Efficient effort offensively, toughness defensively carry Blue Devils to Shootout victory over Red Devils

NORMAL, Ill. — The efficiency with which the Quincy High School boys basketball team runs its offense typically means a shot is going up after one, two or at most three passes.

“Normally, We don’t normally get a reversal,” Blue Devils coach Andy Douglas said. 

The patience with which the Blue Devils played Saturday night — and the reversals and extended possessions that came with that — helped them dictate pace of play and made St. Louis Chaminade exhaust its energy playing defense.

“They didn’t just have to guard for four passes. They had to guard for eight,” Douglas said. “That makes a difference. There aren’t a lot of teams that want to guard for eight, 10, 12 passes, and that’s why we were able to get good looks out of it.”

Those looks led to field goals which led to another signature victory.

Quincy, ranked second in the Class 4A state poll, took control with an 11-5 run in the second half, fended off Chaminade’s fourth-quarter push and walked out of Normal West High School with a 49-44 victory in the Midwest Crossroads Shootout.

“It was a battle,” Douglas said. “It is every time you play them. When you play teams like this, usually the toughest team wins and that was us tonight.”

The Blue Devils (22-2) had to be.

The Red Devils, ranked second in the Missouri Class 6 state poll, featured a starting lineup that included 6-foot-8, 220-pound junior forwards Jahadi Jr. and Jamison White and 6-foot-10 Ben Winker coming off the bench.

“When you’re playing size like that, it’s not just one person guarding them,” Douglas said. “We had to have people in position to help. … And they have four guys out there who can shoot it from 3-point range at a fairly high percentage.

“The goal was to bump Jahadi off the block so when he got it there we were closer to the guys on the 3-point line. If he catches it in deep or in the paint, he’s pretty much unstoppable. So I thought we did a good job of moving him and staying on our assignments on the perimeter.”

Jahadi White Jr. finished with 13 points and Jamison White had 12.

“We give up a lot of size on the inside to these guys, but our guys really battled,” Douglas said. “They raised the level of physicality for this game.”

The Blue Devils led 40-32 before the Red Devils went on a 9-3 run to close within 43-41 on a Jamison White 3-pointer from the top of the key. Quincy’s Jeraius Rice Jr. answered with a 3-pointer from the top of the key and Bradley Longcor III made 3 of 4 free throws in the final 37.6 seconds to seal the victory.

The success down the stretch, which included a possession in which the Blue Devils worked nearly two minutes off the clock, came down to patience.

“They didn’t force anything,” Douglas said. “Usually their eyes light up when they see an opening or an opportunity. They stayed patient and didn’t force anything. They played composed.”

Longcor led the Blue Devils with 20 points, and Keshaun Thomas added 11. Both finished with three assists as the unselfish nature of Quincy’s attack showed.

“Keshaun made a couple of passes that were ‘How’d you see that?’ type of plays,” Douglas said. “When he’s making passes like that and guys are cutting to the basket, good things are going to happen.”