Countdown to tipoff: QHS girls see unselfish play, camaraderie going hand-in-hand with success

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QUINCY — No one expects it to translate to vintage “Run, Devils, Run,” but the manner in which the Quincy High School girls basketball team plays defense suggests there is a chance the Blue Devils will score often in transition.

A lanky, athletic roster suggests that, too.

The Blue Devils head into the season with only one senior and one junior on their eight-player varsity roster, but three of the returning sophomores played minutes on last season’s 25-win team and freshman Khloe Nicholson has traveled the country on the AAU circuit.

Better yet, the five starters all stand 5-foot-7 or taller, and with the wingspans enjoyed by the 6-foot-1 Nicholson, 5-foot-11 sophomore forward Jada Brown and 5-foot-8 sophomore guard Myley Longcor, they are bound to be disruptive.

“Some of them are learning they have to play defense if they want to stay on the court,” QHS coach Brad Dance said. “Other times, they’ve gotten by just playing offense. It’s like, ‘I’m going to score and they can’t afford to take me out.’ Well, we have a lot of scorers. You have to play defense if you want to stay on the court.”

Defense has been the emphasis since Day 1.

“As long as I’ve been here, defense has been a big part of QHS basketball,” senior forward Kate Mettemeyer said.

So has communication, something this group says comes naturally but they work hard on just the same.

“I like that we’re so close and our friendship is so strong,” junior guard Madelyn Hamby said. “We just connect so well.”

It’s allowing the Blue Devils to play more instinctively, knowing they can trust the decisions being made by every player on the court.

“We always know where everyone is on the court,” Mettemeyer said. “We’re all just connected. I always know where Jada Brown is or where Khloe (Nicholson) is even though I hadn’t played with Khloe before. We just have that connection as a team. We’ve had that since this summer. The best part of this group is the connection we have.”

Staying connected is what should get the Blue Devils through the grind.

The schedule is stacked not only with the Western Big 6 Conference schedule, but the Blue Devils will return to the State Farm Holiday Classic in Bloomington-Normal during the Christmas break and then participate in the Sophie Cunningham Classic in Columbia, Mo., where they will play two games.

Quincy will face Principia and Strafford on back-to-back days in mid-January. The Blue Devils also will face Millard North of Omaha, Neb., in the Quincy Shootout at Blue Devil Gym.

“That’s a work in progress, so I remind them to be patient because this is a young group,” Dance said.

It’s also a small group, something unusual for a varsity roster. It’s led to more conditioning in the preseason, but the Blue Devils have had no trouble embracing that.

“Coach is making us do more conditioning than we have the past three years,” Mettemeyer said. “We’ve been running a lot at practice to get us ready for these minutes. I think we’ll be ready once we really get into the season.”

It’s a group effort with the group completely engaged.

“I see a step up in conditioning and attention from everyone,” Hamby said. “We’re all on the same page about everything. We’re all together about it.”

Even the newcomers see it.

“We all have that connection,” Nicholson said.