50 After 50: Gutted by graduation on third-place team, No. 35 Raiders bounce back to statewide prominence

The Illinois High School Association created a second class for boys basketball for the 1971-72 school year. The 2020-21 season would have been the 50th year of the boys basketball small-school tournament. Muddy River Sports is celebrating 50 years of small-school boys basketball by ranking the 50 best teams in Adams, Brown, Pike and Hancock counties since 1972.

No. 35 — 2004-05 Quincy Notre Dame

QUINCY — After 10 seniors graduated from the 2003-04 Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball team that finished third in the Class A state tournament, few expected the Raiders to return to statewide prominence the following season.

Shawn Emerick was one of the few.

“We thought we’d be decent,” he said. “A lot of us played fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, traveling ball together. So you kind of knew what you had. Just getting the playing time and gelling with each other was the only thing we were worried about. I thought we’d have a pretty good team.”

Playing time for the juniors on the 2003-04 Raiders was minimal. The nine seniors on the previous team contributed 83.4 percent of the points and 74.2 percent of the rebounds. Emerick, a 6-foot-8 center, scored 271 points, but the other juniors on the roster — Zac Greer, Kyle Bocke, Jay Nuessen, Jason Green, Brian Morrell and Lucas Cramsey, known as the “Clean-Up Crew” — had combined to score 216 points in 34 games. 

Emerick, however, remained confident.

“After a summer playing with each other and everything, I thought we were capable of trying to match what we did the previous year,” he said. “We started the summer playing up in Kankakee, and we kind of started driving. We all saw the potential there and trying to repeat what we did the prior year. We all talked about, ‘Hey, we did it the year before, and we can do it this year. We’ve got the talent to do it.

“Trying to make it far in state, I thought the expectations were there and that we could.”

Sophomore point guard Devon Frericks and freshman 3-point threat Tim Bearden quickly made an impact for the Raiders, who bolted out of the gates by sweeping four games in the Gully Tip-Off Tournament. They improved to 14-0 by winning the State Farm Holiday Tournament in Bloomington. 

A 31-30 overtime victory over Columbia Hickman on Jan. 8 put the Raiders’ record at 16-0, matching the best start in school history that was set by the 1936-37 team. QND’s perfect record was ruined the next day in a 55-40 loss to Columbia Rock Bridge at Mizzou Arena.

Yet the Raiders kept finding ways to win. A one-point victory at state-ranked Normal University High was followed by a 56-52 victory over St. Joseph Ogden at the Riverton Shootout. QND had a 24-1 record entering the season finale, when it was whipped 67-40 by Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin.

“Let me give you the quote of the night. This was a good old-fashioned butt whipping,” Raiders coach Scott Douglas said afterward.

Nonetheless, QND finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in the Class A state poll, and it got back on track with a 66-37 victory over Payson Seymour to open regional play. Notre Dame then won its ninth consecutive regional championship with a 59-53 victory over Barry.

Up next for the Raiders was Macomb, which lost 72-42 at the Pit on Dec. 4, 2004. Three months later, the Bombers turned the tables, winning 56-52 in the sectional semifinals in Bushnell. Emerick, who led the team in scoring that season at 15.4 points per game, was in foul trouble much of the game and was limited to 11 points. The Raiders ended with a 26-3 record.

“I think we kind of overlooked (Macomb),” Emerick said. “I thought the officiating was terrible that game, and I didn’t like the facility. I never was a big fan of playing in Bushnell. But we they outplayed us. That’s all it was. The officiating didn’t help matters.”

Emerick now is the manager of the dispatch crew at Gully Transportation in Quincy. He reunited with his teammates on the 2003-04 team this past Thanksgiving when they were inducted into the QND Hall of Fame, but he also reminisced about what could have been during his senior season.

“Kyle Bocke and I sat there, talking about how we’d like to go back and re-do our senior year and live up to what we should have been,” Emerick said. “I mean, I was happy with the season we had. I wish there were a few things we would have done differently, but I don’t want to downgrade anybody.”