Raiders unable to convert in waning seconds, lost back-and-fourth affair on road against Cyclones

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The play wasn’t executed exactly as Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball coach Greg Altmix had intended, but he can live with the shot, even if it didn’t go in.

QND had the ball trailing Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin 56-55 and 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter Friday night at Jim Belz Gym. An inbounds play following a Cyclones foul was designed to go to Jace Allensworth, who had scored 21 points. However, when two SHG defenders collapsed on Allensworth cutting to the basket, Raiders junior guard Beau Eftink sprung wide open at the 3-point line near the left corner.

“It’s not what you’re expecting or trying to create, but it’s what opens up,” Altmix said. “I’m never going to tell Beau to not take that shot when he’s that wide open and has time to catch, turn and square to the basket. I’ll take that shot anytime.”

Eftink set his feet and fired up a potential go-ahead triple.

“I probably could have driven it in or pitched it back or something, but I just saw a wide open shot and took it,” Eftink said. “It felt like it was going in.”

Allensworth thought the same thing.

“It looked good,” he said.

What felt like a game-winner off of Eftink’s right hand ended up missing just short, clanking off the front of the rim and allowing the Cyclones to salt away a 58-55 victory at the free-throw line.

“I’m not going to fault Beau for taking a wide open three,” Altmix said. “Beau’s a shooter. I think he’s going to knock down that shot five times out of 10. It just didn’t go tonight. I was hoping to work some clock and get a layup, but if you get a wide-open three, it’s tough to pass that one up.”

QND’s Carter Miller fouled Myles Montgomery immediately following the rebound of Eftink’s miss, sending Montgomery to the free throw line with 9.8 seconds left. Montgomery made both free throws to extend the Cyclones’ lead to three. With QND in need of a triple to force overtime, senior guard Alex Dance took a trail three that faded off to the left and missed short, sealing the Raiders’ fate.

“We weren’t going to get much better than that,” Eftink said of Dance’s shot. “He did about all he could.”

The ending left the Raiders wondering what could have been. QND took a 51-44 lead on a Miller layup with 4:30 left in the fourth quarter. The Raiders then went scoreless for the next 2:45 during an eight-point SHG run. Cyclones sophomore Tereik Hurd scored all of SHG’s points and converted a pair of three-point plays during that spurt, the final of which gave the Cyclones their first lead of the quarter with 2:30 left.

“Just silly mistakes, little things,” Allensworth said of what sparked the Cyclones’ comeback. “They got some buckets they shouldn’t have gotten.”

Eftink said SHG ratcheted up their defensive intensity and got QND out of sorts.

“They started putting pressure on us and we didn’t really handle it well,” Eftink said.

The lead changed hands four times in the final 1:45. The Raiders regained the lead at 53-52 when Allensworth made a layup with 1:45 left. QND junior Jackson Connoyer fouled Hurd with 55 seconds left, and Hurd made both free throws. Allensworth hit a turnaround jumper to give the Raiders the lead right back at 55-54 with 43 seconds to go, then Zion Lee answered with a jumper of his own 15 seconds later to give SHG their 56-55 lead.

That fourth quarter drought aside, Eftink was proud of the Raiders’ performance on the road.

“I don’t think we played all that bad,” Eftink said. “For the most part, we played pretty well except for that stretch in the fourth quarter. Our offense was pretty good. We messed up a couple plays here and there, but for the most part it wasn’t that bad.”

Allensworth scored 15 of his game-high 21 points in the second half.

“I came out in the second half looking to drive, score the ball a lot more,” Allensworth said.

Altmix commended Allensworth, an honorable mention all-stater last season, for his efforts.

“He was fantastic tonight,” Altmix said. “He came up with quite a few big plays for us.”

Allensworth still wasn’t feeling 100 percent, either. Along with several of his teammates, as well as Altmix, Allensworth has been battling flu-like symptoms for the better part of the last week.

“I was struggling to breathe quite a bit that game,” Allensworth said.

The Raiders (8-5) could have breathed a bit easier had the game ended differently, but Altmix has not hit the panic button yet.

“I’m happy right now that we don’t have any huge things where it’s like, ‘Oh gosh, I don’t know if we can get this fixed by the end of the year,’” Altmix said. “The good news is everything that we had issues or problems with tonight can get fixed and corrected by the end of the season.”

Eftink agreed with his coach.

“I would probably say the same thing,” Eftink said.