Collective effort carries Raiders to lopsided victory over Bluejays in regional semifinal

PITTSFIELD, Ill. — Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball coach Greg Altmix was curious leading up to Wednesday’s Class 2A Pittsfield Regional semifinal game against Petersburg PORTA just how the Raiders would react.

“When you come into a new program, you never know how guys are going to respond in the postseason,” said Altmix, the first-year QND skipper who spent the previous 10 seasons as the head coach at Liberty. “Are they going to try to win the game themselves or are they going to keep trusting the process and continue to play together?” 

After the Raiders opened the second quarter on a 17-3 run, continued to pull away from the Bluejays and advanced to Friday’s regional championship game with a 66-44 victory at Voshall Gymnasium, the answer became became clear.

“They kept playing together,” Altmix said. “That right there eased my mind because we’re just going to play as a team, play the way we’ve been playing, play hard, and see what we can do.”

That cohesion was put to the test early as Altmix rotated 10 different players in the first half and juggled the Raiders’ foul trouble.

“With Jackson (Connoyer) and Jace (Allensworth) picking up two fouls in the first half, we had guys that were able to come in off the bench, and we didn’t miss a beat,” Altmix said. “We got in foul trouble, yet we played even better.”

Seven players, including three who came off the bench, scored in the first half. Senior guard Alex Dance, one of those reserves, drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key that gave QND a 22-19 lead with 4:52 left in the second quarter, a lead the Raiders never relinquished.

“After it went in, the gym got loud,” Dance said. “I think we just picked up momentum off that, kept going and didn’t look back.”

Junior guard Robbie Reed, who assisted on Dance’s go-ahead 3-pointer, could feel the tides turning at that juncture.

“I shoveled that to him, he hit it and everybody was like, ‘Oooooo!’” Reed said. “We were all fired up. The fans were in it. The bench was in it. Everybody was in it, and we just went from there.”

After extending their advantage to 30-23 by halftime, Reed and the Raiders kept the energy flowing into the locker room.

“We went in, turned it up and kind of just started screaming and yelling in the locker room, then we came out and it translated to the court,” Reed said.

The Raiders went on a 12-1 run to close the third quarter and led by as many as 26 points in the fourth. After trailing 18-11 through eight minutes, the Raiders outscored PORTA 38-11 in the second and third quarters combined.

“We started off kind of slow in our press, but as the game went on, we got into their legs, got them tired, and we just stayed fresh and kept playing,” Dance said.

Four Raiders — Connoyer, Dance, Reed and Allensworth — reached double figures. Connoyer scored 10 of his game-high 12 points in the second half. Dance, Reed and Allensworth had 11 points apiece, and eight different players made at least one field goal.

“It really shows our unselfishness,” Dance said of the Raiders’ balanced scoring. “Nobody wants to just get their points. We just want the win.”

That is exactly what Altmix hoped to see.

“There are just so many uncertainties in that first playoff game as a coach at a new school, but I couldn’t have asked any more of the guys tonight,” Altmix said.

The fifth-seeded Raiders (17-10) and top-seeded Williamsville (28-3), which was ranked No. 7 in the final Associated Press Class 2A state poll of the regular season, will battle for the regional title at 7 p.m. Friday. The Raiders bowed out to Williamsville 49-26 in the regional semifinals last season.

“I’m confident about our chances if we play like we did tonight,” Altmix said. “We had some possessions we still need to clean up, but I’ll take tonight’s effort on Friday and live with the results.”