‘That hole is 6 feet deep and we’re buried in it’: Blue Devils’ offensive execution in second half flattens Raiders

QUINCY — Andy Douglas didn’t need to be boisterous with his halftime speech Saturday night.

The Quincy High School boys basketball coach didn’t have to say much at all.

“The guys were already talking about what we needed to do before I got in the locker room,” Douglas said. “A lot of it was said before I got in there. … We really needed to make it a focus on the offensive end to execute.”

It was necessary to put Quincy Notre Dame away.

The Raiders’ Jake Wallingford hit a 3-pointer as the second quarter buzzer sounded, trimming the Blue Devils’ lead to 25-16 at the break. QHS stormed out of the locker room by scoring on its first five possessions of the third quarter and extending the lead to 15 points midway through the frame.

“Coach told us we can’t let them get confidence,” QHS senior swingman Jeremiah Talton said. “We came out and played our hardest in the third quarter.”

All told, the Blue Devils scored on 9 of 13 possessions in the 20-point third quarter, propelling them to a 59-37 victory in the crosstown showdown at the Pit.

“The message was to keep our composure, get back on defense in transition and make our shots,” said QHS freshman guard Bradley Longcor, who scored a game-high 20 points including seven of the first 13 points of the third quarter.

“We penetrated well, got to the paint and made our shots.”

And they sucked the life out of the Raiders at the same time. QND turned the ball over on the first possession of the third quarter as all three turnovers in the frame led directly to points for QHS.

“(Wallingford) makes that three and I’m thinking, ‘We’re OK. Let’s go in and talk about it,’” QND coach Kevin Meyer said. “We come out and turn the darn thing over that first possession. That was a killer for us.”

The Blue Devils’ ability to consistently make plays offensive was, too. QHS went 8 of 12 from the field in the third quarter, made three free throws and scored on a putback as Sam Mulherin cleaned up a Ralph Wires miss.

“We have to play better defense to prevent that,” Raiders point guard Jake Hoyt said of the Blue Devils’ second-half surge. “With Jake Wallingford making that shot, we have to stay with it. We have to push the tempo and use it. We didn’t stick with what we wanted to do.”

The Blue Devils (9-1) never got out of rhythm in the second half.

They scored on the first four possessions of the fourth quarter and had only three empty possessions over the final eight minutes.

“The next thing you know is that hole is 6 feet deep and we’re buried in it,” Meyer said.

The Blue Devils shot 58.5 percent from the field, while limiting the Raiders to 38.9 percent shooting.

“In practice, we talked about how our defense is going to translate into offense,” said Talton, who scored 16 points. “Getting stops on the defensive end is really important for us because it allows us to get out and run.”

That was the case early in the game as the Raiders (5-3) turned the ball over on three of their first four possessions, didn’t score until Wallingford made two free throws at the 4:36 mark of the first quarter and didn’t make a field goal until Wallingford scored in the post off Braden Sheffield assist on the next possession.

The Raiders committed nine turnovers in the first half, leading to 11 points for the Blue Devils. They also went 5 of 18 from the field in the first 16 minutes, a 27.8 percent clip. The Raiders missed their first eight shots and made only one of their first 11 attempts.

“We have to stop making the simple mistakes and turning the ball over in certain spots,” Hoyt said. “We have to start playing our game and not get out of it.”

Wallingford scored 11 of his 16 points in the first half with only two others scoring in the half. No one else scored more than six points.

“We got looks, but they didn’t fall,” Meyer said. “We have to start making shots.”