Loss to Saints snaps Hawks’ win streak, provides motivation to amp up effort before postseason

QUINCY — The crack in Nicole McDermott’s voice explained just how much it stung to see the chance at another victory in Pepsi Arena slip away.

“I’m a sore loser,” she said.

Sure, with Saturday’s 94-86 loss to Maryville in Great Lakes Valley Conference play came the end to the Quincy University women’s basketball team’s 15-game winning streak, but McDermott and the Hawks were more concerned with what happens moving forward, not all that had happened behind.

“We’re still motivated to keep winning,” the fifth-year guard said.

The two regular-season games that lie ahead and the postseason games to follow are bigger than anything to date.

The Hawks (21-6, 15-3 GLVC) head to Lewis on Thursday to face the Flyers, who sit in first place in the GLVC and are No. 21 in the NCAA Division II national poll. Lewis (23-2, 17-1 GLVC) holds a two-game lead over Quincy and Drury in the league standings.

Quincy wraps up the regular season at home next Saturday against Indianapolis.

“The loss is going to sting for a while, but (QU coach Courtney Boyd) was talking in the locker room about how we respond to it,” fifth-year forward Taylor Haase said. “It’s about leaning on each other, working hard. This is going to benefit us because we’re going to go into the last couple games and the postseason with a chip on our shoulder. 

“It motivates us to work a little bit harder and dig a little deeper because we know there is still something out there for us.”

The end of the win streak isn’t the end of the season.

“When it happens now, we still have a game Thursday,” said Boyd, whose team hadn’t lost since a 73-60 loss to nationally ranked Fort Hays State on Dec. 20 at the Big Island Classic in Hilo, Hawaii. “If it happens two weeks from now, we don’t have another game. 

“So we have to go and we have to take care of business. The way that we do that is we go back to what every coach would say — you go back to what got you here. What got us here is defense.”

But the Hawks’ defense struggled Saturday.

Maryville, which clinched a spot in the GLVC Tournament with Saturday’s victory, went 8 of 17 from 3-point range in the first half and shot 45.7 percent from the field (16 of 35) over the first 20 minutes in building a 50-40 halftime lead.

“You can’t expect to give up 50 points in a half and expect to be in a good spot,” Boyd said.

The Saints’ propensity to shoot the three wasn’t unexpected. Maryville (12-14, 10-8 GLVC) has attempted 130 more 3-pointers than any team in the GLVC and ranks fourth in the league in 3-point percentage, shooting 32.7 percent and averaging nine made treys per game.

“That’s who they are,” McDermott said. “They shoot it every game.”

How you defend it is the key.

“They are going to shoot it whether your hand is in their face or they’re wide open,” Boyd said. “The difference is how they are getting those shots. I don’t think we did a good job of guarding the screens. We didn’t get through screens, and if we did, we were under. If we were under, we didn’t put a hand up. It was a trickle-down effect.”

Although the Saints didn’t shoot as well or as often in the second half — they were 4 of 10 from 3-point range — they were daggers.

Quincy trimmed a 14-point third-quarter deficit to five when Cymirah Williams scored on the opening possession of the fourth quarter, but Maryville’s Lindsay Schadewalt buried a 3-pointer for a 72-64 edge less than 20 seconds later. Schadewalt answered Mariann Blass’ 3-pointer with another trey less than a minute later.

“Every single time, we’d give someone two inches too many and they’d be able to knock a three,” Boyd said.

Schadewalt scored a game-high 32 points, making 5 of 8 3-pointers and 11 of 13 free throws. Gracie Stugart and Annika Pluemer added 14 points apiece for the Saints.

McDermott led the Hawks with 28 points, while Haase had 17 points and eight rebounds and Janiece Dawson finished with 13 points.

“We got where we are because of playing together as a team,” Boyd said. “When we forget to do that, things like this happen. We have to make sure we play together because there is still plenty to play for.”