Eversman’s baseline jumper caps comeback, lifts QND girls to victory in Rumble on the River

QUINCY — Sage Stratton could see it in Marie Eversman’s approach.

“She was not scared,” Stratton.

Not at all.

The freshman guard’s baseline jumper with two seconds remaining in regulation Saturday afternoon gave the Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball a 51-49 victory over Troy (Mo.) Buchanan in the 16th Rumble on the River at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center.

“I knew sometime soon I was going to have to step up majorly,” Eversman said. “I knew it was coming. I think that was the perfect opportunity.”

She seized the moment like a veteran.

“Pretty confident, I’m not going to lie,” Eversman said of taking the game-winning shot. “I practice that shot all the time in warmups. Not a lot was going through my head. I just knew I had to do it for the team.”

It capped an incredible rally from a double-digit first-quarter deficit against a previously unbeaten opponent.

“We don’t give up,” said Stratton, the junior guard who is a three-year starter. “We keep fighting. Sure, we were down by 10 or 12, but that doesn’t stop us from winning a game like this. Once it gets hard, once the crowd gets into it, we stay locked in and we play our game.”

Little by little, the deficit dwindled.

Troy’s 11-point advantage at the end of the first quarter was down to 41-35 at the start of the fourth quarter, and the lead was 45-38 midway through the final stanza when the Trojans decided to work the clock. 

“When (Troy) pulled the ball out with about four minutes to go, they were playing not to lose,” QND coach Eric Orne said. “That gave us an opportunity if we got some deflections, and we did. We came down and we started closing the gap.

“That mentality, unlike the first half where they just attacked us from the get-go, swung the game. Our kids found a way. We were out of sync most of the day, but they ended up hitting some big shots.”

Stratton’s 3-pointer and Tristan Pieper’s jumper in the lane pulled QND with 45-43, and Eversman hit a 3-pointer with 2:31 to play for a 46-45 advantage. Troy scored the next four points before the Raiders’ Jenna Durst buried a 3-pointer from the left wing to tie the game at 49.

That set up Eversman’s heroics.

“She didn’t hesitate on either of her two shots,” Orne said.

Stratton led the Raiders (12-1) with 20 points, seven rebounds and three assists, while Pieper had 15 points and three assists. Grace Means and Ava Meyers led the Trojans with 15 points apiece.

“You can see our growth over the course of these first 13 games,” Orne said. “That has to continue.”