Hawks look inside-out to power way past Pride and finish homestand with three victories

QUINCY — At halftime Saturday night, Quincy University men’s basketball coach Ryan Hellenthal made it abundantly clear what he wanted to see happen.

The Hawks needed penetration and paint touches. 

“That’s what Coach wrote on the board,” junior forward Malik Hardmon said. “Get the ball in the paint. Get the ball in the paint. And the third thing was get the ball in the paint. The focus was to get the ball in the paint.

“We have a lot of good shooters and we can fall in love with the 3-point line, myself included. Sometimes that’s how you break teams down by getting the ball in the paint and kicking it out for open shots.”

In the final game of a four-game homestand to open the season, the Hawks attacked from the inside out over the final 20 minutes, shooting 51.9 percent from the field and limiting Purdue Northwest to just 28 points as they pulled away for an 81-70 victory at Pepsi Arena.

The Hawks sit at 3-1 before heading to Alaska next week to play in the Seawolves Thanksgiving Classic, hosted by the University of Alaska-Anchorage. It’s their best start since the 2016-17 season when they won 15 of their first 16 games.

“It’s good to have the cushion above the .500 level,” junior forward Adam Moore said. “Now we just have to hope we can grow on it and keep winning.”

Above all else, the Hawks must continue showing some toughness.

“That’s one thing I think this team is really good with and that’s the resiliency,” Moore said. “We got our back up against the wall, but we kept our head down and kept punching.”

Quincy trailed by 11 points midway through the first half after Purdue Northwest scored on three consecutive possessions. The Pride shot 60 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range in the first half.

“They played really free and comfortable,” Hellenthal said. “That’s a team, when they do that, they’re very, very good. Once we got them into a halfcourt game, and I knew if we could do that, I liked our chances.”

Back-to-back jumpers by Paul Zilinskas changed the tone of the Hawks’ attack, and they were able to whittle the deficit to 42-39 by halftime. The Hawks went through a stretch where they made 8 of 13 field goals to cut into the deficit.

The rhythm offensively carried over to the second half when they went 11 of 19 (57.9 percent) from inside the 3-point stripe.

“We have a lot of guys who are tough,” Zilinskas said. “We’re a mentally tough team like I’ve said before. It was just pushing through and playing our game in the second half.”

Hardmon was a focal point of that. After scoring 23 points in each of the first two games, the 6-foot-6 forward had just six points in 17 minutes against Hannibal-LaGrange. He bounced back with a 25-point effort, going 9 of 13 from the field and 7 of 9 from the free-throw line.

“He finds ways to put balls in the basket,” Hellenthal said.

So did Moore at critical junctures.

He hit a 3-pointer with 9:20 remaining to extend the Hawks’ lead to 62-56, and with four minutes remaining, he rebounded a missed 3-pointer by Zilinskas and was rewarded when the ball swung back to him for another 3-pointer from the right wing.

Moore scored eight of his 10 points in the second half and finished with eight rebounds, two assists and two steals.

“Adam Moore’s competitiveness level has increased from last year,” Hellenthal said. “He’s making winning plays. He’s playing with multiple efforts. And it matters to him. He’s one of the guys who has been here through some struggles. Winning matters to him, and you can tell by the way he’s playing.”