Total team mentality: Blue Devils rely on scoring balance to carry them to regional title tilt

ALTON, Ill. — Presented with intel the Quincy High School boys basketball team had its two leading scorers fail to reach double figures in the same game for the first time this season, junior guard Reid O’Brien shrugged it off.

The Blue Devils, in his eyes, are the epitome of a team.

“We have winners,” O’Brien said Tuesday night after the third-seeded Blue Devils’ 49-37 victory over sixth-seeded Edwardsville in a Class 4A Alton Regional semifinal. “We’re not just (senior forward) Jeremiah (Talton) and (freshman guard) Bradley (Longcor III). We’re a collective group.”

O’Brien set that pace, registering a career-high 12 points and grabbing two boards. Freshman forward Keshaun Thomas, making his first career start, tallied 10 points and snared four boards. Sophomore guard Ralph Wires added six points off the bench. Senior guard Terron Cartmill contributed five points.

All that was enough to push Quincy (25-5) into Friday’s regional final against second-seeded O’Fallon (23-7).

“We’ve had times where it’s been one or the other, but never both,” Quincy coach Andy Douglas said about Talton and Longcor, the team’s leading scorers who had eight and six points, respectively.

“I thought guys stepped up, and they have for us all season when we’ve needed them. Jeremiah and Bradley did a great job of finding guys, which says a lot about them because they could be guys who say, ‘I average double figures. I’m going to take some shots.’ But they were looking for guys and understood what was going on.”

Talton, who recently committed to the University of New Orleans, had nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. Longcor, the highest scoring freshman in Quincy history, grabbed four boards with two assists and two steals.

The duo took 10 shots, converting four of them.

Asked his thoughts on holding the Blue Devils’ leading scorers to 14 points and still absorbing a double-digit loss, Edwardsville coach Dustin Battas offered two reasons for the result.

“They have a good coach and they have a good team,” Battas said. “In the postseason, you win games if you have multiple guys who can make baskets and a coach that has facilitated that all year. That’s a credit to them. That says they’re a good team. … It also says that (Longcor) and (Talton) are winners.”

Douglas believes each player in the rotation fits that description.

“We have guys who step in with confidence and are able to knock down big shots and make big plays,” Douglas said. “A lot of times, it hasn’t been just scoring the ball – it’s been passing and doing well defensively. I was proud of them in that aspect.”

The Blue Devils never trailed, but the Tigers (11-19) never would go away. Whenever the deficit reached double figures, Edwardsville responded with a basket to get within seven or nine points. Placed in a vulnerable position several times, the Blue Devils always had a response.

Wires negated a 7-0 run by converting his own steal into a buzzer-beating layup to put Quincy up 25-17 at half. O’Brien hit a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter to thwart an Edwardsville rally.

The Blue Devils converted five of their seven foul shots in the last 1:24 of regulation.

“You always know it will be a close game — you’re never going to blow out Edwardsville,” O’Brien said. “They play hard and execute.”

That did not faze Quincy, which advances to its first regional final since 2018. To extend their state-record regional total to 61, the Blue Devils must do something they have never done before — win away from Blue Devil Gym.

Since the IHSA split to four classes before the 2007-08 season, Quincy has yet to win a Class 4A regional it did not host. The two regional plaques came in 2009 and 2018.

“This is a different team and different mentality,” Douglas said. “This is a group I know will be ready on Friday night.”