The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Despite loss, Fabbri, Quinnipiac push on
STORRS — This was the end of the basketball road for a mom and her daughter.
With a packed Gampel Pavilion watching, with Connecticut watching, this much also is sure. It wasn’t the end of the road for the Quinnipiac women’s basketball program.
The Bobcats didn’t try play with the wild pace and hoist a record number of three-pointers against No. 1 UConn like St. Francis had on Saturday. On the contrary, Tricia Fabbri tried to turn a 40-minute game into a 20-minute game. There was no way this one was going to turn into an 88point rout that somehow turned into a national referendum on the quality of women’s basketball.
No, Fabbri is a little smarter and a lot more competitive than that. She went the opposite direction. Yet when this one was over, when the 71-46 final score signaled the end to Quinnipiac’s season, Fabbri also knew her team ultimately was not a match for No. 1 UConn. No way a 23-game winning streak was going to turn into 24.
“Heck of an effort, heck of a team,” Fabbri said about her own Bobcats. “I’m so proud.”
With 1:42 left in this second round NCAA Tournament game, Fabbri’s daughter Carly walked off the court and walked into a big hug from her mom. She walked into some even bigger hugs from assistant coaches and teammates. And there she sat on the bench for those final 83 seconds, sipping on a drink from one of those NCAAmandated cups.
On this night, inside that hug, she said simply to her daughter, “Great job.”
Carly grew up a Sue Bird fan, a jersey a prized gift. She grew up a Quinnipiac fan, that jersey becoming a prized gift of a lifetime.
She is a Connecticut player through and through without ever playing at State U. She was a high school star at Lauralton Hall. She went to play for her mom in the spiffy arena on the big hill in Hamden.
There was a certain symmetry, a sense of fulfilment in playing at Gampel Pavilion in her last game. Even if it ended in defeat, even if the result meant an end to her college career, this was something fitting about one of the smartest, grittiest Connecticut kids finishing here.
“This is the Mecca of women’s basketball,” Carly