Workmanlike effort gets Blue Devils through first round without worry at Collinsville

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — By now, the Quincy High School boys basketball players have discovered how much of a challenge it is to make reality match increasingly high expectations.

The Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic has taught them that.

This is the fourth consecutive season the Blue Devils have reached Christmas either undefeated or with just one loss.Yet, they have not won the championship at Collinsville during that stretch or any other stretch since 1997. 

That’s why they didn’t read too much into Friday’s 68-46 victory over McCluer (Mo.) North in the opening round of the 40th holiday tournament at Vergil Fletcher Gym. The Blue Devils (10-0) played well enough to comfortably salt the game away in the second half, but understood bigger challenges lie ahead.

So the focus is on taking the next step and ignoring the pressure that comes with it.

“Everybody thinks we should win. We think we should win,” Quincy senior guard Bradley Longcor III said. “But we thought we should win the past three years and we didn’t.

“We’re coming here to win, strictly win and that’s it. It’s all about business.”

That’s how it looked.

There were moments of glitz and glamour you’d expect from the No. 2-ranked team in the state, like Longcor’s dunk to cap a game-opening 7-2 run and Dom Clay’s breakaway dunk. More often than not, the Blue Devils’ play could be best described as workmanlike.

They limited the Stars to 34.6 percent shooting from the field, forced 14 turnovers and scored 36 points in the paint. Quincy’s bench outscored McCluer North’s bench 13-0, while the Blue Devils held a 14-6 advantage on second-chance points and a 22-4 edge in points off turnovers.

It all added up to a taking-care-of-business approach.

“That was it,” Quincy coach Andy Douglas said. “We did our jobs, and I thought we had guys who stepped up and gave us quality minutes. We went about doing things the right way.”

That was a pivotal aspect for the bench.

Senior forward Rico Clay Jr., asked to play more minutes than normal with Mark Louthan nursing a tender ankle, delivered with 11 points and six rebounds in 12 minutes. Senior guard Jeraius Rice Jr. had three rebounds and a steal in 12 minutes, and junior guard Trace Routh had two points, two assists and two steals in 10 minutes.

“When you’re playing with a lot of dudes, you don’t have to be the one to do everything,” Douglas said. “Know your role, play it well and those guys have done a decent job of that.”

So have the starters.

Longcor finished with 24 points, five rebounds, five assists and no turnovers. Senior forward Keshaun Thomas had 13 points and eight rebounds, and senior guard Kamren Wires had 11 points. All told, the Blue Devils had 11 assists against just eight turnovers and shot 47.2 percent from the field.

“We got off to a pretty good start, and that’s always a concern going into tournament play when you’ve had a couple of days off,” Douglas said. “You want to see how guys respond, and I think we responded in a pretty good way.”

That will need to be the case Saturday in the quarterfinal matchup with O’Fallon at 11:30 a.m. The Panthers (5-6) beat Decatur MacArthur 57-50 in the opening round. Quincy beat O’Fallon 57-46 in last year’s semifinals and is 3-1 against the Panthers in holiday tournament history.

The quarterfinal winner will advance to the 6 p.m. semifinal against either Belleville Althoff or Troy Triad.

“We just have to keep it going, keep the momentum going,” Longcor said.