Fourth-quarter rally enables QND to end regular season with confidence after beating Keokuk

KEOKUK, Iowa — All that Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball coach Greg Altmix wanted was a chance. 

Through two and a half quarters of Friday’s affair with Keokuk, it looked like that opportunity may never materialize.

But the Raiders never relented.

“The guys just kept battling,” Altmix said. “They didn’t give up.”

Down double digits in the third quarter, QND kept chipping away. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the third quarter by junior guard Beau Eftink trimmed the Raiders deficit in half. Halfway through the final frame, QND took its first lead of the game at 51-49, thanks to a Jace Allensworth layup.

It was an advantage they wouldn’t relinquish as the Raiders held off the Chiefs to win 64-62 at Wright Fieldhouse in the final regular season contest for both teams.

“It gives us a lot of confidence,” Eftink said of the come-from-behind victory. “It shows that even when we’re down we can still push through and pull out wins even when we’re struggling.”

The Raiders found themselves fighting from behind from the outset. A four-point deficit after the first quarter increased to 31-22 by halftime. That’s when QND turned up the dial on defense and deployed full-court pressure.

“Coach (Altmix) threw out a lot of great adjustments,” QND junior forward Robbie Reed said. “Our team just settled in. We created a lot of turnovers and got a lot of steals.”

QND (16-10) forced seven of Keokuk’s 20 turnovers in the tide-turning fourth quarter.

“Their defense just took us out of our offense and took us out of what we wanted to do,” Chiefs coach Zach Summers said. “That led to a lot of turnovers and easy baskets. That’s how a team gets back in the game. Unfortunately, we didn’t execute good enough.”  

QND also zeroed in on limiting Jaxson Clark’s low post touches. Keokuk’s 6-foot-10 junior pivot, who’s being recruited by the likes of Purdue and Northwestern, had 17 points in the first half but was limited to only four points in the third quarter and added eight more in the game’s final 90 seconds when the outcome was decided. Clark finished with a game-high 29 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

Altmix made a slight shift in the Raiders’ defensive approach against Clark in the second half. 

“Jackson (Connoyer) was doing a good job on him, but we weren’t getting that help that we needed,” Altmix said. “Once we switched Robbie (to guard Clark), now we could allow Jackson to give help. Sometimes some guys just get help better than other guys. So you make a change. Sometimes you look like a dunce and sometimes you look like a genius because you just made a simple switch. But it’s the guys out there on the court doing the job.”    

The Raiders’ junior quartet had plenty to do with the outcome. QND scored 42 points in the second half and Eftink, Allensworth, Reed and Connoyer accounted for 35 of those points.

“We really have good chemistry,” said Allensworth, who had a team-high 16 points. “We can find the guy who’s hot, like Beau tonight. We found him the ball, and Beau set some good screens and got me open at the end. That really helped us out.”

Eftink, uncharacteristically amiss from beyond the arc lately, had four of QND’s five triples and scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half.

“Lately, I’ve been struggling with my threes,” Eftink said. “It was really nice to hit some tonight.”

Connoyer added 14 points, including half that total in the fourth quarter. 

“We don’t really care who scores, as long as the team scores,” Connoyer said. “Any one of us can have a good night, any night. It all blends together really well.”

Reed added seven points and seven boards.

The Raiders improved to 13-3 over the last 16 meetings with the Chiefs and erased last season’s sour taste following a 55-45 loss at The Pit. Despite Friday’s setback, Summers said it’s great preparation for next week’s start to the postseason.

“I love this game at the end of the year,” said Summers, whose team slipped to 15-7 and hosts Oskaloosa in Monday’s Class 3A Substate quarterfinals. “This game doesn’t mean anything in the grand scope for any of us, except we’re both getting ready for postseason. The way that Quincy Notre Dame came at us, the way they challenged us, that’s how we’re going to see teams in the postseason.”

QND’s task is to attempt to carry the momentum into Wednesday’s regional opener. The fifth-seeded Raiders face fourth-seeded Petersburg PORTA in the semifinals in the Class 2A Pittsfield regional at 6 p.m.

Altmix is optimistic the Raiders will come out with the same intensity they displayed in the latter stages of Friday’s road win.

“You hope that when you give everything that you have, and if you do end up on the short end, at least you know you did everything you could (to win),” he said. “But a lot of times when you do that, it provides you with the opportunity to have success.”