Blue Devils turn over chance to play for title, lose to Generals in overtime in tourney semis

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — Faced with a setback for only the second time this season and denied a shot at a tournament championship for the first time, Quincy High School boys basketball coach Andy Douglas both understood and appreciated the Blue Devils’ reaction.

They were disappointed, not despondent.

The Blue Devils squandered a two-point lead with less than two minutes remaining Tuesday night against Decatur MacArthur, turning the ball over on their final four possessions of regulation in the semifinals of the 37th Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic.

It enabled the Generals to force overtime and then score on five of their six possessions in the extra frame to pull out a 58-53 victory.

“For good reason, the guys should be upset. They shouldn’t be happy about losing,” Douglas said. “But the good thing is we didn’t see a lot of heads droop down and a whole lot of pouting going on. They are going to use this as an opportunity to learn and grow.”

The loss snapped the Blue Devils’ seven-game winning streak and pits them against Collinsville (8-5) in the third-place game at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The Kahoks lost 50-49 to O’Fallon in the other semifinal, trailing by no more than four points the final 4:30 but never could tie the score or take the lead.

Quincy (11-2) actually tied the game and took the lead in the final frame.

The Blue Devils led only twice in the first three quarters for a total of 30 seconds and fell behind 40-31 when the Generals’ Brylan Phillips scored on the first possession of the fourth quarter. But freshman guard Bradley Longcor III scored nine points in a 12-3 run that tied the game at 43 with 4:12 to go.

Jeremiah Talton’s post move with 3:44 to go put Quincy ahead 45-43, and his dunk with 2:54 to go had the Blue Devils up 47-46. Terron Cartmill split a pair of free throws with 1:50 to go for a 48-46 advantage before the turnovers mounted.

The third giveaway led to Phillips backing down Ralph Wires on the left block and scoring the tying basket with 14 seconds remaining. A turnover cost Quincy a shot in the closing seconds.

“That’s definitely something we have to learn from,” Douglas said. “You claw back, you get the lead and then you literally hand the ball over. A little bit of our inexperience showed and was glaring at times there.

“On the other side of that, the experience of their guards and their team in general showed. They were able to fight through some of those things and make enough plays to send it to overtime.”

The Blue Devils committed 19 turnovers, leading to 13 points for the Generals.

“I think we played a little too timid,” Douglas said. “I don’t think scared is the right word, but we played a little too timid against their pressure. We weren’t as aggressive as we needed to be attacking the pressure.

“When you let a team like that go all over the place defensively and you don’t take advantage of some of those opportunities, you’re going to lose out on some wide-open looks that definitely were there.”

The Blue Devils struggled to finish, shooting 34.9 percent from the field overall and 26.1 percent in the first half. Talton, who came into the tournament averaging 22 points, scored just 13 points as he went 4 of 12 from the field and 1 of 8 from 3-point range while battling an injured ankle.

Talton hurt his left ankle on the second possession of the game and missed the first three minutes as trainers taped him up. Although he played 34 minutes, Talton struggled with his quickness and aggressiveness.

“It’s tough because it limited the explosion part,” Douglas said. “Even defensively, he was a half-step slow because of it.”

Longcor led the Blue Devils with 15 points, but he spent the final five minutes of the first half on the bench in foul trouble and fouled out 34 seconds into overtime.

Despite the top two scorers struggling, Quincy had a chance to win. Douglas believes the Blue Devils will capitalize on that situation in the future.

“It’s good to focus on the positives that we had and understand even as sloppy as we played we still gave ourselves an opportunity, which is what you want,” Douglas said.