By MATT SCHUCKMAN
Herald-Whig Sports Writer
Two seconds might have been enough for Mitchel Rein to play hero once again for the Quincy High School boys basketball team.
Too bad he had only one.
Inbounding the ball under their own basket with 1.1 seconds left in regulation Saturday night, the Blue Devils found Rein coming off a screen to the right baseline, but his contested jumper fell short as Quincy lost its regular-season finale 43-41 to Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin.
Back in November, Rein helped Quincy knock off Algonquin Jacobs 56-54 and win the QHS Thanksgiving Tournament when he hit a jumper off an inbounds play with 2.1 seconds left.
"One way or another, we were going to get him the ball," Quincy coach Sean Taylor said. "He had a great game, and it would have been nice for him to start the season with a bucket to win it and end the season with a bucket to win it.
"But it just wasn't meant to be."
SHG (8-18) put Quincy (14-11) in the do-or-die position by rallying from a seven-point deficit late in the third quarter and then milking nearly a minute off the clock before drawing a foul with 2.8 seconds left.
Quincy's Demeique Humphrey tied the game at 41 with a 15-footer, leading to an SHG timeout with 49 seconds remaining.
"I wanted to make sure we got the ball inbounds," SHG coach Al Klunick said. "I wanted to be sure we'd take the last shot unless it was a layup and just don't make a mistake. We needed a little bit of a rest to calm their mind and calm their body. It worked."
With less than 10 seconds to go, the Cyclones' John Lantz drove the left side of the lane, getting fouled as he tried to force a shot. He sank both free throws, finishing with a game-high 21 points.
"He has that mental toughness you need," Klunick said.
And a deft touch, too.
Lantz hit a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as SHG knocked down four consecutive threes and outscored Quincy 16-11 in the fourth quarter. The Cyclones shot 63 percent overall (17 of 27) and 55.5 percent from 3-point range (5 of 9).
That was a stark contrast to Quincy.
The Blue Devils finished 19 of 52 from the field (36.5 percent) and 1 of 13 from 3-point range (7.7 percent). But the inability to finish in the first quarter did the most damage.
Quincy went 2 of 16 from the field, missing seven shots inside 4 feet. The Blue Devils missed 13 shots in a row and converted six offensive rebounds into just five second-chance points.
"I don't think you can come up with a way to get better shots," said Taylor, whose team committed just one turnover. "We just have to make those. That's what we told them after the game. If you make your layups in the first half, we're up eight or 10 points. Then when they make their run, you're OK."
Instead, the Blue Devils were in a dogfight.
Rein and Shawn Blakeman helped Quincy build a 30-23 lead as each scored twice during a third-quarter stretch in which the Blue Devils scored on 7 of 8 possessions. Rein finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
"I knew I could outsize them and outmuscle them," Rein said. "So I was trying to play more in the post than shooting jumpers."
Jumpers, though, enabled SHG to rally.
Max Reavy tied the game at 30 with a 3-pointer on the opening possession of the fourth quarter, and the next three treys -- one by Reavy and two by Lantz -- each gave SHG the lead. Overall, there were seven lead changes and three ties in the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, Quincy never took the lead in the final 2:08 and now heads into the Class 4A postseason having lost three of its last four games.
"Not think about it, just let it go," Rein said of the Senior Night loss. "It really doesn't mean anything, except for the three seniors. I think we're pretty good at just moving on and letting things go.
"We'll let things go and move on to the next game."
-- mschuckman@whig.com/221-3366
