50 After 50: New beginning, tough ending in sectional for No. 26 Raiders

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. 26 — Quincy Notre Dame 1981-82

QUINCY — The 1981-82 season offered a new beginning for the Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball team.

The Raiders were coming off a 23-4 season that saw them consistently ranked among the best Class A teams in the state, only for it all to end abruptly in the championship game of their own regional with a loss to Liberty.

Three starters on that team graduated, along with many of the top reserves. Six weeks after the season ended, Leigh Conover announced he was stepping down as coach after four years. Bob Kies, who had coached in Wisconsin and northern Illinois, was hired a month and a half later as his replacement.

As the new season approached, QND on paper featured two future all-staters in 6-foot-7 junior Dan McCaughey and 6-4 senior Mike Siebers and a lot of question marks. And Kies was the direct opposite of the low-key Conover, running onto the court before the first home game waving a cowboy hat, exhorting the crowd.

“Leigh Conover was a good coach, but Bob brought a lot more energy to the team, the program,” said Tony Reis, a senior co-captain. “We had two all-staters and both were damn good basketball players. We had some good athletes on that team. Most were multi-sport players.”

No one was looking for a fresh start more than Siebers, the other captain.

He played like the all-stater Conover touted him to be the first half of his junior season, scoring at nearly a 16-point clip, only to endure a horrendous shooting slump during the second half. He still averaged 10.2 points and nearly as many rebounds per game but called the experience “miserable.”

“My head was so messed up my junior year,” Siebers said. “I couldn’t make anything. I could still rebound, which was all heart and hustle, and I was still doing fine in assists and defense. But I couldn’t make a 2-footer. It was all in my head.

“I wanted to excel in some sport so I could play college athletics and had always put my most energy into basketball. It’s funny now, but my buddies – we rode each other pretty hard – were telling me, ‘You’re probably going to live at home and go to John Wood (which didn’t have athletics at the time).’ ”

He spent a lot of time in the gym during the summer but turned his attention to soccer when August rolled around and didn’t touch a basketball again until mid-November.

The soccer Raiders earned their first trip to the single-class state tournament that fall — they would have four more appearances and three trophies over the next five years — and Siebers played well enough to be named to the McDonald’s All-America team.

“That took a lot of pressure off me, at least in my head,” he said. “At that point, I figured I could play college soccer somewhere if this basketball thing didn’t work out. I was just going to have fun.”

Playing loose, Siebers went on to average 18.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game as a senior. He shot 57 percent from the field and scored in double figures in all but three of QND’s 30 games to earn a spot on the Associated Press and Chicago Sun-Times all-state first teams.

McCaughey, meanwhile, averaged 16.4 points and 7 rebounds per game while shooting 53 percent from the floor and reaching double figures in scoring in 28 games.

It was quite the one-two punch.

“Dan was without a doubt the best player we had,” Siebers said. “He was 6-7, could run the floor, shoot, rebound, handle the ball. People did not appreciate how good of a passer he was. You didn’t know you were open and suddenly the ball was in your hands.”

QND bolted out of the gate by winning the Jacksonville Thanksgiving tournament. With the Crimsons focused on McCaughey and Siebers in the championship game, Reis scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter to propel the Raiders to a 51-42 victory.

That prompted Jacksonville coach Mel Roustio to call Reis “all-world” when he met with reporters after the game.

“We had to change vehicles because Tony’s head wouldn’t fit through the door,” Siebers said with a laugh.

Nick Terwelp, a 6-1 senior with quick hands that enabled him to generate steals as well as score, joined Reis in the backcourt. Greg Deters, another 6-1 senior, started on the front line, did the dirty work and generally drew the toughest defensive assignment inside.

“I think the thing Greg was most proud of was that he went six games without taking a shot,” Siebers said. “He was thicker than Dan and I and was always putting his body on somebody. He would screen off bodies so Dan and I could go for the ball. And he was good for four or five fouls a game.”

The second-seeded Raiders were 12-0 heading into the championship game of the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament against top-seeded Monmouth. The Zippers raced to a 39-18 halftime lead with both McCaughey and Siebers in foul trouble and ended the unbeaten streak with a 65-50 victory.

Siebers was voted the tournament’s most valuable player, an honor McCaughey would earn the following season.

QND started January by rolling to a 79-53 road victory over Jefferson City, Mo., with Siebers scoring a career-high 34 points. The next night, with McCaughey and Siebers combining for 48 points and 31 rebounds, the Raiders toppled second-ranked Providence St. Mel at home 66-65.

“St. Mel came down the year before and beat the snot out of us,” said Siebers, whose baseline jumper won it. “After that game, we felt pretty good.”

That set up showdowns against Liberty at home and Monmouth on the road the next weekend. QND was ranked second in the state behind Lawrenceville by the Associated Press and Monmouth was third. The teams were tied for third in the UPI poll.

However, the Raiders made only 9 of 30 shots in the first half and lost to Liberty for a second straight time 52-44 in a game not as close as the score would indicate. The following night, they blew a 14-point lead entering the fourth quarter, had five players foul out and lost in overtime to the Zippers 85-76.

