Raiders go on tide-turning run to erase slow start and rumble to victory over Trojans

QUINCY — The halftime disposition of Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball coach Eric Orne split the difference between Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk.

Not too mild-mannered. Not too barbaric either.

“A little bit of both,” junior forward Tristan Pieper said. “Kind of right in between.”

The Raiders trailed Troy (Mo.) Buchanan 20-14 at the break during Wednesday night’s return engagement in the 17th edition of the Rumble on the River at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center. They trailed 19-5 at one point, but made some necessary adjustments on the fly in the second quarter to gain some traction.

In the locker room, Orne reiterated the need to follow the course.

“He was calm at first, and then as he got talking, you could see him get more fired up,” senior guard Sage Stratton said. “He looked us in the eyes and was like, ‘This is what we have to do.’ When you see that look in his eyes, you’re like, ‘OK, let’s do this.’”

Notre Dame, ranked sixth in Class 3A, did more than expected. The Raiders nearly shut out the Trojans, ranked ninth in Missouri Class 6, in the third quarter, limiting them to a Mya Robinson free throw with 26.4 seconds remaining and flipping the script with a 29-1 run in a 48-36 victory.

“I could sense we had gotten pushed down and now we had stood back up and were playing basketball,” Orne said.

It took time to get up off the floor.

The Raiders (8-0) scored the game’s first four points before the Trojans responded with a 19-1 run before Orne used a timeout with 6:39 remaining in the second quarter. QND scored five of the next six points, forcing Troy to burn a timeout with 2:44 remaining in the first half.

The run was just starting. Baskets by Stratton and Pieper sent the Raiders to halftime trailing only by six.

“We had kind of righted the ship,” Orne said. “We were hanging around.”

It started with better defense.

“We were giving them a lot of open shots that we knew we didn’t need to give them,” Pieper said. “We weren’t working the ball very well on offense. There were a lot of turnovers that shouldn’t have been turnovers. We know what we’re doing.

“At halftime, we realized in the second quarter we changed some of that and started chipping away. We had to keep pushing that.”

It meant limiting the Trojans to one shot per possession and taking away all driving lanes.

“We had stop after stop,” said Pieper, who finished with 11 points and . “They’d force up a bad shot and we’d get the rebound and go. When we get in transition, we’re tough to stop. Those early baskets in the third quarter put them down because we kept going and going.

“Our momentum got up, and it just pushed them down.”

Defensively, the Raiders never let up.

“It was all five of us on the floor,” said Stratton, who scored a game-high 16 points and was named the game MVP. “(Assistant coach) Matt Pugh was talking about how we needed to be a fist — all five of us working together. I think we did just that.”

Meanwhile, everyone got involved offensively. Stratton opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer, and less than two minutes later, the Raiders took the lead for good on Lauren Hummel’s 3-pointer from the right corner. 

Hummel scored seven of her nine points in the third quarter, while seven different Raiders scored in the second half.

“We shared the ball,” Orne said. “No one on this team is selfish.”