Trust in their offense enables Hawks to weather field goal drought, defense stymies Bearcats

QUINCY — The longer it took for the Quincy University men’s basketball team to find success offensively, the more an 18-point halftime lead narrowed.

The key was it never fully dissipated.

The Hawks’ belief in themselves didn’t evaporate either.

Quincy made just one field goal in the first seven minutes of the second half of Saturday’s Great Lakes Valley Conference matchup with Southwest Baptist at Pepsi Arena, but it was still a two-possession advantage before Zion Richardson buried a 3-pointer from the right wing with 12:15 to play.

Four minutes later, the advantage was back to double digits and stayed there as the Hawks put away a 66-50 victory.

“I told the guys at one of the timeouts, ‘Fellas, we’re not going to go dry forever,’” said Quincy coach Steve Hawkins, whose team started the second half going 1 of 9 from the field with four turnovers. “I knew we would get ourselves going offensively.”

The Hawks (8-6, 3-3 GLVC) felt the same way, which is why their moments of frustration with the lid on the basket didn’t morph into becoming emotionally hijacked.

“That’s a message to the trust we have in each other,” sophomore point guard Isaiah Foster said. “We see each other in the gym and we know we can make shots. We took good shots, and even though we missed them, we got back on defense, made plays and then went and got good shots the next time down the floor.”

They were able to do that because they stayed engaged defensively.

Southwest Baptist (5-8, 1-4 GLVC) went 1 of 14 from 3-point range in the first half and shot just 29.6 percent from the field over the first 20 minutes. The Bearcats improved slightly in the opening sequence of the second half, but missed four consecutive field goal attempts in the middle of the run.

“We just don’t want our offense to affect our defense,” Richardson said after the Hawks played the final 25 minutes without starting power forward Mason Wujek, who was taken to get stitches on his chin. “Our defense has to stay solid and stay the same. We picked up where we left off in the first half for the most part defensively, and we knew the ball would drop for us eventually.”

The Hawks ended up shooting 50 percent from the field over the game’s final 12 minutes and finished at 44 percent overall (22 of 50). The Bearcats shot just 31.7 percent from the field and managed to hit 5 of 28 3-pointers (17.9 percent).

“Follow the scouting report,” Richardson said. “We knew some of them weren’t great 3-point shooters. So we had to follow the scouting report and know who could shoot and who couldn’t.”

Southwest Baptist’s Drenin Dinkins, who came in averaging a team-best 15.4 points per game, was held scoreless, going 0 for 3 from 3-point range. In fact, SBU’s three top 3-point shooters were a combined 4 of 17 from beyond the arc.

“They are a very difficult team to guard because of their movement away from the ball,” Hawkins said. “You don’t see that a lot anymore with guards who are ball-screen heavy.

“This was the best all year long that we’ve followed the scouting report.”

Richardson led the Hawks with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Nate Shockey added 12 points and four assists and Foster finished with 11 points.

“It is important to get our confidence going and keep it clicking,” Richardson said.

The Hawks’ three-game homestand continues with a 7:30 p.m. game Thursday against Truman State at Pepsi Arena.