Crim: College basketball teams to jockey for postseason position over next two weeks

QUINCY — Local college basketball teams are entering the final two weeks of the regular season.

The Quincy University women’s team finds itself in the thick of the Great Lakes Valley Conference race with four games remaining after being picked to finish seventh in the preseason coaches’ poll.

A 14-game winning streak has catapulted the Hawks into second place, with a Feb. 27 road showdown against league leader Lewis on the horizon.

First, though, QU (20-5, 14-2 GLVC) must face two teams at home currently tied for fifth — McKendree on Thursday night and Maryville on Saturday afternoon.

While the Hawks already have clinched a spot in the league’s postseason tournament March 6-9 at Hyland Arena in St. Charles, Mo., they’re still jockeying for position. They’re a game behind Lewis, a half-game ahead of third-place Drury and two-and-a-half games in front of Missouri-St. Louis.

McKendree, picked to finish third in the preseason, has won three straight and seven of the last nine in the series with QU. However, the Bearcats (13-9, 9-7 GLVC) have been scuffling as of late, losing four of their last six, although they played Lewis close in losing 56-51 last Thursday at home.

Statistically, the teams are a mirror image of each other.

QU is the second-best scoring team in the GLVC (76.5 ppg) and McKendree is third (73.2 ppg). The Hawks are allowing the fifth-fewest points per game (65.4), the Bearcast the sixth fewest (65.5).

McKendree’s Baylie Parks, a 5-foot-11 sophomore forward, is the second-leading scorer in the GLVC at 18.4 points per game and will test an interior defense that has been a strength during QU’s win streak. Clare Breden, a senior guard and returning All-GLVC first-team selection, is 10^th in scoring at 14.9 points per game.

It will be a homecoming of sorts for Taylor Fohey, a freshman from Quincy High School. The 5-foot-11 forward is averaging 5.5 points and 2.9 rebounds in 13 appearances and has played double-digit minutes in three of the Bearcats’ last four games.

Maryville (11-13, 9-7 GLVC) lost six of its first seven games to start the season and is coming off back-to-back heart-breaking home losses.

Upper Iowa’s Mia Huberty hit a turnaround jumper from the right wing with 1.7 seconds remaining last Thursday to hand the Saints a 54-52 loss. Lewis overcame a 10-point deficit entering the fourth quarter to pull out a 76-75 overtime victory on Saturday.

Three guards pace Maryville’s offensive attack.

Lindsey Schadewalt, a 5-foot-11 freshman, is averaging a team-leading 11.5 points per game, just ahead of Claire Rake (11.0 ppg), a graduate transfer who spent three seasons at Truman State. Senior Gracie Stugart is averaging 9.7 points and a team-best 8.3 rebounds per game.

The roster features another familiar face in former Brown County High School and John Wood Community College guard Katey Flynn, who averaged 19.8 points per game for the Trail Blazers last season.

A sophomore on a guard-heavy roster, Flynn has played only 58 minutes in 12 appearances for the Saints. She logged a season high in minutes played (12) and points (7) against St. Louis Pharmacy in mid-December.

QU has won the last two meetings in the series, but Maryville — picked to finish fourth in the preseason — came away with the previous eight.

Meanwhile, the QU men’s team has been trending in the opposite direction. The Hawks have lost eight straight to plummet to 8-16 overall and 3-13 in the GLVC to occupy the league cellar alongside Maryville (7-17, 3-13).

Three losses during the skid have come by four or fewer points, including last-second setbacks to William Jewell (67-65) and Rockhurst (78-77). But since playing the nation’s No. 5 team, Missouri S&T, to a nine-point game at home, QU has been beaten soundly by Dury, UMSL and Lincoln.

McKendree (11-12, 8-8 GLVC) currently sits on the cut line to make the postseason tournament. The Bearcats have won six of the last eight meetings with the Hawks, who will fail to finish above .500 for the eighth consecutive season.

More notably, QU is in danger of losing 20 games for only the third time in school history and the first time since the 1991-92 season.

The John Wood Community College men’s team has a chance to get back to the .500 mark ahead of the Region 24 tournament.

The Trail Blazers, now 11-15 after starting the season 1-6, have four games remaining, beginning with Monday night’s encounter in the Student Activity Center with Marshalltown (Iowa) Community College.

JWCC then closes with three opponents it already has beaten – at home Saturday against Illinois Central and on the road against Spoon River (Feb. 26) and Lincoln Land (March 1).

The JWCC women (9-17) snapped a five-game losing streak last Saturday with a 99-50 victory over Lewis & Clark. Of the Blazers’ final three opponents, they easily handled Spoon River and lost decisively to both Illinois Central and Lincoln Land earlier this season.