Missing the mark: QHS boys struggle shooting in second half, see lead evaporate in super-sectional loss to Bolingbrook

NORMAL, Ill. — If you took time to actually measure the measurables — the height of the rim, the distance to the 3-point stripe, the length and width of the court — you’re bound to find both ends of the Redbird Arena court meet the same specifications..

The Quincy High School boys basketball players might find that hard to believe.

Something was amiss in the second half of Monday night’s Class 4A Normal Super-Sectional against Bolingbrook, aside from the Raiders’ ramped-up pressure and the pogo-stick ability of Michael Osei-Bonsu on offensive rebounds.

What brought the Blue Devils’ season to an abrupt halt more than anything else in the 49-42 loss was the inability to hit shots in the second half. Quincy went 2 of 14 from 3-point range and 5 of 21 from the field overall as a seven-point halftime lead dwindled and disappeared.

“It doesn’t feel that different,” Quincy freshman guard Bradley Longcor III said of shooting at the south basket in the first half and the north basket after halftime. “But I guess it was.”

No one could truly discern why a team that went 4 of 8 from 3-point range and 12 of 20 from the field in building a 28-21 halftime lead struggled so mightily the final 16 minutes.

“We just lost it,” said junior guard Reid O’Brien, whose 3-pointer with 2:20 to play pulled the Blue Devils within 42-38. “It’s really disappointing, especially for the seniors. I feel like we let them down.”

Quincy finishes its remarkable postseason run, which began as the No. 3 seed in the sub-sectional, with a 28-6 record and the first super-sectional appearance since 2000.

Bolingbrook (30-6) advances to the Class 4A state semifinals at 4 p.m. Friday at the State Farm Center in Champaign and will face Glenbard West, the state’s No. 1-ranked team.

“No matter how you lose, when you get to this level, it hurts,” QHS coach Andy Douglas said. “It’s tough.”

Bolingbrook had a hand in making it so.

The Raiders forced the Blue Devils to turn the ball over on the first three possessions of the third quarter and five of their first seven possessions. Quincy scored only two points in the first five minutes of the second half and managed just four points before senior point guard Terron Cartmill made a 3-pointer with four seconds left to give the Blue Devils a 35-34 lead heading to the fourth quarter.

It didn’t take the lid off the basket. Quincy missed its first seven shots of the final quarter, including six straight 3-point attempts.

“I thought Bolingbrook got us on our heels a lot,” Douglas said. “We just didn’t look as comfortable as we needed to look in the second half. We didn’t execute as well as we needed to, but we still had good looks at it. Unfortunately for us, they didn’t drop.”

Not everything fell for Bolingbrook either. The Raiders went just 8 of 19 from the field in the second half (42.1 percent), but they had Osei-Bonsu to clean things up. A 6-foot-5 power forward with the build of a bruising middle linebacker, Ossei-Bonsu collected seven offensive rebounds and eight second-chance points in the second half.

He had back-to-back tip-ins of his own misses to tie the game at 32 with 2:40 remaining in the third quarter. His two free throws after getting fouled grabbing an offensive rebound with 6:36 to play gave the Raiders a 38-35 edge.

Quincy never got closer.

“That guy’s a beast on the glass,” O’Brien said. “He just killed us.”

Osei-Bonsu finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds, eight on the offensive end.

“He’s by far the strongest kid we’ve faced inside all season long,” Douglas said. “He’s so quick with his bounce and getting back up off missed shots. He’s just a special player for them.”

Quincy couldn’t combat it with its bevy of talented shooters.

Longcor finished with 14 points, going 2 of 5 from 3-point range. Senior forward Jeremiah Talton had just eight points as he went 3 of 14 from the field and 2 of 11 from 3-point range, but he had six rebounds, three blocks, two steals, two assists and three charges drawn.

His playmaking ability on both ends of the floor wasn’t enough to compensate for a 6-of-22 showing from 3-point range as a team.

“We definitely feel like that was a 100-percent winninable game, but things turned out the way they turned out,” Longcor said. “They played more physical than us and they made more runs. We weren’t hitting our shots, and that led to this outcome.”

It created a somber mood for the final ride home together.

“I told them, ‘You don’t need to hold your head low,’” Douglas said. “This has been a whale of a season. This doesn’t change that. The city of Quincy is proud of them.”