Raiders hang with top-seed Pecatonica until wheels come off in fourth quarter

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — One night after giving up just 24 points in a resounding victory over Aurora Christian, the Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball team allowed 24 points in the first quarter to Pecatonica.

One night after forcing Aurora Christian into 25 turnovers, the Raiders turned it over 23 times themselves.

Yet with 6:42 remaining on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the small school bracket at the State Farm Holiday Classic, QND trailed just 61-55 after two free throws by Carter Miller.

“Honestly, I really didn’t feel we played that well, and we’re still in it until there at the end,” Raiders coach Greg Altmix said. “It was one of those, ‘Are we going to pull this together? Or are we going to have the seams break?’ And unfortunately, the seams broke. Sometimes that happens.”

Undefeated Pecatonica, ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press Class 1A state poll and the top seed in the small school bracket, scored 19 of the game’s last 21 points to post an 80-57 victory at the Shirk Center.

The Raiders (7-4) will play one more game in the tournament at 6 p.m. Saturday at Bloomington High School against North Lawndale, which lost in the quarterfinals 54-49 to Normal U-High. The fifth-place and seventh-place games have been eliminated from the tournament format this year.

The 1-2-2 press that throttled Aurora Christian on Thursday leaked like a rusty pipe on Friday. The Indians made 16 of 27 shots in the first two quarters and led 39-30 at halftime.

“(Pecatonica) handled it better and attacked it more aggressively than what Aurora did last night,” Altmix said. “That’s what you have to do when you face the press. You’ve got to attack it, and they did a good job of that tonight. We just couldn’t keep them in front of us tonight, and they kept attacking the basket, whether their guy would get to the basket and score or whether we’d rotate and help and he’d dish off and they’d score.”

“They just moved the ball and played fast,” junior Jace Allensworth said.

The Raiders, however, fought back several times in the third quarter. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Alex Dance trimmed Pecatonica’s lead to 42-38 with 6 minutes, 19 seconds left in the quarter. Each time the Indians tried to pull away, the Raiders held on, climbing back on three occasions to get within four points.

Allensworth, who scored 10 points in the third quarter, made a free throw with 2:39 left in the third quarter to keep QND within 52-48.

“We’d cut it close, and then they’d come down and hit a shot, hit a three,” Allensworth said. “We’ve just got to work on little things. That’s what’s killing us. Just boxing out, getting down the floor, simple things like that.”

Pecatonica’s back-breaking run began with sophomore Zion Braimah’s dunk. Cooper Hoffman, who finished with 33 points, converted a regular layup and a reverse layup to put Pecatonica ahead 67-55, forcing Altmix to use a timeout with 5:41 remaining.

The Raiders turned the ball over seven times and missed five shots in the final 6½ minutes, with Jackson Connoyer’s hook shot in the lane accounting for the only basket.

Allensworth scored 17 points for the Raiders, who made 23 of 41 shots from the field. 

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Quincy Notre Dame’s record was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.)