Hawks dispatch Phantoms, will face Panthers for final test before break

QUINCY — The last-minute replacement for the now-defunct Ohio Valley men’s basketball team didn’t put up much of a fight.

Quincy University held East-West University to 19 points in the first half Saturday afternoon, then piled up 63 points in the second half of a 98-66 victory in the Hansen-Spear Funeral Home Holiday Classic at Pepsi Arena.

The Phantoms, who are a United States Christian College Association-sanctioned program, replaced Ohio Valley at the end of last week when news broke on December 8 that the River States Conference school was permanently closing its doors at the end of the first semester.

East-West was originally scheduled to play two games, but McKendree’s absence from the four-team field reduced the number of games from four to two and left East-West and Davenport each playing only one game.

McKendree informed tournament and school officials Friday it would not be participating this weekend because of a rash of the stomach flu in its program.

Quincy (6-4) will wrap up the weekend by playing Davenport (7-3) at 3 p.m. Sunday. The Panthers have won five of their last six games and gone 3-1 in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play.

The Hawks got off to a slow start Saturday, trailing 7-5 four minutes into the game and scoring only 10 points in the first seven minutes. A 15-2 run capped by a Paul Zilinskas 3-pointer changed everything.

East-West scored just eight points over the final seven minutes of the first half and trailed 35-19 at halftime. The Hawks pushed the advantage to 21 points in the first three minutes of the second half and had a 30-point bulge by the 12-minute mark.

Junior guard Jalen Stamps led five QU players in double figures with 18 points. Zilinskas finished with 15 points, and Mark Bradshaw Jr. had 12 points. The Hawks shot 53 percent from the field and outrebounded the Phantoms 47-27.