Crim: Feel-good stories made college and prep basketball season one worth remembering

QUINCY — And just like that, the local basketball season is over.

The final buzzer sounded Friday evening when top-seeded Grand Valley State, the No. 2-ranked team in the country, eliminated the Quincy University women in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional.

Coming off eight straight losing seasons and picked to finish seventh in the Great Lakes Valley Conference preseason coaches’ poll, QU instead rattled off 15 straight victories and came from behind to win three GLVC tournament games in a row to claim its first league title in 20 years.

That enabled the Hawks to earn their first national tournament berth since 2016. They finished with a 25-8 record, a 15-game improvement in GLVC Coach of the Year Courtney Boyd’s second season, a remarkable turnaround that re-establishes the program.

That was just one of the feel-good stories we were treated to.

Watching the Canton community rally behind its boys team was a sight to behold. The buzz steadily grew as the Tigers won 13 of 14 games to reach the Missouri Class 2 championship game for the first time in school history and led top-ranked Eugene through three quarters before falling to the Eagles.

Preston Brewer, Canton’s 6-foot-8 senior forward, had 30 points, nine rebounds and three assists in his career finale. He scored 53 points and grabbed 23 rebounds in two games at Mizzou Arena, giving Quincy University fans a glimpse of the kind of player and person they will see beginning next season.

The Quincy Notre Dame girls won 32 games — the 12th time the program has reached the 30-victory plateau — and earned their ninth state tournament trophy in 17 seasons by finishing fourth in the Illinois Class 3A finals. Dreams of a seventh title were dashed by eventual champion Lombard Martini in the semifinals.

The Raiders lose Drury University-bound Sage Stratton and Lauren Hummel to graduation, but return starters Ari Buehler, Tristan Pieper and Jenna Durst and a host of reserves who gained valuable experience as expectations will remain high.

The Quincy High School boys were ranked No. 1 in the Illinois Class 4A poll for a time. Bradley Longcor III moved into second place on the school’s all-time scoring list and Keshaun Thomas became the career rebounding leader as the Blue Devils won the Western Big 6 Conference title for the third time in four years.

Despite winning 31 games for the second straight season, fashioning a 116-19 record during their four-year careers and twice advancing to the super-sectional, the one thing that eluded this senior class was earning the program’s first state tournament trophy since 1998. Eventual champion Lisle Benet Academy ended that dream.

If the basketball gods had been fair, Matt Long would have coached his final two games in CEFCU Arena in Normal. It would have been the perfect send-off for the retiring Central-Southeastern girls coach, who won 641 games, 15 regional titles, five sectional crowns and reached the state finals twice during his 32-year career.

Instead, the Panthers were ousted by eventual champion Nashville in the Class 2A super-sectional. CSE will no doubt continue to grind out victories in the years ahead, but it won’t be the same without Long on the sideline.

The Quincy High School girls will return all but one player from a team that won 20 games for the third straight season before being eliminated by Alton, which went on to finish third in Illinois Class 4A.

Coach Brad Dance has an exciting, young nucleus to build around in sophomores Jada Brown and Myley Longcor and freshman Khloe Nicholson.

The Brown County boys, with 10 of its 12 players either freshmen or sophomores, improbably went from six wins a year ago to 25 this season in reaching the sectional finals in Jeff Bottorff’s first season as coach.

The future also is bright for the Brown County girls. Behind first-team all-state guard Kenzie Kassing, the Hornets won 24 games before being upended by Carrollton — the eventual Class 1A runner-up — in the regional finals despite a rotation that often featured as many as four sophomores. 

The Palmyra boys fashioned their third consecutive 20-win season and captured their second straight district title before bowing to eventual Class 3 champion Principia in the sectional. No opponent had an answer for Principia, which won its six postseason games by an average of 30.8 points to finish 31-1.

South Shelby won its fourth straight Class 3 girls district championship, also falling in the sectional to a Principia team that finished second to Fair Grove in the state tournament.

The West Hancock boys won 28 games and the West Central Conference title. The Illini West boys set a single-season school record for victories with 23. And on the individual front, Payson Seymour’s Blake Schwartz became the school’s all-time scoring leader.

Clearly, the passing of Pittsfield freshman all-stater Reese Ramsey due to injuries sustained in a Feb. 11 auto crash cast a pall over what otherwise was a season to celebrate.

Yet, the region’s outpouring of genuine support in the wake of that tragedy, the heartfelt words spoken and written, helped soothe the grief and honor a young lady who touched so many lives in such a short time.