Although the Bobcats lost to Fairfield, 51-44, in the MAAC championship game Monday, Quinnipiac never wavered in its commitment to winning this moment.

After trailing 47-37 with 3:17 left, a furious 7-0 run capped by Jackie Grisdale’s layup made it a 47-44 game with 59.5 seconds to play. Add a turnover by Fairfield’s Meghan Andersen with 31 seconds remaining and the Bobcats kept fighting.

Because that’s what Tricia Fabri’s teams always do.

Although the Quinnipiac comeback came up short, the effort never evaporated — not once.

In the team’s final timeout with 10.5 seconds left, the Bobcats formed a circle, their arms and their legacy wrapped securely around each other’s waists. This is how it feels to play your best, to make your university proud and still leave with a broken heart.

“This is a very challenging moment for a team that left everything they had on the court with an opportunity to tie it and steal the momentum back,” Quinnipiac coach Tricia Fabbri said at the post-game press conference.

From Fabbri’s viewpoint in front of the bench, the shot looked good, she said. The tilt of her body, as if she was willing the ball through the basket, almost made it so.

Fabbri called these Bobcats (26-2) one of the best teams in program history. Quinnipiac was also the best defensive team in the MAAC all season, and this night was no different.

The Bobcats held Fairfield (28-4) to its lowest point total of the year and just six 3-pointers by a team that was averaging 11.5 per game, best in the nation.

For first-year guard Ella Ryan, the sister of senior guard Sydney Ryan, the loss was painful and palpable.

“I believed every second of the game that we were going to win,” Ryan said with absolute conviction.

With the sting of this loss only minutes old, Ella Ryan was asked by a reporter what next season is going to be like without her sister and graduate student Jackie Grisdale.

“To imagine a team without them is going to be incredibly difficult,” Ryan said, pursing her lips as Fabbri rubbed her left shoulder.

Grisdale offered a  piece of advice for those Bobcats who will return to the team next year: “Stay the amazing people and teammates that they are,” she said. “They have taught me so much about being a sisterhood.”

For junior Anna Foley, who led Quinnipiac with 17 points, Sydney Ryan’s shot that would’ve tied the game took courage.

“It looked like a good shot for us,” Foley said. “We’d ask her to take it again 100 times.”

Despite trailing 10-9 after the first quarter, the pace always favored Quinnipiac. The Bobcats held their opponents to an average of 51.3 points this year.

The Bobcats took their last lead at 13-12 after forward Ella O’Donnell made back-to-back post moves. But 11 unanswered points by Fairfield gave the Stags a 23-13 lead with 5:24 left in the second quarter.

Quinnipiac had work to do, but the Bobcats never relented, not once. After all, these two teams split their regular-season meetings with each one winning on the road.

As Grisdale, Foley and Ella Ryan left the press conference, Fabbri paused before taking questions of her own. She simply told them, “Great job ladies.”

Fabbri openly referred to “the sting of the moment” and predicted Ryan will pick up the mantle left behind by Grisdale’s leadership.

A little later during the press conference, Fabbri was asked how the seniors have affected her. She paused for 10, maybe 15 seconds, her eyes welling with more and more emotion.

“There’s a reason why you still coach, right?” Fabbri said, thinking about her players now. “They make me feel alive. They give me great purpose.”

After 31 years at Quinnipiac, it’s the only way Fabbri knows how to coach.