Basin Battle: Jacks take Tigers, 62-47 Thursday in annual Battle of the Basin

Dec. 16—QUINCY — Good defense and a productive second quarter helped the Quincy Jackrabbits boys basketball team defeat the Ephrata Tigers 62-47 in a non-league game Thursday night in Quincy.

Quincy Coach Scott Bierlink said the team has focused on defense, and the work is paying off.

"We can really lock some teams down," Bierlink said.

Even though Quincy lost its first two games, Bierlink said, the defensive effort has been pretty good and was better Thursday night.

"Teams have only been shooting about 30% against (Quincy)," Bierlink said. "Our base defense has been pretty solid. We've struggled because we turned it over and we've given up too many offensive rebounds. (Thursday) I thought we did a little better job of that."

Ephrata opened the game by taking an 8-2 lead before Quincy came back to go ahead 12-11 with about 1:55 left in the first quarter. A quick exchange of the ball left Ephrata in possession as the clock ticked down, and the Tigers hit a shot at the first-quarter buzzer to take an 18-17 lead. The Jacks then held Ephrata scoreless for the first four minutes of the second quarter as part of an 11-0 run.

Ephrata Coach Rick Walter said the game was decided in the second quarter.

"That second quarter killed us," he said. "First quarter, we played good, hit some shots — second quarter, we lost some steam and they hit a lot of shots and played really well, and that was the difference," he said.

The Jacks hit a shot at the second-quarter buzzer to take a 40-27 lead, and stretched it to 27 points, 60-33, early in the fourth quarter.

"We let that defense lead our offense," Bierlink said. "First quarter, they hit some shots and it was close. And then we really let our defense lead to our offense, and got some easy buckets there."

Bierlink said it was a good effort from a veteran team.

"I thought we played good team basketball. We made the extra pass, we passed up a good (shot) for a great one. We were looking for our teammates. I thought offensively we did pretty good," he said.

Walter said Quincy's defensive pressure led to some frustration on the part of the Tigers.

"We took some bad shots. We were pressing a little bit in the second quarter, and that leads to transition for them. And they definitely did a good job."

The game is billed as the Battle of the Basin, and Walter said it's a good game to play, win or lose.

"It's fun. It's always fun to play Quincy," he said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.