Quincy boys hoops best Mountain Goats 83-81

QUINCY – Both the Quincy girls and boys basketball teams took on the Chelan Goats on Tuesday night, with the girls falling 60-46 after a late Chelan surge and the boys winning 83-81, avenging an early-season loss.

Quincy girls

The Jackrabbits led for the majority of the first quarter before Chelan’s Brynn Hughbanks hit a three that gave the Mountain Goats the lead for good.

“It was a battle all game,” Quincy Head Coach Micaiah McCreary said. “They played really well. The energy was there, everybody played their hardest.”

Quincy freshman Chloe Medina hit a three and followed up with a layup on a fastbreak to cut the deficit to five points, but a Chelan run gave the Goats a 27-19 lead at the half.

“It was a game of runs,” McCreary said. “They got up on us, then we went on a little run. Third quarter, we got down about 10 or so and crawled back and we were down three.”

Running their three-quarter court press and pushing the ball into the paint allowed the Jacks to get to the free throw line, where 14 of their points came from on Tuesday night.

“I thought we pushed the ball really well, we shot 20 free throws tonight so we really got to the rim,” McCreary said. “That’s good, we wanted to attack.”

Another fourth-quarter run by the Jacks cut the deficit to two points, but Chelan outscored Quincy 24-12 down the stretch to pull away with a 60-46 win.

“I think we got a little flustered, we kept dribbling it into three girls and losing the ball, or making a bad pass.”

Quincy and Chelan will meet again on Jan. 9, a game that will have heavy implications on league standings in the district tournament.

“We want to get that win so we can play that district game here instead of up there,” McCreary said.

Quincy boys

Coming off of three-straight losses, the Jacks entered Tuesday night’s matchup looking to avenge a six-point loss to Chelan on the road on Dec. 6. In front of a rowdy group of fans, Quincy rode a strong stretch run by juniors Aidan Bews and Julian Ibarra to pull away with an 83-81 win over Chelan.

“We’ve been getting great fans the last couple of years,” Bierlink said. “The student section shows up, it’s the first day back at school – the crowd was great, the kids feed off of that environment.”

Bews and Ibarra accounted for 17 of Quincy’s 23 fourth-quarter points on Tuesday, taking advantage of lanes to the basket and second-chance points.

“Those two guys were tough, they’re two of the best players in the league,” Bierlink said. “That’s what I told them, ‘Big-time players make big-time plays,’ and that’s what they did down the stretch. I think that’ll be good for their confidence going forward.”

Chelan, led by junior Dylan Jay’s 38-point performance, battled back late in the fourth quarter to cut the Quincy lead to two points, but the Jacks were able to inbound the ball with under five seconds left and run out the clock.

“Got a little hairy there for a minute, but that was the first time our guys have buckled down and made the plays – hopefully they’ll have some confidence from that,” Bierlink said.

The Goats took a 16-7 lead midway through the first quarter on Jay’s third three-pointer of the quarter, forcing Bierlink to call a timeout and regroup the Jackrabbits.

“We kind of took a punch to the mouth early on, we got down and then we battled back,” Bierlink said. “We lost a couple of games in overtime, and we just talked about doing what we do – playing defense, rebounding and playing a little bit tougher. In games past we probably would have gone down 15 or 20, but we were able to get enough stops and go down and score.”

Freshman point guard Pierce Bierlink found success in drawing fouls when driving to the rim, scoring half of his 24 points at the charity stripe.

“I like to think that I’m just a regular player, I don’t think people should have lower expectations for freshmen,” Pierce Bierlink said. “A freshman’s just another player on the court. I think all freshmen should try to play like a senior.”

Quincy, now 7-5 on the year, is 4-1 in league play and second place in the Caribou Trail League.

“That was probably a must-win game for us if we wanted to go to a league title,” Pierce Bierlink said. “After a couple of minutes, you’ve got to shake those nerves off. It’s just another game.”

Ian Bivona can be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box Scores

Quincy girls vs Chelan

Quincy 8-11-12-15 46

Chelan 11-16-9-25 60

Quincy boys vs Chelan

Quincy 14-23-23-23 83

Chelan 18-20-18-25 81