QND girls respond to early deficit, fend off Alton Marquette to win Class 2A sectional title

WAVERLY, Ill. — Why worry?

That’s exactly what the Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball players were thinking.

Alton Marquette hit the Raiders with an opening salvo Friday night, scoring the first six points of the Class 2A Waverly Sectional championship game and forcing QND coach Eric Orne to burn a timeout after only 2 minutes, 7 seconds had expired.

Everything seemed out of sorts on the surface, but internally, the Raiders knew not to panic or fret.

“It was pretty much understood that we were fine,” QND junior guard Abbey Schreacke said. “We try to keep everyone calm and collected.”

Add aggressive to that as well.

QND’s Blair Eftink scored five consecutive points coming out of the timeout by attacking the basket, and Schreacke gave the Raiders their first lead at 12-11 by making a 3-pointer from the right corner. It was part of a 9-0 run to end the first quarter that resulted in a lead never relinquished.

The Raiders were able to fend off a fourth-quarter surge from the Explorers, who trimmed the deficit to 46-41 with 3:22 remaining, and advanced to the elite eight with a 54-45 victory. This is the 17th sectional title in program history and gives QND (28-3) the chance to win its 12th super-sectional.

Notre Dame will face Normal U-High at 7 p.m. Monday in the super-sectional at Beardstown High School. The Pioneers (19-16) advanced with a 39-36 victory Thursday night in the title game of the Class 2A Chillicothe IVC Sectional.

“We celebrate the victory, and just get ready for the next one,” said Schreacke, who scored 25 points. “It’s all business.”

Business is good when Schreacke doesn’t have to shoulder the scoring alone.

The Raiders led 16-11 at the end of the first quarter and extended the advantage to 28-19 by the midpoint of the second quarter. Freshman guard Sage Stratton then made back-to-back 3-pointers as the lead ballooned to 14 points and wound up being 12 points at halftime.

“It gets the crowd going, it gets the bench going and that just gets us going,” Stratton said.

It was possible because the Raiders never freaked out while trailing.

“We held our composure because we’ve all been in this situation before,” Stratton said. “There have been times we’ve trailed at the half and come back. So it wasn’t scary. When they went on their run, we were like, ‘Let’s just slow down and run our stuff.’”

QND scored on seven of the first eight possessions of the second quarter with all five starters contributing points. The run began with Marquette struggling offensively, going nearly four minutes with just one point and coming up empty on six of seven possessions.

“I thought we dug in defensively and blended well,” said QND coach Eric Orne, who had Eftink score 14 points and Stratton finish with nine. “We had better footwork and better action. They were in attack mode and getting downhill, then coming off there and looking for threes. … We finally figured out how to take some of that away.”

Yet, after the Explorers scored on the first possession of the fourth quarter, QND’s lead was 11 points, but Lia Quintero scored on a backdoor court off an on-the-money pass from Eryn Cornwell to ensure the Raiders kept some rhythm.

Quintero made another critical play with two minutes remaining and the Raiders ahead by seven when she tip-toed the baseline and tipped an offensive rebound to Schreacke for a layin and a 50-41 advantage.

“It gave us a little breathing room that we needed,” Orne said.

The Raiders capitalized on those plays throughout the game.

“The little things are what really count,” Schreacke said. “Hustling, getting on the ground, getting a loose ball, those are the things we really want.”

Offensive rebounds fall into that category, and those kept the Explorers around. Marquette scored 10 second-chance points, eight coming from senior forward Alyssa Powell, who finished with 17 points and 17 rebounds.

But the Raiders shot 52.9 percent from the field (18 of 34) and didn’t give in when things looked bleak early.

“We just kept battling, kept battling, kept battling,” Orne said. “I know they will always do that.”