Timeout turns tide as Blue Devils rally in third quarter, fight way into title game at Collinsville

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — Andy Douglas hasn’t found a need to burn many timeouts this season.

“A majority of games we’re walking away with six timeouts left,” the Quincy High School boys basketball coach said. “I just don’t call a ton.”

Even in tight, tense situations, he allows the veteran lineup to navigate its own way. 

“I want them to be able to play through it,” Douglas said.

Still, sometimes his voice needs to be heard.

“Coach does a phenomenal job of just knowing when to calm us down or bring us together,” senior guard Tyler Sprick said. “Even if he’s not drawing up a play, he’s reminding us, ‘Let’s go play.’ As much leadership as we have on the team, he’s still our leader.”

Two minutes into the second half of Thursday night’s Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic, the leader needed to speak up.

Leading 20-19 at halftime, O’Fallon opened the third quarter by scoring the first seven points, converting twice at the rim to force Douglas to call the timeout. It changed everything. Quincy responded with an 8-0 run, took the lead for good on a Camden Brown field goal and earned a 57-46 victory at Vergil Fletcher Gym.

It sends the Blue Devils (14-0) to the tournament championship game for the second year in a row and 12th time overall. Quincy, ranked third in the Associated Press Class 4A state poll, will face 10th-ranked Collinsville (15-0) at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the title game.

Without the timeout Douglas called 2:04 into the second half, the title tilt among two of the nation’s four winningest programs might not have materialized.

“It was a punch in the mouth from O’Fallon, and our guys needed a little motivation,” Douglas said. “Obviously, it helped a little bit.”

Keshaun Thomas scored off an offensive rebound coming out of the timeout, and Bradley Longcor III and Camden Brown hit back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at 27 just 88 seconds after the timeout. The Blue Devils’ energy and demeanor changed entirely at that point.

“We know this going into tournaments or shootouts like this. We can’t allow the crowd to bring energy for us,” Douglas said. “We have to bring our own energy.”

Defensively, the Blue Devils did that. The Panthers shot just 35.7 percent from the field in the second half, which included going 2 of 8 from the field over a five-minute stretch of the third quarter.

Quincy went from down by seven points to leading by four at the end of that stretch.

“We were letting them get to the basket,” Douglas said. “We allowed them to turn the corner on drives. It allowed them to attack downhill. They have four guys out there at a time, sometimes five, who are really good at getting to the rim and getting to the basket.

“We had to clean that part of it up. Once we stopped allowing them to do that, we made strides.”

The defensive stops led to better efficiency offensively as the Blue Devils shot 50 percent from the field in the second half and made four 3-pointers. Longcor scored all 14 of his points in the second half, while Brown finished with a team-leading 17 points.

Thomas had 11 points, 16 rebounds and two blocked shots.

“We still had attention to detail on what we were doing defensively,” Douglas said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, shots aren’t falling. I’m going to drop my head and pout.’ It was like everyone said let’s get it back on the other end. They really responded.”

Quincy positioned itself to get to the title game by beating Belleville Althoff 61-48 in the quarterfinals earlier Thursday. The Blue Devils limited the Crusaders to two points in the second quarter and 26.3 percent shooting from the field in the first half.

Longcor finished with 27 points and went 3 of 5 from 3-point range as the Blue Devils shot 70.6 percent from the field in the second half and 53.8 percent overall.