Winning streak reaches 15 as QU women score first 12 points in victory over McKendree

QUINCY — It wasn’t the prettiest of games, unless you’re a fan of turnovers and free throws, but the Quincy University women’s basketball team remains in the thick of the Great Lakes Valley Conference title chase.

The Hawks scored the opening 12 points and built a 19-point halftime lead before withstanding a McKendree rally in the third quarter and then pulling away to beat the Bearcats 88-76 Thursday night in Pepsi Arena.

QU ran its winning streak to 15 games to improve to 21-5 overall and 15-2 in the GLVC, a game behind league leader Lewis with three games remaining in the regular season. Drury, which was idle Thursday, is a game behind Quincy in third place.

The teams combined to turn the ball over 44 times and attempt 56 free throws in a tightly officiated contest, but the Hawks used the fast start to build a double-digit lead and maintain it over the final 35 minutes.

“We’re coming off a bunch of wins, everybody knows that, but we weren’t really impressed with how we played last week,” QU guard Nicole McDermott said, referring to road victories against Missouri-St. Louis and Lincoln. “So, we felt like we had something to prove to nobody but ourselves.

“Coming out and starting the game that way just shows we’re not done, we’re still trying to prove more and we’re still trying to get better.”

Eight players scored for the Hawks in the first quarter, with Janiece Dawson coming off the bench to net seven of her 12 points. Their 23-8 lead could have been greater had it not been for uncharacteristic miscues and missed offensive opportunities.

That’s because the Bearcats couldn’t buy a basket. They missed their first 11 shots despite getting good looks inside and didn’t score from the field until Baylie Parks’ jumper from the lane with 4 seconds left.

QU stretched its advantage to 36-15 on a short jumper by Cymirah Williams with 4:23 remaining in the second period and led comfortably at halftime 44-25. McKendree (13-10, 9-8 GLVC) turned the ball over 16 times and made just 7 of 28 field goal tries in the first half.

“They came out in the first quarter and could not get settled in and we could,” QU coach Courtney Boyd said. “Our man-to-man defense looked really good. We figured out how to guard and what we needed to do. It gave us the confidence of knowing we were going to stay separated when they made little runs.”

The Bearcats did just that in the third quarter.

A 3-pointer from the top of the circle by Chloe White, a conventional three-point play by Parks and two more short jumpers by White pulled McKendree within 53-43 with 2:23 to go.

QU was having trouble navigating against the Bearcats’ 1-3-1 zone defense and too often was settling for quick shots. It made just 5 of 19 field goal tries in the quarter.

“That was the stretch where there weren’t many fouls being called, so we took a deep breath knowing we still had the lead and started attacking the rim better and making the refs call it,” said McDermott, who answered with a driving layup and free throw as part of a team-best 19-point effort.

Her two free throws with six-tenths of a second left in the quarter gave QU a 61-47 lead, and Mariann Blass opened the final period with a 3-pointer from the left wing and Karsyn Stratton banked in a short jumper from the left baseline to make it 66-47.

The Hawks led by as many as 21 points before the Bearcats scored the game’s final nine points against reserves.

“Every quarter felt like a different game,” Boyd said.

In addition to McDermott, Williams finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds and Taya Stevenson matched Dawson with 12 points off the bench for QU, which had lost three straight times to McKendree by a combined 13 points.

Parks, a 5-foot-11 sophomore who entered as the second leading scorer in the GLVC, finished with 24 points and 17 rebounds. White (11 points) and Georgia Duncan (10) also reached double figures for the Bearcats, who finished with 25 turnovers.

Quincy High School graduate Taylor Fohey scored eight points for McKendree.

The loss was the fifth in seven games for the Bearcats since senior guard Clare Breden, their second-leading scorer and a first team all-GLVC selection a year ago, went down with a season-ending injury Jan. 23.

Both teams went 21 of 28 from the free-throw line in a game that featured 51 fouls. Both Parks and White fouled out late.

QU, which already has clinched a spot in the GLVC postseason tournament, hosts Maryville Saturday. The Hawks then face Lewis, ranked 22nd nationally, in Romeoville next Thursday before closing out the regular season March 1 at home against Indianapolis.

“This team has never been in this situation together,” Boyd said. “We have never been in the situation where we’re in second place in the conference and we still have the No. 1 team left. We have never been in the situation where we already know we’re in the postseason with three games left.

“There’s so many things that this team has never experienced together, so we’re trying to navigate that. There’s some excitement, and that keeps it fresh, but we have to stay focused, stay the course and be on our ‘A’ game every day.”