Raiders unable to answer Broncos’ second-half surge, lose in Class 3A state semifinals

NORMAL, Ill. — In a game of punch-counterpunch, Lombard Montini’s return blows proved too powerful for the Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball team to recover from.

The silver lining for QND is a chance for atonement on Friday.

The Raiders took a 26-20 lead on a Jenna Durst 3-pointer with 4:41 left in the third quarter of Thursday’s Class 3A state semifinal game at CEFCU Arena, but the Broncos scored 12 of the next 14 points and never relinquished the lead thereafter, advancing to Saturday’s championship game with a 50-41 victory.

“They were a feisty team,” QND junior forward Tristan Pieper said.

QND coach Eric Orne said the Raiders letting the foot off the gas pedal for what seemed like a split second opened the door for Montini, and the Broncos barged right through it.

“I should have kept the pressure up,” said Orne, whose Raiders (32-4) will face Washington (35-2) in the third-place game at 7:45 p.m. Friday. “We were in a good spot right there. We were getting a little winded. I believed in what we were doing. I just wish we would have kept the pressure up a little bit and kept attacking.”

The Broncos stretched their lead to 32-28 before Ari Buehler drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key with a minute left in the third quarter to bring the Raiders within one, a shot that Orne said provided a jolt to the Raiders’ spirits.

“That gave us a lot of momentum going into the fourth quarter,” Orne said. “Unfortunately, some of my decisions weren’t the best in that fourth quarter, and I feel like I Iet them down. I just feel bad for this whole group. I wish I would have done a better job of helping them control the game and get over the hump.”

University of Missouri recruit Nikki Kerstein’s layup — two of her game-high 27 points — extended the Broncos’ lead to 40-33 with 2:09 left in the fourth quarter. The Raiders trimmed it to a one possession game twice in the final two minutes, once on a Pieper layup with 1:44 to go and again on Durst’s third 3-pointer of the game with a minute left.

“It helped a little bit, but I probably should have done a better job of doing that earlier on,” Durst said of her late 3-pointer. “I wasn’t looking for it early.”

The Broncos scored the final six points of the game, and the Raiders missed all three of their field goal attempts and committed a turnover in the final minute. 

The nine points of separation that were created by a Peyton Farrell fastbreak layup with 10 seconds left were the most at any time in the game.

“Honestly, in this game, a three-point lead felt like a nine-point lead,” Orne said.

Durst went 3 of 5 from beyond the arc as part of her 13-point outing, but the rest of the Raiders went just 1 of 9 from distance.

“It’s just how the ball bounces sometimes,” Orne said in the post-game press conference. “We had some good looks. Us sitting up here and everybody sitting back on the bus wishes that we had a few more fall, and we’d maybe be playing on Saturday, but we still have another opportunity.”

Pieper led the Raiders with 14 points and nine rebounds.

“We worked the ball around really well and found opportunities when they were playing in front of me or a little farther behind me, then I could seal them,” Pieper said. “(My teammates) did a really good job of feeding me the ball when I was open so I could make those plays.”

Broncos coach Shannon Spanos gave kudos to the Raiders.

“They are a very tough team,” Spanos said. “They played very well. That game could have gone either way with people hitting shots and things like that. That’s a very good team, and I’m proud of our girls that we just beat that team.”

The Broncos held the Raiders to 39-percent shooting — including a 27.3 percent clip in the fourth quarter — and kept Stratton, a reigning all-state guard, to just seven points on 2-of-13 shooting from the field and 0 for 6 from 3-point range.

“It was a dogfight,” Spanos said. “Our defense is why we won that game. Defensively, we talked to the girls all week about communication, communication, communication, and they did exactly that. They talked to each other, they communicated, and that’s what we wanted. They stayed together and did their jobs.”

Montini (26-10) will battle Chicago St. Ignacius (32-4) for the state title at 6 p.m. Saturday, while the Raiders will take aim at their second third-place finish in the last three seasons at 7:45 p.m. Friday.

“Yes, we are upset tonight,” Orne said. “We wish things would have been different, but tomorrow is a new day, the sun comes up, and we get to play Lady Raider basketball again.”