State-ranked Raiders rout Titans on road behind relentless defensive effort

HAMILTON, Ill. — Make no mistake, at this point of the season the Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball team is far from a finished product.

But the work-in-progress Raiders still aren’t too shabby.

Notre Dame, ranked No. 8 in this week’s Associated Press Class 3A state poll, overwhelmed West Hancock 72-32 before about 350 fans Thursday night at Hamilton High School.

“QND is good, very good,” West Hancock coach Jerry Jerome said. “We played hard, but we were outmanned. QND just gets after you, and I feel our girls were probably a little intimidated.”

The Raiders (5-0) scored early and often — they netted a combined 51 points over the second and third quarters — en route to their 40-point victory. QND has outscored its first five opponents by an average of 37.2 points a game.

“We’ve done well so far, but there ‘s so much more farther we need to go,” said Notre Dame’s Tristan Pieper, the 5-foot-10 junior forward who led all scorers with 17 points. including 11 in the first half when the Raiders bolted to a 43-16 advantage by intermission.

That fast start QND enjoyed was no accident, according to longtime coach Eric Orne, whose club defeated West Hancock for a 15th consecutive time. 

“We have to have that kind of energy night in and night out,” Orne said. “We played with a toughness and took control of the game early.”

The game brought together two of the area’s most successful coaches. Orne, who has won 554 games at QND, and Jerome, who has 267 victories at several stops, show 821 victories between them. On this night, however, it was evident early which coach was going to add to his career total.

The Raiders led 15-4 at the first break, not allowing West Hancock a field goal until just before the initial buzzer. 

“I feel we controlled the tempo,” said QND junior point guard Ari Buehler, who scored 13 points with 11 coming in the third quarter when the Raiders built their lead to 66-26, allowing reserves to play most of the final period.

Buehler looked at the game as more of a stepping stone, part of an overall blueprint for the season.

“We’re working toward making a statement, but we’re not there yet,” Buehler said. 

At times, QND’s defense was suffocating. The Raiders forced 21 turnovers while committing just six.

“Notre Dame is just so athletic,” Jerome said. “They don’t let you get comfortable.”

Pieper said that’s all part of the plan.

“We’ve been working hard on our defense, trying to force the tempo,” Pieper said.

Orne felt Pieper played an integral role, especially early in the game when “she stepped up” while QND’s leading scorer, Sage Stratton, was struggling to find her shot.

Stratton scored nine points, all coming via three 3-pointers during a three-minute stretch in the second quarter. Outside of that, the 18-points-per-game scorer found the rim unkind.

“We will need four to five double-figure (scoring) performances a game when we start to meet (some of the stronger) teams on our schedule,” said Orne, who pointed directly to upcoming dates against Pleasant Plains (Tuesday at home) and Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin (Dec. 12 on the road) as key early season tests.

Pleasant Plains (5-3) defeated Bloomington Central Catholic 50-37 on Thursday night. Two of its three losses have come to two of the top Class 4A programs in the state, Edwardsville and Alton, both by 48-43 counts. 

Sacred Heart-Griffin is off to an uncustomary slow start (1-5) but won its first game earlier this week over Central State 8 Conerence foe Normal U-High 36-33.

QND ended Thursday night with three double-figure scorers. Jenna Durst was the other, finishing with 15 points. Nine different Raiders found the scoring column.

Jadyn Climer, a 5-foot-10 junior, was West Hancock’s lone double-figure point producer with 12 points. Climer also led all rebounders with nine. Lauren Hummel topped QND with five boards.