Third-quarter struggles offensively spell doom for Hawks

QUINCY — The lid finally came off the basket at one end. Somehow it ended up covering the rim at the other.

The Quincy University women’s basketball team simply couldn’t pry it loose.

Shooting just 20 percent from the field and making only three field goals in the first quarter Saturday afternoon led to the Hawks trailing Winona State by as many as eight points. A more efficient offense, which included going 3 of 7 from 3-point range, enabled the Hawks to chisel the deficit to one point on two different occasions and go to halftime trailing by only three.

“We joked at halftime that we were taking a lid off the rim at this end,” QU coach Kaci Bailey said. 

Little did anyone know the lid on the north basket inside Pepsi Arena was secured tighter.

The Hawks had four offensive rebounds on their initial possession of the second half and came away empty, and the inability to score snowballed from there. They went 8 minutes, 18 seconds without scoring, managed just two field goals in the third quarter and suffered a 66-50 loss in the final game of the Hansen-Spear Funeral Home Classic.

“It was hard for us to score, and that brought us down a little bit,” junior point guard Beth Matas Martin said. “It shouldn’t be like that. Not every shot is going to go in, so we have to make sure we always play defense so they don’t outscore us like they did.”

The Hawks (0-4) missed 11 consecutive shots and committed five turnovers before Martin ended the drought when she scored in the lane with 1:42 remaining in the quarter. It ended a 13-0 run by the Warriors.

“The third quarter was a dagger,” Bailey said. “After the game, I joked that I think they put two lids on it by adding one at this end. When we can’t make shots and we struggle that bad to put it in, it affects the other end. We get quiet. I felt like we got on our own island in the third quarter. 

“That’s not who we are. That’s not what we stand for.”

Overall, the Hawks shot just 27.8 percent from the field and made only six field goals inside the 3-point stripe. They were outscored 46-12 in the paint as the Warriors shot 54.5 percent inside the arc.

“That doesn’t just come from post players,” Bailey said. “That comes from their guards putting their heads down and driving at us. We have to figure out how to keep people in front of us.”

It negated a second-quarter surge that gave the Hawks hope and confidence. They outscored the Warriors 17-12 in the frame, forced Winona State to miss all four 3-point attempts and had assists on four of their five field goals.

“We were all together,” said Martin, who finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists. “We all had energy. Nothing selfish. That’s what we need to do the whole game. It’s hard to do it for a whole game, but we have to try to do it as long as we can.”

And they have to eliminate the slow starts to each half.

“We learned we need more energy,” Martin said. “Going to the third quarter, we needed more energy. That’s what we learn from this weekend.”