Raiders’ Eftink gets last laugh after shooting prowess helps take down Blue Devils

QUINCY — The raucous, creative and comical Quincy High School students who packed the bleachers behind the girls basketball team’s bench Tuesday night need to check their schedules.

Their presence is requested at future games.

“Tell them to come out there and get me fired up,” Quincy Notre Dame junior guard Blair Eftink said with a chuckle.

It worked in the crosstown showdown, probably better than any of those QHS students expected.

During the pregame warmups, Eftink drifted to the right corner in front of the QHS bench to practice her 3-point stroke. A few feet behind her, the band of Blue Devils — mostly baseball and boys basketball players — threw barbs and zingers her direction.

Eventually, she had to laugh.

“They’re all my friends, so I was just laughing at them,” Eftink said. “They had been talking about it all day. So I was just expecting it.”

It turns out she got the last laugh.

On the Raiders’ second possession of the crosstown showdown at the Pit, QND junior swingman Abbey Schreacke got double-teamed in the post and kicked a pass to Eftink in the left corner. From the opposite side of the court from where the heckling took place, she buried the 3-pointer.

She made another one from the same spot late in the first quarter to give the Raiders their first double-digit lead at 18-8, and from there, the second-ranked team in Class 2A cruised to a 57-35 victory.

“I just went out there and had fun,” Eftink said.

How could she not? A large crowd filled the Pit and Eftink went 5 of 8 from 3-point range and scored 25 points, teaming with Schreacke to outscore the Blue Devils by themselves. Schreacke finished with a game-high 26 points.

“There was a time when I knew Eftink was fatigued, but she didn’t want to come out because she was hot,” QND coach Eric Orne said. “She wanted the ball. She was just living and breathing out there and finding good looks and knocking them down.”

An energetic crowd made it all the better.

“It was fun with all of the atmosphere,” Eftink said. “It’s different because we don’t always have a big crowd like that. It was fun to be able to play in front of a lot of people.”

She played with confidence, too.

A year ago, during the truncated COVID-19 season, Eftink suffered a broken hand five games into the season and sat the remainder of the year. Although she was healthy when this full season rolled around, she still had some misgivings about the quality of her shot.

“I’ve felt like I was kind of struggling and it hasn’t felt where I wanted it to be,” Eftink said. “So I’ve been shooting a lot in the last week just trying to get ready for our season. It’s good to be able to have a game to build my confidence back up.”

It was a mental hurdle she had to clear.

“It just didn’t feel the same at the beginning of the season,” Eftink said. “Now it feels like it did before. It gives me confidence to be able to shoot it.”

The Raiders are setting her up to do that.

“My teammates have been supporting me like crazy,” Eftink said.

And the opposing fans — at least a certain segment of them — tried to drive her crazy with no luck.

“They were having fun,” Eftink said. “And it made me laugh.”