Raiders create bevy of turnovers, throttle past Rockets into Class 2A regional semifinals

QUINCY — At halftime of Saturday’s Class 2A Beardstown Regional quarterfinal at The Pit, the Rushville-Industry boys basketball team had as many turnovers as points.

Quincy Notre Dame coach Kevin Meyer likes that ratio.

“We got after it defensively and turned it back into offense,” Meyer said. “I was pretty happy with it. That’s a pretty solid half. It was a good solid effort.”

It got better in the fourth quarter.

“At the end of the third quarter, we challenged them and asked, ‘Can you go out there and play great defense for another eight minutes with the mentality you’re not going to let them score?’” Meyer said. “That’s easy to say go do that, but it’s hard to do. And I thought our guys did it.”

The Raiders shut out the Rockets in the fourth quarter, invoked a running clock and advanced to Wednesday’s semifinals with a 64-25 victory.

“Defense was pretty good,” Meyer said. “We had multiple trap areas, forced some turnovers and were able to get out in transition. We were able to share the ball really well again and push it ahead. We played through the post with (Jake Wallingford and Alex Connoyer) and the press was really good.”

It sends the third-seeded Raiders (18-11) up against seventh-seeded Illini West at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Chargers beat Beardstown 69-48 in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

“It’s fun when it’s postseason time because you get the best basketball of the year,” QND junior guard Jackson Stratton said. “Everyone is going 100 percent. Anytime you could lose and be done.”

The reality of that hit home following Tuesday’s loss at West Hancock, which the Raiders have rebounded from with back-to-back victories

“Understanding how easy it can get away and how fleeting the season can be, I really thought they had a workmanlike mentality about them,” Meyer said. “They had that look in their eyes at shootaround today that this was important, especially to get a win at home in our last game here.”

QND played that way start to finish.

Stratton and Wallingford each had six points in the 16-point first quarter, and Wallingford scored nine more in the second quarter as the Raiders built a 35-15 halftime advantage.

Wallingford finished with a game-high 19 points, while Stratton had 12 and Connoyer added 10. Nine different players scored for the Raiders.

“We want to continue this,” Stratton said. “That’s why we’re going to keep working like we’ve been working, watching film, doing all the stuff we’ve been doing. It’s helping us win games.”