Pinpoint passing leads to sharp shooting as QHS girls wrap up Classic with impressive victory

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The first three quarters of Saturday afternoon’s game at the Shirk Center in the State Farm Holiday Classic showed just how good the Quincy High School girls basketball team can be.

One moment halfway through the fourth quarter showed how fragile that success is.

The Blue Devils posted a 61-42 victory over Plainfield North in a winner’s bracket consolation game in the large school girls bracket. However, they played the last 4 minutes, 28 seconds without freshman standout Khloe Nicholson, who was hit in the face with the ball after a rebound. She sat on the bench for the rest of the game with gauze stuffed in her nose.

Injuries to two other players left QHS with only eight players for the tournament. Blue Devils coach Brad Dance only used six players for the first two games of the tournament, though he did give freshman Mia Ellefritz a few minutes on Saturday and freshman Laila Gay played in the final minute.

“I thought Mia did a great job today,” Dance said. “She gave us some minutes, she helped defend, and she handled the ball at times for us. She’s only going to get better, but yes, we’ve got to get her more minutes in the next few weeks.

“I left two (players) at home so they could practice with the JV. I guess it’s a gamble going with eight to a tournament like this, but it’s what we did.”

The six who played the most minutes — Jada Brown, Myley Longcor, Cameron Byquist, Kate Mettemeyer, Madelyn Hamby and Nicholson — looked sharp against Plainfield North, which entered the game with a 9-4 record and close losses to two state-ranked teams.

The Blue Devils never trailed, scoring the first 12 points of the game and shutting out the Tigers until Kaitlyn Sedillo scored with 36 seconds left in the first quarter.

Plainfield North trimmed the lead to 14-9, but the Blue Devils’ lead grew to as many as 16 points before they went into halftime ahead 30-18.

Quincy’s lead remained in double digits in the third quarter, with Ellefritz making a layup on a pass from Nicholson to make the score 47-31 — its largest of the night. Nicholson hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 54-34 — right before she got hit in the face — and Quincy’s lead was as large as 23 points.

“For everyone, it’s a mental game because we don’t have that many subs,” Brown said. “Sometimes I could use a break, but we just have to have a good mindset, because if we don’t, then we’re just gonna go downhill.”

The Blue Devils’ passing led to several easy baskets. Nicholson only scored five points but had seven assists. Brown had six assists to go with her game-high 29 points, and Longcor had five assists. Quincy recorded assists on 21 of its 26 baskets, shooting 60.4 percent from the field for the game and 71.4 percent in the final three quarters.

“We’re not selfish,” Brown said. “We know it’s not always about ourselves. We can’t win if only one person does it. We do really good knowing where the open person is, and we have really high basketball IQ.”

“Khloe does a good job with (passing), and Myley does a great job with it,” Dance said. “They all do it. Nobody throws that entry pass better on the high-low than Kate does right now. It’s fun to watch that, and it makes the defenses work. We also have people in those spots who share the ball. They know when the ball comes into Jada, a lot of times if she doesn’t have a shot, she’s gonna find you.”

Hamby scored 13 points for Quincy (10-5), and Longcor added 10.