QHS girls split first two games at Dixon tourney

DIXON, Ill. — The strong decision-making, aggressiveness and confidence Quincy High School girls basketball coach Brad Dance enjoyed seeing from the Blue Devils on Tuesday morning dissipated to a more stagnant effort in the afternoon.

It’s why QHS split its first two games in the Dixon KSB Holiday Classic.

The Blue Devils opened with a 63-46 victory at the Reagan Middle School gym before suffering a 57-41 loss to Byron in the quarterfinals. Quincy (9-6) will face Rockford Guilford at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the fifth-place bracket.

“They were dead tired when we got back to the hotel,” Dance said. “So we’ll rest up, go to a shootaround in the morning and play in the afternoon like we know we can. We’ll go from there and get back to being us.”

In the opener, the Blue Devils enjoyed balanced scoring with junior forward Taylor Fohey scoring 16 points, while senior guard Leah Chevalier adding 14 and Leila Dade chipping in 11.

“We had some kids step up and make some shots, and they weren’t afraid to take the ball to the basket,” Dance said.

Against Byron, Dance said the Blue Devils looked off open shots from the corner, the top of the key and the free-throw line, which bogged down the offense. Fohey finished with 14 points and Dade had 10.

“We passed on some opportunities and had some turnovers at the top of the key that didn’t help us,” Dance said.