Covering the spread: QND girls switch philosophy in fourth quarter to hand South Shelby first defeat

QUINCY — Try as it might, the Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball team couldn’t gain separation from South Shelby for the first three quarters of Friday night’s showdown between two state-ranked teams.

Raiders coach Eric Orne decided he needed to change his team’s offensive approach as it nursed a six-point lead through three quarters,

“We started spreading the floor a little bit,” Orne said. “We’re harder to guard when we spread the floor.”

The switch in philosophy proved to be the difference as QND, the top-ranked team in the Associated Press Illinois Class 3A poll, outscored South Shelby 13-4 in the final frame to secure a 45-30 victory at The Pit. The Lady Birds, slotted fourth in the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Class 3 state rankings, suffered their first loss of the season.

“I think we got a couple stops, and then once we got stops, it just gave us a lot of momentum to get in transition and find easy buckets,” QND junior forward Tristan Pieper said.

QND’s (19-1) offense came to life in the last eight minutes, but the defense shined from the start. South Shelby (14-1) was held 32 points below its nightly average.

“It’s five players playing hard as a unit with the scheme,” Orne said. “Nobody really out trying to do too much, just all playing hard defense and staying in that scheme.”

The Lady Birds shot 30 percent from the floor (12 of 40) and connected on just three of 14 3-point field goal attempts.

South Shelby coach Luke O’Laughlin felt his team had good looks, but the lid seemed to never come off the basket.

“We told (our players) if you’re going to pick a game to (struggle offensively), make it a game that essentially doesn’t mean anything other than two teams battling,” O’Laughlin said. “It’s not a conference game, it’s not a district game at the end of the year, anything like that. It’s just two good teams trying to get better.”

Collectively, the Raiders didn’t fare much better on offense. QND made 2 of 10 shots from long range, with both 3-pointers coming from junior guard Ari Buehler.

Both teams had 19 turnovers on a night when defense grabbed the spotlight.

“We definitely take a lot of pride in our defense this year,” QND junior forward Jenna Durst said. “We work on it a lot, and we communicate through it, and we just play team defense. I think that was a big part (in the win).”

QND erased a one-point deficit after the first quarter and led 19-16 at halftime, then pushed the advantage to 32-26 after three quarters.

Pieper and Buehler had 12 points apiece to lead the Lady Raiders, Durst added 10, and Sage Stratton pitched in eight points.

South Shelby senior guard Callie McWilliams was the only Lady Bird in double figures with 10 points, while junior center Charlie Roush had seven and senior guard Belle Roush contributed six points.

“I was super proud of their defensive effort,” O’Laughlin said of his team. “We knew buckets were going to be hard to come by, and unfortunately, when we had a chance to score against a great team, we missed too many layups.”

QND’s gauntlet of a six-day stretch continues with a trip to the Harrisburg (Mo.) Shootout to face Centralia (ranked third in Missouri’s Class 3) on Saturday. It will mark the end of a week featuring two previous unbeatens (Pittsfield and South Shelby), an annual rival (Rochester) and a one-loss Centralia team. Saturday’s affair will be the Raiders’ third in as many days.

“It’s going to be an up-and-down game. (Centralia) is averaging almost 70 (points per game),” Orne said. “We’ve got to get some rest, get our legs ready, get focused and locked in. If we play hard, we’ll have a shot.”