Hawks unable to sustain consistency on offense, fall to No. 5 Miners in GLVC play

QUINCY — The mental wear and tear of the Quincy University men’s basketball team’s five-game losing streak is as damaging as the physical toll.

“Get out of our heads,” junior point guard Ethyn Brown said. “That’s what we have to do. We know what kind of team we are and what we can do.”

There were flashes of it Thursday night, but the inability to stop Missouri S&T from capitalizing on mistakes and empty possessions ultimately led to a 91-82 loss in Great Lakes Valley Conference play at Pepsi Arena.

“It’s pretty frustrating, but you can’t do anything but work through it,” Brown said. “Take it day by day, game by game and try to get over the hump.”

For a moment, it looked like that was coming.

The Miners, ranked fifth in the NCAA Division II national poll with a 19-1 record and a 13-0 GLVC mark, led by nine points eight minutes into the game before the Hawks ripped off a 9-1 run to pull within 26-25 on Max Booher’s 3-pointer with 9:03 to go in the first half.

Then came three turnovers and two missed 3-pointers as the Hawks went empty of six of seven possessions.

“That’s the difference between being the hunted and the hunter,” QU coach Brad Hoyt said. “When you walk into a place and it gets to be a one-point game, somehow the other team turns it over three times in a row when you’re the hunted.

“When you’re the hunter, you’re taking shots. You’re trying to get something. You’re gambling a little differently. We need to get to a place where we get over that hump, where we find a way to close that gap.”

Despite the empty stretch of the first half — the Hawks scored just two points on two Josh Bocher free throws over a four-minute span — Quincy (8-13, 3-10 GLVC) went to halftime trailing only 44-38. However, a 1-of-8 showing from 3-point range in the second half by the Hawks led to the Miners extending the lead to as many as 18 points.

Quincy finished 3 of 19 from 3-point range overall, yet still shot 46.3 percent from the field overall.

“We’re closer,” Hoyt said. “That’s certainly not our worst loss of the last couple weeks. But that close is really hard and takes a different level of prep and commitment and togetherness that I think gets lost at times. But we had a little bit of fight to us.”

Bocher finished with 17 points to lead four Hawks in double figures

“We just have to finish better,” said Brown, who had 12 points, five rebounds and four assists.