Nineteen missed layups too much for Hawks to overcome in GLVC home loss

QUINCY — One sequence late in the second half of Friday night’s game summarized the frustration of the Quincy University men’s basketball team.

The Hawks trailed by 10 points but had built a little momentum with back-to-back 3-pointers by Silas Crisler. Jamaurie Coakley had the ball in the corner and drove to the basket for a layup, but the shot was contested and he missed.

Coakley got the offensive rebound and went back up for a point-blank layup. That shot also rimmed out, and QU coach Ryan Hellenthal could only roll his eyes and look to the ceiling of Pepsi Arena.

Those two shots were among the 19 layups missed by the Hawks in a 64-54 setback to the University of Missouri-St. Louis in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game. The point total was the lowest by a QU squad at home since an 83-43 loss to Maryville on Jan. 6, 2018. 

“You’ve got to be able to go in there and play off two feet like we talk about in practice every day, that we work on in practice every day,” Hellenthal said. “You have to be able to complete plays. In the second half, we were unable to do that. You kind of get out of rhythm a little bit when you start missing layups, and it affects you at the other end. That’s what happened tonight.”

The Hawks made 11 of 32 shots in each half. However, in the first half, they limited the Tritons to 12 of 33 shooting. A physical half, during which only six fouls were called, ended when QU’s Nate Shockey stripped the ball from UMSL’s Steve Webb and poked it forward to Adam Moore, who went in for a dunk just before the halftime buzzer to tie the score at 28.

“I thought we had to make the game ugly to be competitive, and I thought we did that,” Hellenthal said. “We executed the game plan in the first half exactly.”

QU scored on two of its first three possessions in the second half, taking a 32-31 lead on a jumpshot by Mark Bradshaw Jr. 

During the next 12 minutes, the Hawks missed 13 of 15 shots from 2-point range, missed all four of their shots from 3-point range and turned the ball over seven times. That one-point lead dissolved into a 50-36 deficit.

“it just wasn’t what we do execution wise,” Hellenthal said,. “You miss as many layups as we did, and you’re just not going to beat the top teams in this league. That’s as honest, as straightforward as I can be. You hold them to 64 points, you’ve got to be right there in the end. We just didn’t have the toughness in the second half to win a game like that.”

Yaakema Rose had 15 points for the Tritons (7-2, 2-1 in GLVC). Shane Wissink and Marty Jackson had 14 points each.

Moore had 13 points and seven rebounds to lead the Hawks (4-4, 0-2 in GLVC). Solomon Gustafson had 12 points and seven rebounds. 

The Hawks were without starters Malik Hardmon (18.8 ppg) and Charles Collier (7.7 ppg) for the second consecutive game. Hellenthal said Hardmon was quarantined for 10 days and was released from quarantine on Friday. Hardmon now must complete a return-to-play five-day protocol, but Hellenthal hopes he is back for Wednesday’s game against Iowa Wesleyan. Collier is quarantined for 14 days, and Hellenthal hopes he returns for two home games in the Hansen-Spear Funeral Home Classic next weekend.