Hawks display toughness in waning moments, rebound with victory over Saints

ST. LOUIS — Quincy University men’s basketball coach Ryan Hellenthal understood the toughness and grit of his players was being questioned following last Thursday’s loss to Missouri Valley College.

“A lot of people were writing us off,” Hellenthal said.

Pencil the Hawks back in.

Forced to make a crucial basket with less than 15 seconds to play in regulation and dig in defensively down the stretch, the Hawks showed the loss to the NAIA school was a blip and not a trend by rebounding with Sunday’s 71-67 victory over Maryville at Moloney Arena.

It was Quincy’s first Great Lakes Valley Conference victory of the season and kickstarted a treacherous week with some good vibes.

“It’s the biggest week of our season the way the schedule falls,” Hellenthal said.

Tuesday, the Hawks (8-5, 1-2 GLVC) welcome Truman State to Pepsi Arena and then play host to Southwest Baptist on Thursday. They cap a four-games-in-seven-days stretch with a trip to William Jewell on Saturday.

“No matter how you get them, you take them any way you can get them,” Hellenthal said. “And we needed this one.”

It wasn’t easy, which tends to make the end result more satisfying.

The Hawks trailed 51-50 with nine minutes remaining in regulation when Paul Zilinskas made back-to-back 3-pointers for a 56-51 edge with 7:59 to go. Quincy never trailed again.

The Saints (8-4, 2-2 GLVC) pulled within three points twice in the final four minutes and trimmed the deficit to 69-67 on Harrison Vickers’ two free throws with 1:06 to play. The Hawks worked nearly 30 seconds off the clock before Mark Bradshaw Jr. missed a jumper with the shot clock expiring. Quincy’s Jamaurie Coakley grabbed the offensive rebound, allowing the Hawks to work another 20 seconds off the clock.

With 14.9 seconds remaining in regulation and three seconds left on the shot clock, the Hawks scored off an inbounds play from under the basket as Zilinskas lofted the pass over a defender to Malik Hardmon, who laid the shot off the back iron and had it drop for a four-point lead.

“You try to have a plan in place for those type of situations,” Hellenthal said. “We practice that a million times for that exact situation. Just good execution by the guys. There was no indecision on what we needed to go to. Malik made a really hard shot and Paul made a great pass.”

The Saints’ Daniel Farris missed a layup to answer with five seconds remaining, and the alternating possession gave Maryville the ball when the rebound resulted in a jump ball. A 3-point heave by Ari Jackson was off, and Quincy ran out the clock.

“We got stops when we needed to,” Hellenthal said. “And we played with more toughness. For the most part, we stayed poised.”

And they had Zilinskas to lean on. The sophomore guard came off the bench to score a game-high 23 points, going 5 of 5 from 3-point range.

“He played with confidence,” Hellenthal said. “I know people are going to look at the 23 points, but I thought he played good defense. I thought he was tough. He understood what we needed to do, and he took good shots.”

Hardmon added 12 points and six rebounds, while Nate Shockey added 11 points. Cameron Scales led the Saints with 16 points, while Quincy High School product Jaeden Smith played 16 minutes off the MAryville bench with one rebound, one foul and no points, going 0 of 2 from the field.