Empty possessions turn tide in Rockhurst’s favor as QU men suffer GLVC road loss

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Three consecutive empty offensive possessions coupled with three consecutive empty defensive possessions put the Quincy University men’s basketball team in an unenviable position.

Rockhurst made it uncomfortable the rest of the way, too.

The sequence that lasted 1 minute, 54 seconds early in the second half of Wednesday night’s Great Lakes Valley Conference matchup ended with Quincy trailing by eight and never drawing closer than four points the remainder of an 80-66 loss at Mason-Halpin Field House.

Quincy led 40-39 after Zion Richardson scored with 17:53 remaining in the second half. The next three possessions featured a miss by Isaiah Foster, a missed 3-pointer by John Kelly III and three misses at the rim on the same possession by Mason Wujek.

Meanwhile, Rockhurst’s Nico Felici buried a 3-pointer for the lead and made back-to-back-to-back free throws on the next possession. Nick Arensberg extended Rockhurst’s lead with a 3-pointer.

Quincy sandwiched a pair of field goals in the paint around a missed 3-pointer to slow Rockhurst’s run, but a pair of 3-pointers with a couple of free throws in between pushed Rockhurst’s lead back to eight points with nine minutes to play.

By the five-minute mark, the advantage had grown to 16 points.

Quincy went 1 of 9 from 3-point range in the second half, while going 3 of 16 overall. Quincy also committed 14 turnovers against just eight assists.

Richardson led Quincy with 22 points, nine rebounds and two steals, while Nate Shockey had 14 points and Foster added 11. Rron Thaci led six Rockhurst players in double figures with 17 points.

Quincy (7-6, 2-3 GLVC) plays its first home game of 2024 at 3 p.m. Saturday against Southwest Baptist at Pepsi Arena.