Choosing to ‘get on the boat’ enables QU women to outlast Truman State for needed GLVC victory

QUINCY — Cymirah Williams put the onus squarely on the shoulders of the Quincy University women’s basketball players.

“It’s a choice,” the junior forward said. “It’s our choice.”

The choice seems quite simple.

Fight through adversity, play buzzer to buzzer and find a way to win or slack off for a quarter or more and wind up frustrated and disappointed.

Thursday night, the Hawks made the choice to never surrender. Truman State snared a three-point advantage with three minutes to play in regulation of the Great Lakes Valley Conference clash at Pepsi Arena before Quincy regained the lead on Mariann Blass’ two free throws with 1:44 to play.

The Hawks made it last with Janiece Dawson and Williams each knocking down a pair of free throws in the final 30 seconds to preserve a 78-75 victory.

“It’s about trusting and believing in each other,” Dawson said. “We knew before the game started we could do this. We knew from the tip we had that confidence, and our coach always believes we’re the better team as long as we play four quarters and 40 minutes.”

The Hawks (5-10, 4-5 GLVC) just have to make the choice to do that.

“Four quarters, that’s the plan,” said Williams, who led the Hawks with 15 points and 14 rebounds. “We already know the keys to the game. We already know the scouting report. It’s all about how you leave it on the court and how you put that work in on the court. Again, it’s a choice.

“If we choose to play, we can win every game. We have to choose to play together. That’s the choice we made.”

With that choice came confidence and limited mistakes.

The Hawks enjoyed their sixth consecutive game with 10 or more assists and posted their second-best assist effort of the season with 19 dimes, but the difference was in the assist-to-turnover ratio.

Quincy committed just nine turnovers — its lowest against an NCAA Division II opponent this season. They also forced 21 turnovers and scored 18 points off turnovers.

All because they made the choice to be relentless.

“We had a little heart-to-heart the other day and they either had to step up and play harder or it was time to move past them,” QU coach Courtney Boyd said. “They decided as a group they all wanted to step up. Sometimes that’s all it takes. It takes the ‘this is it’ moment to get on the boat or get off.

“They all chose to get on the boat. … And tonight, what got us over the hump, they finally believed no matter what happened they were going to win.”

Making free throws helped, too. The Hawks also went 21 of 22 from the free-throw line, going 8 of 8 in the fourth quarter. Six different players made free throws, 10 different players scored and eight different players had assists.

It was the epitome of a team effort.

“They decided to step up and play four quarters, and they now know what it feels like to do that,” Boyd said. “That doesn’t mean you’re winning every quarter. That just means you’re keeping yourself in the game and giving yourself more of a chance instead of playing catch-up.”

The Hawks didn’t only play with the lead. They maintained it late, including Williams going to the line with seven seconds remaining in regulation and burying both free throws to make it a three-point advantage.

“Very confident there,” Williams said. “It was all about my energy and believing in my team. I believe my team more than anything is going to do something great. It’s time to make a difference. Every time I come into a game, I have to believe in my team more than I believe in myself and we will get it done.”

After back-to-back GLVC losses by nine points or less, this was needed.

“It takes the monkey off our back,” Dawson said. “We’ve been in a lot of close games, and it gives us some relief to know we are that team as long as we come to play and execute and stick with it for four quarters.”