Blistering start, pedal-to-the-metal finish enable Blue Devils to earn season-opening victory

QUINCY — The beginning and ending of the script the Quincy High School boys basketball team wants to follow played out almost flawlessly Thursday night.

It’s the middle part that needs a rewrite.

A scintillating start in which Bradley Longcor III scored the game’s first seven points, bookending the flurry with dunks, allowed the Blue Devils to bolt to a 19-point lead at the end of the first quarter in the season opener against Chicago Lindblom in the 53rd QHS Thanksgiving Tournament at Blue Devil Gym.

“It’s the first game of the season and I wanted to prove a point that this is what we intend to do,” Longcor said.

The closing kick was almost as impressive. Tied at 45 with 2:30 remaining in the third quarter, the Blue Devils regained control with an 8-3 run and then outscored the Eagles 23-10 in the fourth quarter to secure a 76-58 victory.

“You want to face a little adversity, and we did that,” Quincy coach Andy Douglas said. “We have to be more consistent, especially defensively. We started and finished strong, but we can’t continue to play like we did in-between.”

That’s where the Blue Devils have to mature, even if the lineup is mostly seniors.

Feeding off an energetic and enthusiastic crowd, Quincy seized the lead on the opening possession as Longcor blew past his defender and threw down a monstrous one-handed dunk with the type of elevation he hadn’t previously shown in his high school career.

“When I got the first step on him, I knew I was going to go up and try to dunk it,” Longcor said. “I wanted to finish as high as I can and I was already up there.”

He followed with a 3-pointer on the next possession and then turned a steal into a breakaway dunk.

“I don’t know if exactly how it happened was on our mind, but we had so much energy,” Longcor said. “All of our adrenaline was pumping. Shots were going in. The crowd was loud. It’s just how it happened.”

Staying fully engaged allowed the Blue Devils to build a 26-7 lead, but it also gave them a false sense of security.

“We’re so pumped in the game and built the big lead that we slowed up defensively,” QHS senior guard Dom Clay said. “With the big lead, we kind of said, ‘Hey, they’re not as talented as us.’ But they kept fighting. They didn’t back down.”

By halftime, the Eagles had pulled themselves within eight points. By the time Lindblom junior guard William Occomy hit a 3-pointer from the right wing with 3:10 to go in the third quarter, the Eagles had pulled even at 45.

“I thought we got a little complacent,” Douglas said. “We got away from ourselves. Defensively, the energy was gone. The communication was gone. When you give guys wide-open set shots, you’re going to find yourself in tough situations.”

Plus, the offense became stagnant for a short period.

“I thought we showed early signs of being tired,” Douglas said. “I thought we were fatigued. Late in the second quarter, there were four possessions in a row where we walked the ball up the court. For a team that wants to be one of the best transition teams, you can’t do that.

“We’ll get better. It’s something to learn from.”

The Eagles missed three opportunities to take the lead before Longcor made a 3-pointer from the right wing with two minutes remaining in the third quarter to give the Blue Devils the lead back for good. 

“That was the best thing for us,” Longcor said of being tested in the second half. “Although it shouldn’t have happened like that, we’re going to learn from it.”

Douglas believes the character it took to regroup and put the game away will be beneficial.

“It could have went the opposite way, but they decided to come through and pull together,” Douglas said. “It was a total team effort in the second half to put this one away.”

Longcor finished with 24 points, while Quincy forward Keshaun Thomas had 16 points and Clay finished with 15. Occomy led the Eagles with 22 points, while Zion Wilkins had 10.

“As a team, we know that was not our best performance,” Clay said. “We are so much better than that, especially defensive-wise. There were times when we looked great. And there were times we had bad moments and we looked real bad. But we’ll learn from it all.”

In the tournament’s first game, Burbank St. Laurence beat Dunlap 65-52. Zerrick Johnson and Caleb Lindsay led St. Laurence with 11 points apiece, while Austin Walker led Dunlap with 20 points.