Jacks pick up first CTL win, defeat Chelan 68-44
QUINCY — After dropping their first two games, the Quincy Jackrabbits got into the win column this season with a 68-44 win over Chelan on Tuesday. The game was Quincy’s first Caribou Trail League contest this winter.
The Jackrabbits lost two road contests last week, falling to Wahluke and Zillah on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
“We didn’t play well the first two games, certainly not where I thought we were going to play,” Quincy head coach Scott Bierlink said. “I think the energy of the home crowd, being able to play at home helped loosen it up a little bit. We’ve just got to play free and loose.”
After going up 11-4 in the first quarter, Chelan responded by cutting the Jackrabbit lead to two before the second quarter.
“They hung with us for the first part of that second quarter, then we were able to get some stops and were able to finally knock down some shots with some consistency,” Bierlink said.
Converting on shots allowed the Jacks to take a double-digit lead into the halftime locker room, and after a slow start to the second half, Quincy picked up toward the tail end of the game to win by 24 points.
“Offensively we’re not playing great, but a 15-point lead, we’ll take it,” Bierlink said. “We came out in the third quarter and played a little flat, maintained that same lead, and then towards the end of the third quarter, beginning of the fourth we were able to pull away from them for good.”
Senior Aidan Bews led the Jacks in scoring with 21 points, followed by sophomore Pierce Bierlink with 20 points and senior Julian Ibarra with 13 points. Bierlink had 13 boards, followed by Bews with 10 and Ibarra with five.
Tuesday’s win was the first of five straight home games for Quincy, three of which are non-league contests; the Jacks take on Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) on Saturday, Ephrata on Thursday and Brewster on Dec. 16. Quincy’s remaining CTL contest over that span is against Cashmere on Tuesday.
“They’re going to be huge for us, we get a great crowd; student section is really good, community supports us,” Bierlink said. “There’s a lot of energy. I think when you’re at home, you’re a little more comfortable.”
Quincy opened the season with a 50-48 loss to Wahluke on the road, then played Zillah on the road the following day in a 55-48 loss.
“We had a 15-point going into the fourth quarter (against Wahluke), and we just could not hold onto it, which is surprising for a veteran team like us,” Bierlink said. “We had to flush that, went to Zillah Saturday — Zillah’s a really good team. We didn’t play extremely well against them, but had a chance to win it.”
Saturday’s matchup against Lakeside is a rematch of the 2023 1A District 6/7 Crossover, where the Eagles defeated the Jacks 68-66 to advance to the 1A State Boys Basketball Tournament. Lakeside also defeated Quincy 59-56 in the penultimate game of the regular season last winter, as well as a 74-73 win in the 2021-22 season.
Bierlink said many of the players on Lakeside’s roster also played football, with their season wrapping up last week with an appearance in the 1A title game; with that, it’s a short turnaround from football to basketball season for the Eagles.
“They’re going to be a bit rusty, but they’re big, strong and athletic,” Bierlink said. “They’ve played us well in the past, but we certainly have a little bone to pick with them.”
Tip-off between the Jacks and Eagles is at 5 p.m. in Quincy.
“We’ve got a couple little things that we need to clean up that we’ve been working on in practice,” Bierlink said. “We haven’t scored it like we did last year, we just haven’t shot as well — that’s going to come, we’ve been shooting well in practice. I just think we need to build off this momentum — the guys are pretty excited about beating Chelan.”
Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.
Quincy sophomore Pierce Bierlink, left, scored 20 points in Tuesday’s win over Chelan, picking up 13 rebounds and converting on four three-pointers.