Wharton wipeout: Blue Devils’ opportunity to go undefeated in WB6 ends with loss to Maroons

MOLINE, Ill. — Momentum began to teeter in the Quincy High School boys basketball team’s direction Friday night when back-to-back baskets preceded the third quarter mask timeout.

All the Blue Devils needed was a defensive stop or two when play resumed to sustain it.

“(Assistant coach Bruce Bonness) mentioned that if we’re going to go on a run now is the time,” Quincy coach Andy Douglas said. “We were starting to turn the corner on some things.”

That’s when the Blue Devils and their pursuit of perfection ran into a roadblock.

Moline ripped off a 7-0 run to extend its lead to 59-42 and take the life out of Quincy’s comeback. It resulted in a 76-57 loss that ended the Blue Devils’ 10-game Western Big 6 Conference winning streak and tightened the league’s title chase.

“We didn’t respond well and we were playing soft,” QHS senior swingman Jeremiah Talton said. “We didn’t do the things we needed to do. They took advantage of it and it showed.”

With Rock Island whitewashing Alleman by 81 points Friday night, the Blue Devils (19-5, 10-1 WB6) now have just a one-game lead over their two biggest rivals with three league games remaining.

Moline (23-3, 9-2 WB6) is the league’s hottest team, having won 15 games in a row and not lost in 2022. Rock Island (17-7, 9-2 WB6) comes to Blue Devil Gym next Friday and could shake up the race. And Quincy holds the trump card.

If the Blue Devils win out, they win the championship outright.

“We just have to come back to practice ready to work even harder,” said Talton, who scored 10 of his 13 points in the first half. “We have to fix the things we didn’t do well tonight.”

The problems started and ended at the defensive end.

The Maroons won the opening tip, drew a defensive foul on the Blue Devils in the first 10 seconds and pounded the ball inside to freshman forward Trey Taylor, who scored 20 seconds into the game. Moline never trailed thereafter.

Taylor’s basket started a trend. Four of the Maroons’ first five field goals came in the paint as Taylor and senior forward Grant Welch combined for 21 points and forced the Blue Devils to alter their defensive strategy.

That played into Moline junior point guard Brock Harding’s hands. He finished with a game-high 30 points, going 11 of 12 from the free-throw line and hitting tide-turning shots at every turn.

“We shot it well and we guarded well,” said Moline coach Sean Taylor, who improved to 9-3 against Quincy as the Maroons’ head coach. “Welch and Trey Taylor did a good job of being a presence in there and that opened up some space for some other guys.”

The daggers, though, came in the third quarter.

The Blue Devils trailed 41-34 at halftime after the Maroons closed the half on a 6-2 run. The Blue Devils scored on only one of their final four possessions of the second quarter, then failed to score on their first seven possessions of the third quarter.

Moline led 50-34 before Quincy freshman forward Keshaun Thomas converted a three-point play with 4:45 to go. By the mask timeout with 3:15 to go, the Blue Devils were within 52-42.

“They had momentum, but we tried to tell our guys we had extended the lead from seven to 10 since halftime, so just play relaxed,” Sean Taylor said. “We had a lot of guys make plays.”

Welch hit a 15-foot jumper, Harding turned a steal into a three-point play and Kyle Taylor buried two free throws to cap the 7-0 run after a technical foul was called on the Quincy bench. At the point, momentum was lost.

“They kept us on our heels the majority of the night,” said Douglas, who got 15 points from Bradley Longcor III and 11 from Thomas.

Quincy doesn’t have much time to lick its wounds with Webster Groves (Mo.) visiting Blue Devil Gym at 7 p.m. Saturday. Two WB6 games — Tuesday at Geneseo and Friday against Rock Island — await next week as well.

“We have to take it and move on from it,” Talton said. “Learn from it and get better.”