Fletcher Gym’s friendly confines bring out best in Blue Devils in sectional semifinal victory

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — Milton Whitfield had yet to experience playing in historic Vergil Fletcher Gym prior to Tuesday night.

“All I wanted was a chance on this floor,” the Quincy High School junior guard said.

For good reason.

“It’s very beautiful, very big, very spacious,” Whitfield said. “The kind of floor you want to run around on and play.”

It happens to be a floor the QHS boys basketball team has grown accustomed to winning on, too.

The Blue Devils improved to 5-0 this season on Collinsville’s home floor with Tuesday’s 56-33 victory over Alton in the semifinals of the Class 4A Collinsville Sectional. Quincy won the Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic here in December, and the Blue Devils are 15-4 in the facility during the senior class’ four-year career with a sectional championship there as freshmen.

“This is our gym,” senior guard Dom Clay said. “This is our gym for sure.”

There will be one more chance to play there for a shot at equalling the deepest postseason run the Blue Devils have enjoyed in more than a quarter century. Quincy (30-3) will face Normal Community (28-6) at 7 p.m. Friday in the sectional championship.

With both schools approximately 150 miles from Collinsville, don’t expect a change of venue similar to what took place for the other sectional semifinal, in which Normal Community beat Rock Island 54-44 Tuesday night in Pekin’s Dawdy Hawkins Gym.

Besides, with the way Quincy has played at Fletcher Gym, why go anywhere else.

“This is home away from home,” Quincy coach Andy Douglas said. “We love this gym.”

The trip to Collinsville seemed to get the Blue Devils playing as well as they have in weeks.

Quincy limited Alton to just two points in the second quarter in building a 24-9 halftime lead. After allowing the Redbirds to score six of the game’s first 10 points, the Blue Devils limited them to 1-of-12 shooting from the field with three turnovers over an 11-minute span of the first and second quarters combined.

Alton made a little headway in the third quarter, going on an 11-4 run to pull within 28-20. However, Quincy answered with a 10-3 run and continued to make finding driving lanes and open shots difficult for Alton.

“The coaches were really, really hyped for this game and game planned to take Alton out of it,” Quincy senior guard Bradley Longcor III said. “They didn’t want us to go home, and everyone knew what they had to do. Guarding (Alton’s Hassani Elliott and Alex Macias), we had to step back and give help.”

That’s because the Blue Devils weren’t going to let Semaj Stampley beat them.

Stampley, a junior guard, came in averaging 19.5 points per game, but was held to 13 points.

“Stop No. 0 (Stampley),” Whitfield said. “Stop No. 0 and let everyone else do what they have to do. We just wanted to stop (Stampley). He’s the main guy we focused on. He is a very, very good player, and the game plan was to shut him down. He could not beat us.”

He didn’t because the Blue Devils threw quickness and physicality at him.

Senior guard Kamren Wires, arguably the Blue Devils’ best on-ball defender who is lightning quick, hounded Stampley before suffering an ankle injury midway through the second quarter, Whitfield took over from there, bodying up Stampley while also beating him to spots.

“Kam did a great job of making it as difficult as possible,” Douglas said. “Then Milton steps in and it’s a different look. We got real speed and quickness and Kam, then you threw strength, agility and size at him with Milton. That’s tough to adjust to.”

Wires left the gym on crutches with a sprained left ankle, which will be re-evaluated Wednesday so he can begin treatments and attempt to be ready to return by Friday.

“We have played who have stepped up all season,” Clay said. “So if we need someone to step if Kam is out, they will. We’re ready for this.”

In a similar way, the Blue Devils were ready to make like tough on the Redbirds.

“Attention to detail was the big thing,” Douglas said. “When you get to this point in the season, with the leadership and the seniority we have, we knew we had to do it together. We knew we had to pay attention in our practices and our walk-throughs leading up to it.

“I don’t think we could have executed the game plan any better tonight.”

That held true offensively, too. Clay led the Blue Devils with 15 points, while Longcor finished with 12, Keshaun Thomas had 11 and Whitfield scored 10.

“That’s us,” Clay said. “We shared it. We shot it. We found the right guy and we found the open guy. That’s what it looks like when we’re clicking, and we were clicking tonight.”