Frustrated Fohey finishes with flourish, scores 1,000th career point as QHS girls win State Farm Holiday Classic opener

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Taylor Fohey admitted she was counting down the points. She also admitted that might have been why she wasn’t scoring many on Wednesday night.

She started the game 14 points shy of reaching 1,000 for her career. The Quincy High School girls basketball team led Springfield 48-36 midway through the fourth quarter, but Fohey had only scored six points. The congratulatory posters had been made, and several family members were in attendance, but Fohey was struggling.

“Really bad,” Fohey said of the first 3 ½ quarters of the game. “I think it was more of a mental thing. It was in my head a little bit. This is in the back of your mind, always. It was like, ‘When am I going to get there? When am I going to get there? Oh, I’m not going to get there, and I’m playing like crap.’”

A 12-foot jump shot along the baseline seemed to break the ice. The senior center scored the Blue Devils’ next six points after that, with a post-up and spin move from the left side of the lane leading to her 1,000^th point in the game’s final minute — and a big cheer from her teammates on the bench and the fans in the Robert Frank Sports Complex at Bloomington High School.

The Blue Devils (11-3), seeded third, eventually posted a 58-38 victory and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the State Farm Holiday Classic. They will play at 8:30 p.m. Thursday against 11^th-seeded Peoria Richwoods (11-4), which defeated Plainfield North 57-35. 

Fohey was pleased to reach her milestone, but she was happier to see her team succeed without much offensive help from her.

“Some shots finally started to fall (in the fourth quarter),” she said. “But the rest of the game, I really focused on, ‘Well, I’m not scoring. So where can anybody else score?’ At the end, I was like, ‘I’ll get there when I get there. It’s not a big deal.’”

Freshmen Myley Longcor and Jada Brown filled the void. They had nine points each in the first half to help the Blue Devils take a 33-19 lead. Quincy forced 13 turnovers by the Senators in the first 16 minutes. Only four 3-pointers by Emma Scheffler helped keep Springfield as close as it was.

“I love our freshmen. They played their butts off,” Fohey said. “Defense was a little bit of a struggle for some of us tonight, but (the freshmen are) able to put baskets up, so that really makes up for it. It helps us on the offensive end, because I’ve had nights this season where I haven’t been able to do anything.”

However, Blue Devils coach Brad Dance knew his team missed several easy shots in the first half that could have further distanced themselves from Springfield.

That proved problematic in the first four minutes of the third quarter. Quincy missed its first seven shots, while Scheffler hit two more 3-pointers and Keziah Toran added a driving layup as Springfield got within 33-27.

Quincy made only two baskets in the third quarter and only led 37-31 with eight minutes left.

“We were pressing,” Dance said. “Our posts did a great job of getting the position they wanted to get. They just weren’t getting their head up when they were shooting. They were reminded of it at halftime, and it got better in the second half. But we left probably 15 to 18 points out there in the first half.”

The Blue Devils closed the game by making 8 of 9 shots in the final quarter while forcing five Springfield turnovers. Scheffler finished with 21 points but only made one 3-pointer in the game’s final 13 minutes. Quincy scrapped the man-to-man defense it used to open the third quarter and re-employed a 1-2-2 zone to keep her in check.

“We lost her, and they ran her off kind of a double screen that I’m not sure was a screen,” Dance said. “I thought when we went back to the 1-2-2 later, we did a better job. We recognized where she was, and she couldn’t get set.”

Brown finished with 16 points, Longcor added 11 and senior guard Leila Dade added nine for QHS, which made its debut in the tournament.

“For us to come to this tournament and show how we’ve developed and how we can play as a team, that’s really good for us,” Fohey said.

“We’ve tried hard to get into this tournament for years because you get good competition,” Dance said. “There are 16 good teams here. We want to make the most of it.”