, as her team prepares to face off this afternoon against arch-rival Marist College — the only Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference team that has challenged the Bobcats.
As the MAAC tournament approaches on March 1, every game is important as teams jockey for control of the conference — a position the Bobcats (21-5, 15-0 MAAC) are firmly in.
Fabbri is already a member of the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame as a player for Fairfield and, now with 400 wins, is adding to an impressive 22-year coaching career. Fabbri certainly seemed to enjoy the moment for a few minutes in this video posted on Quinnipiac’s women’s basketball team Twitter page.
.@QUCoachFabbri collected her 400th victory yesterday on the road at Siena. Hear from coach Fabbri about what this milestone means to her: pic.twitter.com/b5xgj3T4Jy
— QU Women's Basketball (@QU_WBB) February 12, 2018
In the video, Fabbri spoke about sharing the victory with everyone around her.
“The team is not I, and it’s shared with everybody. I don’t do this by myself,” she said.
Carly Fabbri, a senior guard and the coach’s daughter, said staying focused game to game is the key to the team’s success this season.
“We hate to lose. I think that’s what fuels us,” the young Fabbri, who is averaging 4.3 assists per game, said.
“Once you start focusing too much on the future, that’s when you’re going to get picked off in MAAC play.”
As her mother collected her 400th win, Fabbri and the team are also on a 16-game win streak. In case that wasn’t good enough, the team is also unbeaten in conference play amassing a perfect 15-0 record.
“I think it’s just that mentality (that) everyone’s going to have their chance if they put in the work and they buy into the system,” Carly Fabbri said.
Her mother’s system, which includes five-player substitutions known as the “gold rush,” was put on display when Quinnipiac made it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament last spring when it upset Marquette and the University of Miami.
Quinnipiac has three games remaining on its schedule before the MAAC Tournament opens in Albany, New York.
The Bobcats face MAAC opponents Marist, Rider and Monmouth starting today at 2 p.m. in Poughkeepsie, the place that Carly Fabbri called “one of the loudest places to play.”
Fans can watch the game online at ESPN3.