“Might have been the best three quarters I ever played,” said Siebers, who made 13 of 17 shots to finish with 26 points and 18 rebounds against Monmouth before fouling out but missed the front end of three 1-and-1s in the fourth quarter that could have put the game away.

“Everybody liked to press us, so coach would just have McCaughey and I bring the ball up. We were taller than everybody. We handled the press flawlessly for the first three quarters. Then I’m bringing the ball up in the fourth quarter and dribble it off my foot (and out of bounds). I’m thinking, ‘How does that happen?’

“I knew when I missed those free throws, they were going to come back to haunt me.”

QND lost again on the road a couple of weeks later to Camp Point Central 58-53 to fall to 17-4. The 12-0 start was becoming a distant memory.

“That team had a pretty tough January, losing three games,” Reis said. “The second Monmouth game may have been one of the best games we played all year, but we didn’t execute down the stretch and lost.

“I had been scoring points up until that time, but we had too many turnovers in that game. I remember Bob Kies pulling me aside and saying, ‘Tony, I want you to bring the ball up the court. If you have a shot, take it, but I want you to get the ball to Dan and Mike.’ ”

Following that script, the Raiders won their final four games of the regular season to post a 21-4 record.

They cruised past Payson Seymour in the regional opener and held off a pesky Mendon Unity team 70-58 in the semifinals when McCaughey scored 21 points and Reis hit 8 of 11 shots, including three long-range jumpers in the third quarter, to finish with 16.

“The team that scared me the most (in the regional) was Central,” Siebers said. “Mike Elbe was a great player, and they had a big guy inside, Gary Linnemeyer. A solid team. But they get beat and we are set to face Liberty again.

“We’d always have all-school pep rallies for these big games. Reis and I are out there as captains. Tony gets up in front of the whole school and guarantees a win. I remember looking at him and saying, ‘Guaranteeing a win, huh? OK.’ ”

McCaughey played arguably the finest game of his career in the regional title game against Liberty. He converted on 14 of 19 field goal attempts, scored 30 points, grabbed seven rebounds, blocked six shots and came up with four steals as QND rolled to a 73-55 victory.

McCaughey shot nearly 80 percent from the field and averaged more than 22 points per game during the regional.

“When Dan would kick it in, he was a lot of fun to play with,” Siebers said.

QND and Havana were considered the favorites in the four-team Lewistown Sectional, with the winner expected to reach the state tournament.

However, the excitement and momentum created by the victory over Liberty was short-lived. Siebers severely sprained his right ankle in practice two days before the Raiders were to face Beardstown in the sectional opener and was on crutches.

“I went to school, checked in and then they sent me to St. Mary Hospital all day to do therapy on the ankle so I could have it ready to go,” Siebers said.

Siebers remained on the bench until the final five minutes of the fourth quarter against Beardstown. With QND trailing by three, he sank his first two shots but missed two free throws with the score tied with 57 seconds left.

With Beardstown playing for the last shot, Terwelp came up with a steal with 32 seconds to go. Siebers then hit a fallaway jumper from the right baseline with 7 seconds remaining to give the Raiders a 53-51 victory.

“Dan (who scored 24 points) just needed some help,” Siebers said. “The shots I put in had to be within 6 feet of the basket. I was basically dragging a stump.

“Would we have beaten Havana had I not blown the ankle? Who knows? It would have been fun to play them at equal strength.”

McCaughey scored 21 points and Siebers had 10 points and 12 rebounds, but Havana pulled away in the second half for a 63-49 victory in the sectional championship. Siebers made just 5 of 15 field goal tries and was held scoreless in the second half before being taken out with three minutes to go.

“Some parents were screaming at Kies, saying he was waving the white flag too early,” Siebers said. “But my ankle was like a grapefruit and was killing me. It was like playing on one leg. I was gassed. We weren’t going to come back with me out there.”

Monmouth and Havana would go on to meet in the Class A state tournament semifinals, with the Zippers winning 56-55. Undefeated Lawrenceville and Marty Simmons topped Monmouth in the title game 67-53, and Havana fell to Herscher 46-36 in the third-place contest.

QND finished with a 25-5 record.

“It was a good season,” Reis said. “Havana was good and big. It was unfortunate that Mike was injured. Stuff happens and you move on. All the guys on that team are doing pretty well.”

Among the seniors, Siebers went on to play basketball for four seasons at Quincy University and later earned an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. He has worked for Peabody Energy, a coal company, for nearly 35 years and manages U.S. sales. He lives in Edwardsville.

Reis has been based in Quincy with Federated Insurance for 30 years and has been recognized as one of the company’s top agents nationwide.

Deters and his two partners own St. Louis Distillery, which created Cardinal Sin Vodka and sells other craft products, including whiskey. The facility was repurposed in 2020 to produce hand sanitizer for frontline health workers during the Covid pandemic.

Steve Grawe, a reserve guard, is a longtime financial advisor with Wells Fargo in Quincy.

“Sometimes it feels like yesterday and then you realize we were preparing for the regional about this time 40 years ago,” Reis said. “A lot of good memories.”