Raiders stay composed, survive late push by Generals to advance to sectional title game

CHATHAM, Ill. — The Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball team refused to crack under the pressure.

Their practice habits, especially when it comes to shooting free throws, have prepared Sage Stratton and her teammates for what they faced during Tuesday’s Class 3A Chatham Glenwood Sectional semifinal game against Decatur MacArthur.

“We practice free throws so much,” said Stratton, a senior guard. “We also distract each other in practice to try and get us prepared for big situations like this, loud crowds like this.”

That makes the in-game free throws seem like a walk in the park.

“What we do at practice is probably worse than what we deal with here,” Stratton said.

The thick skin the Raiders have developed helped them make 17 of 20 free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter and their final nine in a row as they advanced to Thursday’s sectional title game with a 62-53 victory. In that championship tilt, the top-seeded Raiders (31-3) will face fellow No. 1 seed Mahomet-Seymour, which defeated No. 7 seed Rochester 54-32 in the other semifinal.

“I think all that hard work and messing around with each other at the free-throw line definitely paid off,” said Stratton, who went 10 of 14 at the foul line and had a game-high 20 points.

Jenna Durst and Ari Buehler combined to make 11 of their 12 free throw attempts in the final stanza. Durst made all four of her attempts in the final minute, and Buehler sank both of hers with 49.3 seconds left to stretch the Raiders’ lead to 58-49.

“Free throws are mainly just about confidence, focus and muscle memory,” Durst said. “We shoot free throws in practice a lot. I shoot free throws on my own a lot and put myself in those situations in my mind. It’s just a mental thing. We all can knock down our free throws, and tonight we did a good job of that. We got to the line really well, and that’s what we need to do to win games.”

Buehler said some words of encouragement from her teammates during the game — as opposed to their heckles in practice — gave her an extra boost of confidence to help her drain all six of her free throw attempts in the fourth quarter.

“When we’re shooting free throws, we always have our friends and teammates come up to us and be like, ‘You’ve got this. We believe in you,’” said Buehler, who had 17 points.

The Raiders let a 13-point halftime lead to dwindle to one multiple times in the fourth quarter but they never surrendered that lead. After Decatur MacArthur junior point guard Lexi Meyer trimmed the Raiders’ advantage to 46-45 on a layup with four minutes left, the Raiders allowed only two points over the next 2 minutes, 13 seconds and went on a 16-8 run to close the game. Fourteen of those 16 points came at the free-throw line.

“Luckily, we got to the line because we were having trouble scoring just out of our sets, but we knocked them down when we had to,” Raiders coach Eric Orne said. “We’re going to have to save some legs tomorrow in practice because it was hard. It was a hard-fought four quarters, and we really had to dig in.”

Decatur MacArthur’s Zahnya Gibbs made it 52-49 with 1:47 left, but on the ensuing possession, QND sophomore Sierra Thomas sprung free behind the Generals’ full-court press and converted a layup seven seconds later. The Generals never got any closer.

“Honestly, this game could have gotten away from us from an emotional standpoint because a lot of things get wrapped up in a game like this that was kind of chaotic at times,” Orne said. “We settled in and got back to some Lady Raider basketball there in the fourth quarter.”

The Raiders survived a similar scare to what they encountered against Springfield in the Jacksonville Regional championship game. In that contest, the Raiders held a 38-21 lead after three quarters, staved off a 17-2 Senators run to begin the fourth quarter and won 46-42. 

“(MacArthur was) a good team, and we kind of expected them to go on a run,” Durst said. “Unfortunately, it always seems to happen in the third quarter when we need to come out strong. I’m proud of us for sticking together, just keeping our composure and keeping the lead as best we could. We probably had some unforced turnovers, but overall we stayed together as a team really well, and I’m proud of us for that. What matters is we got the win.”

Durst, who had 10 points, said the composure the Raiders showed on Tuesday would translate to success on Thursday.

“We can win any game if we play the basketball that we’re able to play,” Durst said. “It’s just about coming out, playing Lady Raider basketball, trusting each other, not worrying about the situation we’re in, and believing that we can win the game.”