Out of the Fry-ing pan, into the fire: Suns senior guard finishes off Raiders with critical plays in fourth quarter

QUINCY — The lead never grew large enough for either the Southeastern boys basketball team to get comfortable or Quincy Notre Dame to get discouraged.

Not until the Raiders got Fry-ed.

Leading 51-47 with less than four minutes to play in regulation Monday night at The Pit, Suns senior guard Ramsey Fry made a series of plays at both ends of the floor — he had a steal and a blocked shot on defense and scored six consecutive points offensively — to finally open up the game.

From there, all the Suns had to do was make free throws. Fry and Southeastern standout Danny Stephens combined to go 9 of 10 from the stripe in the final 2:46 to cement a 62-52 victory.

“To keep our tempo and our composure was huge for this game with this rough environment,” Fry said. “To pull out that win was an amazing feeling.”

It further cemented the Suns (21-4) as a regional and sectional contender in Class 1A.

“We held our own tonight,” Fry said. “If we do that during regionals, I don’t see why we can’t win it.”

Even in defeat, the Raiders believed they found something in their effort to make themselves viable postseason contenders.

“We really just needed to figure it out,” QND junior guard Braden Sheffield said after the Raiders lost back-to-back games and fell to 14-9. “This game figured it out for us. We were able to get back in that game and we battled. We’ll battle tomorrow. We’ll battle the rest of the week. We’ll battle the rest of the season.”

Battling from a position of strength would help.

A layin by Sheffield, who finished with 15 points, a minute into the game gave the Raiders the first basket, but they proceeded to give up an 11-0 that put them on their heels. The Suns scored seven points off two turnovers with Stephens converting off an offensive rebound and then sinking two free throws after QND coach Kevin Meyer drew a technical foul.

Meyer called a timeout at that point to regroup his troops.

“We’ve got to get through that first three minutes and play hard when we’re still in that feeling out stage,” said Meyer, who got 16 points from Alex Connoyer and 11 from Jake Hoyt. “I don’t think we should be doing that 23 games into the season. We should have that feeling out part over. 

“Our identity is a physical, good defensive team. We kind of backed off a little bit. What are we going to do with No. 23 (Stephens)? What are we going to do with No. 14 (Fry)? Then we’ll figure it out. You kind of dip your toe in the water. You can’t. You’ve got to be all in. You’ve got to be all in all the time.”

Notre Dame responded with a 10-2 run to get within a point before Stephens and Fry each scored in the final minute of the first quarter. However, the Raiders’ persistence allowed them to chip away at the deficit and take a 31-28 lead when Connoyer scored 14 seconds after Stephens drew his third foul late in the first half.

Again, the Suns closed the quarter with back-to-back baskets from Stephens and Fry to snare a 32-31 halftime lead.

QND scored the first basket of the second half, only to see Stephens and Fry combine on a 7-0 run and give Southeastern a lead it never relinquished. The Raiders scored on just two of nine possessions in a stretch lasting 6 minutes, 15 seconds.

“Just playing defense did it,” said Stephens, who scored a game-high 31 points. “We started picking it up on defense and getting stops.”

It happened again at the start of the fourth quarter when the Raiders missed their first four shots and fell behind 49-41. They got the deficit down to four a pair of times before Fry’s personal scoring spree quelled any comeback.

“Ramsey is a great player,” Stephens said after Fry scored seven of his 19 points in the fourth quarter. “He’s a great defender and he makes tough shots, too. That really helps us a lot.”

Good free-throw shooting helps, too. The Suns went 21 of 26 from the line with Stephens going 11 of 11 and Fry hitting 9 of 12.

“The way to get back into it is to be really aggressive,” Meyer said. “And our aggressiveness got them into the double bonus really early. And then they go make free throws. That’s what a good team does. (Stephens) and (Fry) just get it done.”

By forcing 13 turnovers, the Suns got it done on defense as well.

“We hustled,” Fry said. “Everybody gave 100 percent.”