Family of winners: Blue Devils’ fourth straight regional title is result of brotherhood

BELLEVILLE, Ill. — When the Quincy High School boys basketball team breaks their huddle with shouts of ‘Family,’ that is no coincidence.

“It’s a testament to what they’ve built over the years,” Blue Devils coach Andy Douglas said. “They truly care about each other on the floor, and they care about each other more off the floor.” 

Bellows of that familiar cry echoed through the Belleville West High School gym when the Blue Devils broke their final huddle after beating Belleville East 57-50 to capture the Class 4A Belleville West Regional championship, their fourth regional title in as many seasons.

“To be able to be in the same position and win four straight is just amazing,” senior forward Keshaun Thomas said.

The Blue Devils withstood a late 8-0 run by the Lancers that trimmed a 12-point lead to four in just over a minute. Quincy never allowed Belleville East to get any closer in the final minute, and senior guard Bradley Longcor III said the belief and trust the Blue Devils have in each other left little doubt in his mind as to what the result would be.

“We’ve been playing together so long, we know how each other is going to react,” said Longcor, who led the Blue Devils with 19 points. “We had to stay calm, and I think we did. We all knew it was going to be OK.”

All eight of the seniors now on the Blue Devils’ roster were on the Quincy Junior High School seventh grade team that went 24-0 and won the Illinois Elementary School Association Class 4A state championship in 2020. That senior class has compiled a 114-18 record in their high school careers, including a 56-4 mark at Blue Devil Gym.

“We’re just winners,” Longcor said. “We don’t know anything else.”

All that winning has translated to a regional title in every season but only one sectional championship — in 2022 when Thomas, Longcor and Dom Clay played pivotal roles as freshmen.

“It’s really impressive,” Clay said of winning four consecutive regional titles. “But we can’t just settle for just winning regionals. We’re trying to go to the next step and keep going.”

Longcor believes the Blue Devils, who were ranked third in the final Associated Press Class 4A regular season poll, have the goods to go deeper in the postseason than any of the three previous teams he was on, especially if they can bottle up the energy and cohesion they played with during their 16-0 run to start Friday’s game.

“If we come out every game like (it’s our last), keep it rolling, keep our energy up, I don’t see a team in the state that can stop us,” Longcor said.

Douglas believes the unity he has seen grow stronger by the day has been the formula to so much on-court success.

“Anything and everything they do, they’re together,” Douglas said. “It doesn’t matter if we schedule something or we don’t, they hang out together. They’re online playing video games together. They love each other’s company, and it’s what makes them the team they are out here on the basketball court.”

It truly is a brotherhood.

“When you really care about the person next to you, you’ll do dang near anything, whether it’s comfortable for you or not,” Douglas said. “They’ve gone out of their comfort zone to help each other out. They’ve held each other accountable, and it only makes us a better team.”

It is a bond that Douglas does not expect will break anytime soon.

“That closeness, that tightness, that togetherness they have, it’s special,” Douglas said. “There aren’t too many teams like this group.”