‘We were locked in’: Blue Devils respond to loss with gusto, dispatch Pioneers in WB6 play

QUINCY — In the locker room after the Quincy High School boys basketball team’s 59-56 loss to Vashon on Jan. 4 — the Blue Devils’ first setback of the season — the attention turned to how to move forward.

Four seniors — Dom Clay, Bradley Longcor III, Kamren Wires, and Keshaun Thomas — stood up and put a plan in place. The Blue Devils went right back to work at practice at 8 a.m. the next day, intent on getting that bad taste out of their mouths.

“We were locked in,” senior guard Dom Clay said.

The proof of that laser focus came in the form of a 90-34 drubbing of Rock Island Alleman on Friday night in Western Big 6 Conference play at Blue Devil Gym.

“They know what it’s going to take,” Quincy coach Andy Douglas said. “It’s not beat Alleman. It’s take the next step within the team that we need to take. The focus was there tonight. Guys were active. The energy was there. We’re going to need to have that.”

The Blue Devils, the No. 1 team in Class 4A with a 14-1 overall record and 5-0 mark in the WB6, opened the game on a 10-0 run and forced turnovers on Alleman’s first three possessions, setting the tone for a first quarter in which they outscored the Pioneers 25-7.

“When they’re struggling to get a shot up, we’re playing great defense, getting steals, and forcing turnovers, I feel like it breaks them down and they don’t know what to do after a while,” Blue Devils forward Keshaun Thomas said.

Bradley Longcor III had 12 points in the first quarter and 21 in the first half, outscoring the Pioneers by five and six, respectively, in those timeframes.

“We were just going out there and playing, being ourselves. It happened, so that’s pretty cool,” Longcor said of outscoring Alleman (2-14, 1-4 WB6) by himself.

Longcor exited the game for good in the third quarter with 28 points, equaling the Pioneers’ total through 24 minutes. The Santa Clara commit knocked down a 3-pointer in each quarter, got to the rim at will and led several transition opportunities that led to layups and dunks.

“My teammates got me open on some threes,” Longcor said. “I was able to score off the dribble. I was just trying to get in transition more, push the pace. As a lead guard, I think that’s very important.”

Thomas, who had 15 points and was one of five Blue Devils to score in double figures along with Dom Clay (14), Rico Clay Jr. (12) and Kamren Wires (10), said with 53 points at halftime and 79 after three quarters, Quincy had a chance to reach the century mark, but the running clock and emptying of the bench in the fourth quarter slowed the Blue Devils’ scoring pace a bit.

“We could have gotten to 100,” Thomas said.

Douglas said more performances like the Blue Devils put forth on Friday will be necessary in Quincy’s state title pursuit.

“When you’re playing here at Quincy, we think every team is going to have their best game against us,” Douglas said. “Now that you throw the No. 1 ranking out there, that X on the back has gotten even bigger. We know that we’re going to get teams’ best, so we need to be at our best every game.”

Dom Clay said the Blue Devils are prepared for whatever their opponents’ best shot may be.

“We’re ready, for sure,” Clay said.

Longcor knows the Blue Devils cannot let their heads get too big.

“To be honest, I don’t really care about (the No. 1 ranking),” Longcor said. “I don’t think our team really cares about that. We think it’s cool, and we hear about it, but we’re not searching for that. We have to play like we’re the No. 1 team every night.”

Douglas echoed his star guard.

“It comes in practice. It comes with focus. It comes with the mindset that we’re always chasing better,” Douglas said. “Every time we step in the gym, we’re chasing better. There are a lot of people saying, ‘You guys are awesome,’ and even against Vashon it was, ‘Oh, it was a great game,’ and in our minds it’s not. It wasn’t a great game because we didn’t win, and we didn’t win playing the style of basketball that we’re capable of playing.

“There’s a lot of talk going around, ‘Oh, we’re going to win state,’ and whatever. If we do what we need to do every day in practice and let that carry on over to games, then that’ll take care of itself.”