Longcor’s trey gives Blue Devils confidence boost as they win first leg of three-game gauntlet

GALESBURG, Ill. — Quincy High School girls basketball coach Brad Dance dubbed it the “3A gauntlet.”

Three games in six days against teams ranked in the top 11 in the state in Class 3A.

“Yeah, that’s a challenge,” Dance said.

The Blue Devils proved they’re up to the task. Myley Longcor buried a 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds remaining in regulation Thursday night as Quincy won the first leg of the gauntlet by beating No. 11 Galesburg 56-54 in Western Big 6 Conference play at John Thiel Gym.

“I was really proud of the girls,” Dance said. “They showed a lot of character.”

The Blue Devils led 38-28 with 2:35 remaining in the third quarter before the Silver Streaks went on a 9-0 run to close the quarter. Galesburg took the lead on a 3-pointer on the first possession of the fourth quarter and extended the advantage to as big as 50-42 with 3 ½ minutes to play.

A Khloe Nicholson 15-foot jumper kickstarted a 10-3 run that pulled Quincy (15-8, 6-4 WB6) within 53-52 with 40.2 seconds.

After the Silver Streaks split a pair of free throws to go up by two, Dance called timeout with 30.7 seconds remaining and the ball in the frontcourt. Nicholson missed a jumper in the lane off the inbounds play and Galesburg’s Jozalyn Kilgore rebounded the carom and was fouled.

Kilgore missed both free throws, but with no other Silver Streaks on the lane and four Blue Devils in rebounding position, she grabbed the offensive rebound of her own miss but missed the putback attempt off the back iron. Nicholson grabbed the rebound and rushed the ball into the frontcourt.

When the double team came to cut Nicholson off at the top of the key, she flipped a pass to Longcor on the right wing. She buried the 3-point attempt, leading to Galesburg (18-6, 8-2 WB6) calling timeout with 2.4 seconds remaining.

“They did a good job doubling on Khloe, so she found Myley,” Dance said. “Any Myley knocked it down.”

Galesburg got two cracks at tying or winning the game. Out of the timeout, the Silver Streaks threw a 3-point attempt at the basket from the left wing that went out of bounds. However, officials said the ball was tipped by the Blue Devils, giving the Silver Streaks another play from under the basket with .1 seconds left.

The ball was caught in the lane, but no real shot attempt was put up before the horn sounded.

“Winning at their place is never easy,” Dance said.

Longcor made six 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 18 points, Jada Brown added 17 points and Nicholson finished with 13 points.

“We handled the press really well the whole game,” Dance said. “Earlier in the season, we break a press and then we have to shoot it after the first pass once we get across halfcourt. At times now, we’re settling down and getting good looks. There are still times we rush things, but we’re doing a better job of getting it back out so we can run our offense.

“We ran our offense tonight and got a lot of good looks out of our offense.”

The challenge will be to make that happen again Saturday at Sterling, which is ranked No. 6 in Class 3A with a 22-4 record. Then Tuesday at Blue Devil Gym, the Blue Devils face No. 2 Quincy Notre Dame, which is 23-2.

“It’s the 3A gauntlet,” Dance said.