Power in the post: Blue Devils throw ball inside to establish presence, cruise to Thanksgiving tournament championship

QUINCY — Something the Quincy High School boys basketball coaching staff noticed watching game film revealed itself even further during Saturday morning’s shootaround.

The Blue Devils’ primary post players — sophomore Keshaun Thomas and senior Sam Mulherin — weren’t controlling the block.

“We watched them post straight up,” QHS coach Andy Douglas said. “They were standing straight up and expecting the ball. That’s not going to happen. We have to be the aggressors and post with authority. If we let the opponent be the aggressor, we’re going to be in trouble.”

A change in attitude and position made Springfield Lanphier the one in trouble Saturday night.

The Blue Devils threw the ball to the 6-foot-5 Thomas on the first three possessions, allowing him to establish position and kickstart an offense that rolled to a 58-39 victory in the championship game of the 51st QHS Thanksgiving Tournament at Blue Devil Gym.

Everything revolved around throwing the first punch on the first possession when Thomas scored from the left block.

“Once you get it started, you can’t slow down,” Thomas said. “You have to keep punching them in the mouth, and that’s exactly what we did. We got the early lead, we were up at halftime, and we just kept punching them in the mouth.”

It’s how the Blue Devils need to play moving forward and a stark contrast to Friday night’s 57-56 overtime victory over Miller Career Academy in which the energy, the defense and the overall execution wasn’t on par.

“Friday night, we didn’t play the kind of defense we should have,” Thomas said. “We translated what we should have been doing over to tonight, and it allowed us to blow them out. We had way more energy than them. We were talking on defense and we were rebounding. We played like we had to.”

The reward is the tournament title, the 36th for the Blue Devils in the half-century plus one legacy of the Thanksgiving classic.

Since both teams won the first two nights with fairly similar results — Quincy scored 122 points and Lanphier 124 while the collective margins of victory were 36 and 29 points respectively — a spirited tussle was expected.

The Blue Devils banished that idea by scoring nine of the game’s first 11 points, piling up 21 points in the second quarter and building a 36-17 lead by halftime.

The offensive success centered around Thomas getting touches. The Blue Devils got the ball in the paint on six of the first seven possessions and kicked it out twice for 3-point attempts. Overall in the first quarter, 13 of Quincy’s 15 points were scored off paint touches.

“We like to run the ball through the post as much as possible if we can, see if I can score or if I can get other people open and spread the floor,” said Thomas, who finished with 11 points. “When we do that, it opens up lanes for others to attack.”

It becomes easier to do that when the defense locks down.

Lanphier shot 31 percent from the field in the first half, struggled to get easy looks in the paint and battled foul trouble. Quincy’s ability to use its length to disrupt the passing lanes and pressure the guards created opportunities to score in transition.

The Blue Devils finished with 24 points in transition.

“I thought we learned a lot in what we can do and we saw some areas we need to focus in on,” said Douglas, who had four players score in double figures with tournament MVP Bradley Longcor III leading the way with 12 points. “We learned we’re a more mature team than I thought early on. 

“To turn around tonight and play in a championship game and play defense at the level we played at, it was really good to see.”

So was the fact the post players adapted, adjusted and dominated.

“It established our focus,” Douglas said. “It’s how we need to play.”