Brown’s 31 points help Blue Devils bounce back after late night to take third-place trophy

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — It’s a shame Taylor Fohey and Jada Brown will only get to spend one season together. 

In their short time together on the Quincy High School girls basketball team, Fohey and Brown have developed into quite an accomplished pair of post players. Two days after Fohey scored 26 points in a 56-40 victory over Peoria Richwoods in the quarterfinals of the State Farm Holiday Classic, Brown poured in a career-high 31 in Quincy’s 61-53 victory over Washington to take third place in the large school girls bracket.

Often when Fohey is scoring, the pass comes from Brown on a lob from the high post. When Brown is scoring, the pass often comes from Fohey, who has positioned herself in the “short corner” — a step outside the lane along the baseline. The chemistry between Fohey, a senior, and Brown, a freshman, has happened quickly.

“I think it’s trust,” Fohey said. “We work in practice and battle against each other on offense and defense. So being able to play with her in a game is special because we’re both really talented post players. I haven’t seen that since my freshman year. For us just to have that trust in each other — to know if I’m in the short corner, I know she’s going to be somewhere in the middle — it’s great.”

“We worked a lot this summer, and they’ve done a really good job this fall when we were in practice,” Blue Devils coach Brad Dance said. “They both have a knack for the game.”

Quincy took the lead at 4-3 in the first quarter. Fohey helped the Blue Devils go up by as many as 12 points in the first half, scoring on a pair of high-low passes from Brown and adding two layups. Quincy led 27-20 at the intermission.

Brown then took over in the third quarter. Quincy scored 14 points and pushed its lead to 41-32, with Brown scoring 12 points. The other two points were by Fohey on another high-low pass from Brown.

“It just … like … happens,” Brown said with a shy smile. “We know our basketball, and if one of us is open, the other one passes it.”

Washington closed to within 43-36 at the 6:51 mark of the fourth quarter, but Quincy rattled off 10 consecutive points. Brown had six and Fohey had two in the run.

The Blue Devils eventually pushed their advantage to 17 points, and they led 57-41 with 2:27 remaining. The Panthers threw a scare at Quincy by scoring 10 points in 75 seconds, and a turnover by QHS gave Washington the ball with 1:04 to go.

However, Washington failed to score on its next three possessions, and after Fohey and Leah Chevalier each made a free throw, Quincy wrapped up its scoring on a layup by Brown on an assist from Leila Dade.

The Panthers made nine 3-pointers, but QHS proved to be more efficient by scoring on 25 of its 46 field goal attempts. The Blue Devils made seven of eight shots in the fourth quarter.

Fohey had 13 points and Longcor added 11 for Quincy (13-4), ranked No. 10 in the Class 4A state poll. Avery Tibbs and Mazzy O’Brien each scored 15 for Washington (9-3), ranked No. 9 in the Class 3A state poll.

“It was a good team effort,” Brown said. “We moved the ball well, and I knew we had something to prove.”

Asked what the Blue Devils had to prove, Brown said, “That we’re good. And we just didn’t come here to play.”

Dance was pleased to see his team play as well as it did after a late Friday night. The Blue Devils didn’t return to their hotel until around midnight after losing 42-40 to Morton in overtime in a game that started an hour late.

“It was basically a little less than 13 hours, but it was one of those things that we knew we were going to have to do it,” he said. “We didn’t take care of business last night, so it was a short turnaround. I was proud of the girls and the way they responded today. The effort was there.”

Three victories in his team’s State Farm Holiday Classic debut satisfied Dance as well.

“We’re the unknown here,” he said. “It was hard for us to get in here. We had tried for two years, and it finally worked out. Now we validated why we needed to be here. We’ve earned that spot. Our girls did a heck of a job.”

“These are good teams up here. A couple of them are state-ranked,” Fohey said. “This just shows we have the ability to compete with them. I feel like us competing at this level and winning games at this level is really important.”