Redemption road: Raiders travel across town to avenge loss to Blue Devils, take control from start

QUINCY — The need for redemption lasted 370 days.

The Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball players refused to let it linger a day longer.

Desperate to makes amends for last year’s 23-point loss to Quincy High School at The Pit in which they scored just 24 points, the state-ranked Raiders rattled off 10 of the game’s first 12 points Tuesday night, opened the second quarter on an 8-0 run and capped a 66-55 victory over the Blue Devils by scoring eight of the final 10 points at Blue Devil Gym.

If payback is what the Raiders wanted, this felt like the perfect kind.

“Definitely,” QND junior forward Tristan Pieper said. “We did not come out the way we wanted to last year and could not come back from it. This year, we went in with a totally different mindset, knowing if we do what we do and run our stuff, this could be the outcome. We played like a team determined to create a different outcome.”

QND coach Eric Orne hoped to see that kind of reaction from his team.

“I reminded them, even when things have been going good, that we have a big game at Blue Devil Gym with all of the history and it’s important,” Orne said. “We didn’t perform our best last year, and we got beat by a better team last year. We wanted to show up, because this was going to be a showcase event, and play really sound basketball.”

Offensively, the Raiders, who are No. 2 in the Class 3A state poll with a 24-2 record, were as sound as they could be early.

Jenna Durst buried a pair of 3-pointers in the game’s first 35 seconds as the Raiders bolted to a 10-2 lead. The Blue Devils steadily responded, scoring seven consecutive points to make it a one-possession game and taking a 17-15 lead on Myley Longcor’s left-handed layup in the final minute of the first quarter.

“We lost momentum right at the start,” QHS sophomore forward Jada Brown said. “I felt we got it back, but we just couldn’t keep it.”

Ari Buehler tied the game with a pair of free throws to start the second quarter and QND took the lead when Durst, who finished with a career-high 27 points, buried another 3-pointer from the top of the key. It was part of an 11-0 run that gave the Raiders control.

“We didn’t do a good job staying connected on ball screens tonight,” Blue Devils coach Brad Dance said. “We went under the screen way too many times. Our goal is to stay connected on defense, make stops and get out and go the other way. We didn’t do enough of that.

“And when you let spot-up shooters spot up, that’s what is going to happen.”

The Raiders led 33-27 at halftime, scored the first eight points of the second half and held the Blue Devils without a field goal until Brown scored with 25 seconds remaining in the third quarter while building a 49-34 lead.

“Anytime anyone is knocking down shots, we all get that feeling the shots are going to fall,” said Pieper, who finished with 15 points. “You could tell we were playing with confidence on the offensive end.” 

The Blue Devils (15-10) showed some fight as Brown scored 10 of her 23 points in the fourth quarter, converting an old-fashioned three-point play with 3:45 to go that pulled QHS within 57-50 with 3:45 to go. On the Blue Devils next possession, Brown delivered a pinpoint pass to Madelyn Hamby in the left corner for a 3-pointer that made it 58-53 with 3:10 to go.

The run ended there as the Raiders went on an 8-2 burst to close it.

“I was proud of the way we continued to battle,” said Dance, who received 15 points from Longcor and 12 from Hamby. “Jada put the girls on her back and kept us in the game.”

It wasn’t enough to overcome a team seeking redemption.

“I think it was on our mind all season,” Durst said. “This was a game we marked on our calendar. Obviously, last year did not go as we planned at all and we knew we could play better. So I’m proud of us for putting it together.”