Cold-shooting Hawks fall in double overtime

QUINCY – Despite shooting 1 of 15 from three-point range, the Quincy University Hawks still had ample opportunities to grab a win over William Jewell Saturday afternoon at Pepsi Arena.

Orlando Thomas went coast to coast after a QU steal for a bucket to send the game into overtime, but QU missed its last three free throws in the first overtime and didn’t hit a field goal in the second overtime as the Cardinals won 74-72.

Zion Richardson led Quincy with 15 points, while Isaiah Foster and Thomas contributed 14 and 11 points respectively.

The Hawks are one of the top rebounding and defensive teams in the conference and they beat Jewell (13-8 overall, 7-6 in the GLVC) 55-32 on the boards Saturday. But Jewell’s nine three pointers compared to QU’s lone trey were too much to overcome.

“So that’s a 24-point difference for them right there,” QU Coach Steve Hawkins said referring to the three-point shooting. “But I also don’t know yet how many layups we missed. We lived at the rim all night. We had 21 offensive rebounds and missed a bunch of putbacks.”

Quincy (10-11 overall, 5-8 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) have dropped three straight and now are in a logjam of teams fighting to get into next month’s GLVC Tournament.

“We have seven ballgames left,” Hawkins said. “We’re down, but we’ve got a day to recuperate and we’ve got seven games to put the gas pedal down. As down as you are, this is the time that requires your greatest energy, your greatest strength and your greatest concentration.”

QU is on the road this week at McKendree and at University of Missouri-St. Louis, teams who are tied and just ahead of the Hawks in the conference standings.

“They’ll come back out and play hard,” Hawkins said about his team. “They did tonight. We just couldn’t get it to fall.”