Snow day anticipation: Raiders bring energy to West Central Conference victory over Mustangs

MENDON, Ill. — As the Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball players prepared to take the floor Tuesday night, they had a little extra pep to their step.

Credit, in part, goes to Mother Nature.

“After we heard there’s a snow day (Wednesday), that just got us excited and we got after it,” Raiders junior guard Jace Allensworth said.

The predicted snow in Wednesday’s forecast canceled Quincy schools, both public and parochial. It just so happened word spread through the QND team moments before warmups.

“It gave us some fire and some motivation,” Raiders junior forward Robbie Reed said. ‘That’s exciting, so we came out with a bunch of energy.”

There was nothing frigid about QND’s approach. 

The Raiders’ focus and precision was on display from the outset as they made seven of their first eight field goal attempts, jumped out to a 10-point lead in the game’s first three minutes, built a 28-point lead by halftime, and cruised to an 80-39 West Central Conference win over Mendon Unity.

“I thought as a team, it was a more collective (effort) than what it was over last weekend,” QND coach Greg Altmix said in alluding to a winless weekend at the Superfan Shootout. “When you play good defense, you get a chance for run outs and good looks at the other end.”

QND’s first half was as crisp of a 16-minute stretch as they have had all season. The Raiders (14-9) made 24 of 32 field goal attempts (75 percent) and forced 18 turnovers in building a 53-15 advantage at halftime.

“They were playing for each other tonight,” Altmix said of his players. “They were busting it, working together, playing as a team. I thought we did things better as a team collectively, on both ends of the court.”

Allensworth was one of five QND players to score at least seven points in the first half.

“I wish we could come out like that every game,” he said.

Reed said the relentless attitude the Raiders exemplified needs to continue.

“We got to have a chip on our shoulder coming into every game we play from now on,” Reed said.

QND had four players finish in double figures, including junior guard Beau Eftink, who had 11 of his 17 points in the first half, junior forward Jackson Connoyer with 11 points, and Reed and freshman guard TJ Togarepi with 10 points each. Togarepi’s total was a career-best after moving into the varsity rotation three weeks ago.

Altmix deployed a different starting lineup Tuesday, shifting senior forward Carter Miller into the top five while bringing senior guard Alex Dance off the bench.

“We’ve got a lot of guys on this team that are capable of getting a lot more minutes than what they’re getting,” Altmix said. “They’re going to have to be willing to sacrifice, to be willing to put the team first. I thought they did a great job of that tonight.”

Eight different Raiders got in the scoring column in the first half and by game’s end a total of 12 QND players scored.

Unity (16-11) was led by freshman forward Adler Gray, who had a game-high 18 points and finished 8 of 8 from the free-throw line. The Mustangs’ leading scorer coming into the contest, junior guard Sawyer Allen, was held to five points. Unity also turned it over 24 times.

The Raiders were coming off a weekend that resulted in back-to-back double-digit losses at home to a pair of Missouri schools — Jefferson City Helias and Mexico. A road win is a good step towards getting back on track, according to Altmix.

“I think they realize that the teams we played this (past) weekend are probably going to be similar to some of the teams we play in the postseason,” he said. “I’m hoping that it did kind of click, that we really can play with anybody in the state if we want to do the things that have to be done, which aren’t fun, which is defense, which is rebounding, which is diving on the floor. You do those things, and this team has the opportunity to have quite a bit of success.”