Toughness wins: QU is unable to match UMSL’s physical style in GLVC loss

QUINCY — It isn’t difficult within the Great Lakes Valley Conference to find men’s basketball teams that can be categorized as tougher than a $2 steak.

They are the ones beating up on Quincy University.

Despite shooting the ball uncharacteristically well Thursday night — the worst 3-point shooting team in the GLVC actually made 10 treys — the Hawks trailed from start to finish because the University of Missouri-St. Louis showed more toughness and grit in a 75-66 victory at Pepsi Arena.

The Tritons outrebounded the Hawks by eight, scored 14 more points in the paint and 13 more second-chance points, and forced five more turnovers.

“That’s all it came down to,” Quincy coach Steve Hawkins said. “That’s all it was. The game was strictly about toughness.”

The Hawks (4-5, 1-2 GLVC) didn’t try to deny it.

“Honestly, they were just the tougher team tonight,” senior guard Nate Shockey said.

The Hawks ended a three-game skid against NCAA Division II foes with last Saturday’s victory at Maryville, but the momentum didn’t matter. The Tritons (4-5, 2-1 GLVC) scored the game’s first six points, turning a pair of offensive rebounds into three points and getting a Mayson Quartlebaum 3-pointer off a turnover.

Two more baskets off offensive rebounds gave the Tritons a 10-point advantage 5 minutes, 30 seconds into the game and had the Hawks searching for ways to respond.

“Right now, we’re up and down,” said Shockey, who finished with 11 points and three assists. “We want to be more consistent. We have nights like we did at Maryville where we come together and get a tough win. Then we have nights like tonight where we just didn’t make enough plays to win. We’re trying to be more consistent and get better every day.”

The toughness quotient of that goes beyond what can be seen in a boxscore.

“Against the teams that defensively have gotten up into our guards and been physical, we have not used screens well and we have not set screens well, whether that’s on the ball or away from the ball,” Hawkins said. “Their guards got in front of our guards and stayed in front of our guards because we weren’t using screens well.”

Over time, it showed.

The Hawks were 7 of 12 from 3-point range in the first half and shot 46 percent from the field overall the first 20 minutes, but in the second half, they went just 3 of 10 from 3-point range and shot barely 40 percent overall.

Meanwhile, UMSL went 4 of 9 from 3-point range in the second half and finished with five players in double figures.

Sophomore guard Matt Enright, a product of Webster Groves, Mo., led the Tritons with 18 points, eight rebounds and five assists, proving once again how much he enjoys shooting in Quincy gyms. As a high school sophomore, Enright led Webster Groves to a 57-46 victory over Quincy High School at Blue Devil Gym when he made eight 3-pointers and scored 26 points.

John Kelly III led five Hawks in double figures with 15 points, while Mason Wujek had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

“When you lose a game like that, you don’t lose the game. You learn from the game,” Shockey said. “We did some things better than what we’ve done in the past, but there are still a lot of ways we need to improve.”

McKendree (5-2, 2-1 GLVC) comes to Pepsi Arena at 3 p.m. Saturday for another GLVC showdown, and the Hawks know what it’s going to take to win.

“We have to be the tougher team,” Shockey said. “Just win the battle of being the tougher team.”