Raiders overwhelm Gateway STEM with 47-point run in season opener

QUINCY — Forty-seven straight points.

It doesn’t happen often in football, but we’ve seen teams score seven straight touchdowns before.

When was the last time you saw it happen in basketball?

After Quincy Notre Dame’s Jake Hoyt and Gateway STEM’s Jaylen Ross traded 3-point baskets in the opening minutes, the Raiders scored the next 45 points of the first half and took a 48-3 lead at halftime of Friday night’s game in the Gully Transportation Shootout at the Pit.

QND scored the first basket of the third quarter to go ahead 50-3. Only frequent substitutions by Raiders coach Kevin Meyer and a running clock in the second half kept the game from getting any uglier in a 65-18 victory.

The Raiders forced 23 turnovers, but many of them were in the first quarter when they used three different presses to frustrate the Jaguars. After taking a 25-3 lead through the first eight minutes, QND scored on two offensive rebounds, a steal, a layup and two free throws to go ahead 35-3 before the press was called off.

“Our best offense was our defense,” Meyer said. “We talked before the game about the offense we put it, but honestly, we didn’t get to run a lot of it. They played zone, and the things we’re trying to work on is a lot of man(-to-man) stuff. So we ran a lot of good zone stuff.”

Junior Jake Wallingford had 20 points in the first half and finished with 22. 

“I was teasing him that I thought he had a double-double just on his own misses,” Meyer said. “He had a really, really special night, and that’s what we’re expecting from him.”

Calvin Lavery finished the 47-point run with an offensive rebound putback to open the third quarter. Jaylen Vaughn’s 3-pointer at the 5:55 mark of the quarter finally broke the streak.

No other player scored in double digits, but eight other Raiders scored. Junior reserves Alex Connoyer and Josh Bocke had nine and eight points, respectively. Senior Blake Bozarth had eight points in his first start.

“I thought Blake Bozarth, for his first start, played really, really well,” Meyer said. “He was really good defensively. We’re kind of waiting for him to be a shooter, but I keep telling him, ‘You’re more than a shooter.’ He had multiple steals that got us out in transition.”

For most of the Raiders, it was their first varsity game on their home floor with a large crowd.

“One of the things that put a smile on my face was hearing the band when we ran out to do our tip drill,” Lavery said. “That’s probably the one that put the biggest smile on my face. Then on Jake’s first three that he hit, it was like electric in here. It puts tingles through your body.”