‘Our intensity changed things’: Raiders shut down Bombers in third quarter, finally get offense rolling

QUINCY — It was the worst of offenses, it was the best of offenses.

Now, that’s a little overdramatic for what took place Saturday night at The Pit. And Charles Dickens likely would have found something a little less overused and a little more poetic to describe the tale of two halves.

Still, it seems an apropos way of summing up how the Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball team navigated its fourth straight win, coming away with a 46-34 victory over Macomb.

The Raiders needed six minutes before netting their first field goal and managed just 13 points in the first half, getting outscored by Bombers guard Malachi Conley himself over the opening 16 minutes. Then came a third quarter blitz in which QND outscored Macomb 22-3.

“We just knew we couldn’t have another first half like that,” QND junior guard Beau Eftink said. “We knew that we had to be aggressive, and if we could be aggressive, we could really throw them off their tracks and get going.”

It didn’t take long.

Eftink scored off a curl to the basket down the right side of the lane on the opening possession of the third quarter, kickstarting an 18-2 run in which the Raiders went 8 of 8 from the field.

Jace Allensworth scored on back-to-back possessions before Eftink’s scoop shot pulled the Raiders within one. Carter Miller’s layin off an Allensworth assist gave QND a 24-23 lead with 5:20 to go in the third quarter, and Eftink followed with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Alex Dance’s drive down the left side of the lane for a layin made it a 29-23 advantage and forced Macomb coach Jeremy Anderson to burn his second timeout of the frame.

“Our intensity changed things,” Allensworth said. “We started getting up the court really fast, and I think we were moving the ball faster, too.”

By the end of the third quarter, the Raiders (4-0) held a 35-24 lead, having gone 10 of 13 from the field while holding the Bombers (4-2) to three points and not a single field goal after Langdon Lambert scored on a putback with 6:45 to go.

The key was bulldogged man-to-man defense.

“We went back to our roots,” Eftink said. “It worked out well.”

QND coach Greg Altmix tried playing some zone defense in the first half in hopes of snapping his team out of its offensive malaise, but it didn’t produce the desired results. So back to basics the Raiders went.

“We want to get in people’s faces,” Altmix said. “We want to play hard-nosed defense.”

That’s tougher to do when you aren’t making shots.

The Raiders opened the game by missing their first eight field-goal attempts. They trailed 9-1, getting only a Jackson Connoyer free throw in the first six minutes. Gavin Doellman ended the drought with a layin off a Conner Young assist with 2:05 to go in the quarter.

Still, QND managed only six field goals in the first half and went to halftime trailing 21-13.

“We definitely didn’t freak out,” said Eftink, who led the Raiders with 13 points. “We knew shots were going to fall at some point. We just couldn’t get anything to fall in the first half. But we knew things would come our way.”

The lid did eventually come off the basket.

“It gets you really energized,” said Allensworth, who finished with 11 points and had two assists during the pivotal third-quarter run. “When guys are knocking down shots, you want to get them the ball.”

The Raiders did a solid job of that, getting eight players in the scoring column.

“We have a lot of guys who can get us points, but we have to put them in the right spots and give them the best opportunities,” Altmix said. “We did a much better job of that in the second half.”

Conley, who scored 15 points in the first half, finished with 18 points as only five players scored for the Bombers.

“I didn’t feel our defense was horrible in the first half,” Altmix said. “It wasn’t as good as it needed to be. The second half was much better in how we attacked defensively.”

It also provided the Raiders with the knowledge that can overcome struggles.

“This will help in the postseason when we get into tough situations and knowing how to handle those tough situations,” Eftink said.