Fayette, Iowa - The Quincy University women's basketball team opened up conference play in exciting fashion, taking the Upper Iowa University Peacocks to double overtime before falling 88-84.
The Hawks started strong in the first ten minutes of conference play going 50 percent from the field and leading the Peacocks by a field goal.
Cymirah Williams started the Hawks off with a mid-range jumper off a pass from
Karsyn Stratton, who led the Hawks with six points in the opening quarter. Despite forcing the Peacocks into 11 turnovers, Quincy lost the lead in the second quarter. The Hawks struggled from the key in the first half while the Peacocks scored nearly a third of their points from beyond the three-point line.
A three-pointer from Stratton looked promising for the Hawks out of the halftime but the Peacocks went on a back-to-back-to-back three pointer train to cancel out Stratton's and put the Peacocks well ahead of the Hawks.
Mariann Blass returned back-to-back shots from the key to cut Upper Iowa's lead to just two points going into the final quarter.
Williams and Blass put the Hawks ahead in the fourth and pushed the lead to nine points before falling victim to effective shooting from the Peacocks in the final minutes of regulation. A tied scoreboard at the end of regulation put the birds into overtime for the first time this season. Both teams were pressured by the high foul count of their starters going into overtime, each team with three starters who tallied four fouls in regulation.
Upper Iowa's defense limited the Hawks to just five shots from the field.
Taya Stevenson started off the extra period with a three-pointer in front of the Hawks' bench. Graduate transfers
Taylor Haase and
Nicole McDermott scored all of their free throws in the first overtime period to help the Hawks stay ahead of the Peacocks before a technical against the Hawks gave way to the Peacocks' tying free throws.
The final five minutes of the game were filled with bonus free throws and fouled out Peacocks. Despite taking three of the Peacocks' starters out of the equation, the Hawks struggled to get the ball in the net. The Peacocks finished with two and one opportunities late in the final overtime period that gave them a four-point advantage over the Hawks.
McDermott led the Hawks with 20 points and went 12 for 14 from the free throw line. She led the Hawks with four assists and nine rebounds, and after five years of college basketball, McDermott has surpassed 1,000 rebounds.
Stratton, Williams, and Blass were the remaining Hawks to score in the double digits. Stevenson collected the second-most rebounds for the Hawks and her career-best at eight rebounds.
The Hawks have a week full of Great Lakes Valley Conference action this week and look to bounce back against the Drury Panthers on Thursday at 5:45 p.m. in Springfield, Missouri.
