Perfect dozen: Raiders head into Christmas break 12-0 with tough schedule looming

QUINCY — The easy part is over, although Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball coach Eric Orne might argue nothing about the first half of the season could be considered easy.

Compared to what lies ahead, it wasn’t quite as taxing.

The Raiders get a four-day break following Wednesday night’s 66-38 victory over Lewistown in the final game of the Rumble of the River at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center. When they return to the Pit for practice December 27, they’ll begin preparing for an arduous stretch.

In the first three games after the holiday break, the Raiders will face Pleasant Plains (5-6) at home January 3, Springfield (10-2) on the road January 6 and O’Fallon (8-2) in the Breese Central Shootout on January 8.

“We have a really high ceiling, and we haven’t reached that peak yet,” junior guard Abbey Schreacke said. “We have a lot more to go.”

Another tough five-game stretch — QND plays Rochester, Rock Island, Quincy High School and Illini West in succession — awaits later in January.

So that 12-0 record is going to get put to the test.

“I think we’ve played well, and ending on a win is good going into our break,” junior point guard Lia Quintero said. “We have a lot of work to do before we go into the rest of the season.”

The Raiders, who were ranked No. 2 in the initial Class 2A state poll, have done everything necessary to convince voters to keep them near the top when the rankings resume in January. But Orne insists there is still work to do.

“It’s nice that we have a nice record, but really our strength of schedule and our true tests come in the first part of the year,” Orne said. “We just have to clean up some things. We go through some ruts that we must avoid the second part of the season.

“We can have a good week of practice and watch a lot of game film and evaluate what works and what doesn’t. If we do that and come back stronger, I think that’d be great.”

One of those ruts came in the first quarter against Lewistown. The Raiders scored the game’s first eight points and led 20-4 with 4:05 remaining in the period, but they scored just four points over the next four minutes. It didn’t hinder QND as it eventually built a 38-22 lead at halftime, but finishing a team on the ropes is part of the toughness Orne wants to see.

“Any coach who has been around a while is going to talk about toughness,” Orne said. “Toughness is going to show here soon. I just don’t think we’re quite at the level we need to be to really, truly make a deep run in the postseason. The toughness has to come.”

Schreacke is confident it will.

“We know we have to come out hard and have some confidence,” Schreacke said.

Schreacke scored a game-high 27 points against Lewistown, while Sage Stratton added 13 points and Blair Eftink chipped in with 12. Overall, 10 different Raiders scored as Orne was able to go deep into his bench.

“This was a good opportunity to do that, and we saw a little better bench play,” Orne said.

That will be vitally important with what lies ahead.

“The schedule is there to make us tougher if we can compete in those games,” Orne said. “There’s a big difference in playing those teams and getting thumped and actually competing in those games.”

The Raiders expect to compete at the highest level.

“We’ve definitely been working and we’re going to continue working hard,” Quintero said. “We’ll be ready when the time comes.”