Blue Devils offer each other assistance in rolling to opening-round victory at Collinsville

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — One of the unique aspects of holiday tournament play — at least at the Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic — is each coach is handed a sheet of halftime stats on the way to the locker room.

When Quincy High School coach Andy Douglas perused how his team constructed its 30-point lead over Oakville (Mo.) on Wednesday afternoon, one number clearly stood out as the offensive foundation.

Assists.

The Blue Devils dished out 14 assists on 19 field goals in building the 47-17 advantage that eventually ended as a 76-38 victory in the opening-round game at Vergil Fletcher Gym.

“That’s amazing,” Douglas said. “I looked at stats from last year, and there weren’t too many games where we had 14 assists total. This year, there’s not too many games where we don’t have at least 14 assists. We’re getting great looks and guys are sharing it. They have a lot of confidence in themselves and a lot of confidence in each other.”

Quincy, ranked third in the Associated Press Class 4A state poll, finished with 23 assists on 30 field goals, while shooting 52.6 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from 3-point range.

“Going into the game thinking we had to play as a team and play as one was crucial,” said junior guard Bradley Longcor III, who was one of five Blue Devils with three or more assists. “Because we were aggressive and did a lot of driving and kicking, it got a lot of guys open.”

The unselfishness of the Blue Devils is as good as it’s been under Douglas.

In eight previous appearances at Collinsville during Douglas’ 10-year tenure — the 2020 tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic — the Blue Devils had accrued more than 14 assists total just five times in 32 games. The 18 assists against Belleville East in a 65-46 victory in 2017 is the previous single-game high.

That was a senior-laden team led by Aaron Shoot in 2017, much like this is an experienced team that understands how to win.

“We were talking about that in the car on the way to the hotel,” said Douglas, who had four seniors — Ralph Wires, Camden Brown, Tyler Sprick and Ty Douglas — riding in his vehicle. “It’s a veteran crew that learned a lot from last year and knows what it takes to compete in these games where it’s not easy to get in a flow.

“We’ve had multiple teams play in that first game against not the greatest opponent and play to their level. This group was far from that. This group came to play.”

It will have to be ready Thursday as well.

The Blue Devils (12-0) will face Belleville Althoff (9-3) at 11:30 a.m. in the quarterfinals. The Crusaders trailed Mundelein 38-32 at halftime but outscored Mundelein 24-1 in the third quarter and posted a 75-52 victory. A victory sends Quincy into the semifinals at 6 p.m. against either Decatur MacArthur or O’Fallon.

A loss to Crusaders means the Blue Devils will play at 4:30 p.m. in the fifth-place bracket.

“It’s more about ourselves than the other team,” Longcor said of a team meeting at the hotel to go over the scouting report and plans for Thursday. “We have to make sure we’re good first as a team. If we take care of ourselves, we can compete with anybody. That’s the main message.”

Playing with intensity from the get-go sends the right message.

Quincy scored the game’s first 10 points, held Oakville scoreless for 4 minutes, 11 seconds and built a 20-point advantage before three minutes elapsed in the second quarter. The Blue Devils shot 55.9 percent from the field in the first half despite missing three dunk attempts.

“We came out on fire,” Douglas said. “We shot it really well, which is always a bit of a concern when you come off a couple of days of sitting at home.”

That was never a concern for the Blue Devils themselves.

“We went on this trip thinking it was a business trip,” Longcor said. “We came out with the right attitude and the right mentality.”

Longcor led the Blue Devils with 18 points, while Dom Clay went 3 of 4 from 3-point range with 15 points and Brown added 13 points as 10 different Blue Devils scored and eight different players had assists.

“We know we have to come out with the right energy and the right attitude,” Longcor said. “It’s going to lead us in the right direction.”