Strong effort in final tourney game gives QND boys basketball team something to build upon

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — After playing arguably its worst half of the season Friday afternoon, the Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball team returned three hours later to turn in perhaps its most complete overall performance.

Thirteen players scored, with eight sinking at least one 3-pointer, to carry the Raiders to a convincing 78-56 victory over Rockford Lutheran on Friday night in the third-place game of the small school consolation bracket of the State Farm Holiday Classic.

Both the 78 points scored and 13 3-pointers made represented season highs for QND, which never trailed after breaking a 17-all tie early in the second quarter.

It came on the heels of a perplexing 64-40 loss to Minonk Fieldcrest earlier in the day, a game that saw the Raiders erase an early 10-point deficit to take a two-point halftime lead, only to get outscored 35-9 in a turnover-plagued second half.

The difference?

“Character,” QND coach Kevin Meyer said after his team split its four tournament games to leave with an 8-6 record. “(Rockford Lutheran) was a tough game to play in. Even though it was in the consolation bracket, winning this afternoon would have still sent us to a championship game.

“You could see it in the locker room before the game. You could see it in pregame. The energy was good. And after our first few possessions, that’s when I thought it could be a really good game for us.”

The Raiders, who had more turnovers (11) than baskets (4) in the second half against Fieldcrest, bolted to a 17-6 lead in the opening quarter against Rockford Lutheran before Mason Keller hit a half-court shot at the buzzer to kick-start an 11-0 run by the Crusaders to tie it.

But instead of the Raiders wilting, Connor Young came off the bench to sink two 3-pointers and convert a backdoor layup to push the lead to 29-20. Then, in the closing minutes of the half, Tyler Bozarth hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Aden Genenbacher put back a missed shot to stretch QND’s advantage to 37-26.

Bozarth sank four 3-pointers overall to finish with 12 points, matching Alex Dance for team scoring honors. Genenbacher finished with 10 in a balanced effort that saw seven Raiders score six or more points.

“It was awesome to see Tyler Bozarth come out and hit some threes,” Meyer said. “It was different guys all night. We were getting really good looks because the guys were unselfish. They were like, ‘Hey, one more pass, or one more hard cut, then a pass.’ That goes back to character.”

QND never let Lutheran, which had lost two earlier tournament games by a combined three points, get back in the game.

Dance and Jackson Connoyer combined for 13 points in the third quarter and another 3-pointer by Bozarth to close out the period stretched the lead to 58-37. The Raiders led by as many as 25 points in the fourth quarter before both teams emptied their benches.

Vontez Dent, a 6-foot-4 guard, led the Crusaders (10-6) with 20 points, although 15 of those came in the second half.

In the consolation semifinals, QND turned the ball over seven times in the opening six minutes as Fieldcrest, attacking the basket at will, bolted to a 19-9 lead. But with Jace Allensworth scoring 11 of his 13 of his points and their defense tightening, the Raiders pulled ahead 31-29 at halftime and appeared to have momentum.

That didn’t prove to be the case.

Dominated on the boards and plagued by sloppy ballhandling, QND turned the ball over five times, gave up 12 straight points and didn’t score until Bozarth’s 3-pointer with 1:58 to go in the third quarter.

Then, trailing 46-36 entering the fourth period, the Raiders gave away the ball four times and allowed the Knights to score the first nine points of the period to pull away. The Raiders finished with 20 turnovers.

“We came out flat in the second half and you can’t do that against a team like Fieldcrest,” Meyer said. “They were like sharks in the water. That was the second-best pressure we’ve seen this year outside (Quincy High). They ramped it up and we didn’t make shots.”

Ed Lorton scored 21 points and Jozia Johnson 15 for Fieldcrest, which entered the tournament unbeaten and ranked fifth in Class 2A. Allensworth was the only QND player in double figures.

The Raiders are off until Jan. 5 when they travel to Pittsfield.

“There are lessons to be learned from what we didn’t do against Fieldcrest and the good things we did against Rockford Lutheran,” Meyer said. “It’s December still. We don’t want to be peaking yet.

“We found some things (against Lutheran) to build on. Our defense was good. Our assists were good. We knocked down some threes. We did a better job handling the ball. We finished off the week the right way.”