 In a quarterfinal contest at the Schnucks Holiday Classic, Quincy needed double overtime to upset
top-seeded Lincoln, handing the Railers their first loss of the
season, a 62-54 decision on Wednesday night in Collinsville. More
disappointing than the loss was the way we arrived at this point.
In a season where the Railers
have gotten out to early leads and gone on from there, they found
themselves down 9-0 halfway through the first quarter. Lincoln
played from behind most of the game, enjoying only four leads,
including one just before halftime, one at the beginning of the
second half and the other at the beginning of the first of two
overtime sessions.
Jordan Nelson connected on one
of two free throws with 15 seconds to play in regulation to force
overtime, tied at 48. The senior then hit from long range to put
Lincoln up 51-49 early in the extra period. Quincy was able to score
the next five points to go up by three, and it took Nelson striking
from well behind the arc on the right wing with two seconds to go to
force the second overtime, tied at 54.
After that, it was all Quincy.
The Blue Devils (7-4) scored
all eight points in the second overtime to upset the befuddled
Railers and send Lincoln to a 10:30 a.m.
matchup against host
Collinsville. If Lincoln wins that, they will play again at 4 p.m.,
while a loss would send Lincoln packing after only three contests.
Not exactly what the top-seeded and No. 7 team in the state was
planning on doing during their holiday break.
Coming off a lethargic, yet
victorious, effort the night before against a valiant Eisenhower
squad, the Railers (10-1) got off to exactly the start they did not
want to against Quincy. The Blue Devils jumped out to a 9-0 lead
before Jordan Gesner hit a 3-pointer at the 4:09
mark. That shot started a 9-0 run for Lincoln to pull even near the end
of the first quarter. However, a Quincy 3 put the Railers down
12-9 at the end of one.
Nelson continued to struggle
with his shot in the early part of the game, but a basket at the
2:25 mark put him at 1,500 career points, and more important, drew
the Railers to within four at 18-14. Nelson hit two more 3s to
give Lincoln their first lead of the night at 20-18.
Quincy was able
to knot the game at 20 heading to the break.
Austin Kirby's basket to start
the half gave Lincoln a 22-20 advantage, but was quickly matched and
passed by Quincy. Nathaniel Smith, celebrating his 18th
birthday, hit from 15 feet to get Lincoln back to down by one, but
the Blue Devils continued to find openings in the Railer defense, and
a 9-3 spurt to end the quarter saw Quincy in control 34-27.
A quick start by Quincy saw
them push their lead to nine at 40-31, and things were not looking
good for the Railers. However, as Railer fans have seen in the
past, the beauty of the 3-point shot is that you can get back
into games very, very quickly. A 3 and another basket from
Smith cut the deficit to four at 40-36. A Lincoln steal gave them a
chance to cut more into the lead, but a turnover, which seemed to
happen all night at the worst possible times, helped Quincy stretch
it back out to 42-36. Nelson drained two more 3s and Quincy
seemed to see the train coming down the track. Unlike most
opponents who stand there and don't get out of the way in time, the
Blue Devils showed enough composure and ability at the free-throw
line to hang with the Railers.
Down 45-44, Brant Coyne hit
one of two free throws to tie the game at 1:05. After Quincy
hit one of two free throws to take the lead back, Coyne again
stepped to the line, this time hitting both, giving Lincoln the lead
47-46 with only 54 seconds to go. Another set of Blue Devil free
throws seesawed the game back to Quincy, and Nelson's charity toss
with 15 seconds in regulation tied the game and sent in it to
overtime. Quincy had two chances to avoid overtime, but could not
capitalize.
After Nelson's first 3 in
the overtime sessions, Quincy outscored Lincoln 13-3 over the rest
of overtime to send the Railers home without the chance to defend
their championship.
"The effort was there," a
disappointed coach Neil Alexander said, "but we did not run our
offense well and our defense did not rotate."
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There are a lot of areas to
look at. The Railers forced 21 turnovers but scored only 14 points
off those miscues, while Quincy scored 20 points on the 15 Lincoln
turnovers. Offensive rebounding destroyed Lincoln, with Quincy
dominating the points in the paint 22-6, while the Railers scored
only two points on second-chance opportunities. That can happen
when you are outrebounded 43-19.
One area of concern is free-throw shooting. A team that prides itself on winning games at the
line had their chance to do just that. Coming in shooting
only 67 percent as a team, the free-throw shooting failed them again,
going only 8 of 14. The Railers stepped to the line for seven pairs
of free throws, hitting both tosses only twice.
"I tell the team
you win or lose a number of games at the line each year," Alexander
said. "Tonight was one of those games."
Lincoln's shooting woes from
the field continued, as they hit only 18 of 47 shots (38 percent) which
included hitting 10 3s but taking 29 attempts to do so. A good
deal of the Railers' shooting issues stems from taking not the first
good shot in the offense, simply the first shot. Too many
possessions ended after one, maybe two passes and a shot, usually
contested.
The first two games at Collinsville have shown the
Railers will need to find more ways to score inside, a point that
does not elude the coach.
"We've got to find ways to make layups,"
Alexander said, "as we're not playing real well in the post right
now."
So, only one of the four top-seeded teams did not make the quarterfinals, the Lincoln Railers. There is hope they can win two on Thursday to provide some momentum
going into next weekend's return to CS8 play against Springfield
and Southeast.
___
LINCOLN (54)
Nelson 9-22 5-8 29, Smith 6-14
0-0 14, Gesner 2-5 0-0 6, Coyne 0-0 3-4 3, Kirby 1-4 0-0 2, Van Hook
0-2 0-2 0, Olson 0-0 0-0 0. Team 18-47 8-14 54.
3-point field
goals 10-29 (Nelson 6-15, Gesner 2-5, Smith 2-6, Kirby 0-3).
Rebounds 19 (Van Hook 6), assists 11 (Nelson, Smith 4), turnovers
15.
Quincy (62)
Davis 15, D.Dean 13, Marold
12, T.Dean 11, Fairley 6, Kvitle 4, Beebe 1. Team 18-44 20-28 62.
3-point field goals 6-20 (Fairley 2, Marold 2, T. Dean, Kvitle).
Rebounds 43, assists 12, turnovers 21.
Score by quarters:
End of first quarter
-- Quincy 12, LCHS 9
Halftime -- LCHS 20, Quincy 20
End of third quarter
-- Quincy 34, LCHS 27
End of regulation -- LCHS 48,
Quincy 48
End of first
overtime -- LCHS 54, Quincy 54.
[By JEFF BENJAMIN]
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