QUINCY, Ill. - The Quincy University men's basketball team hosted William Jewell for an afternoon contest on Saturday (Feb. 3) in Pepsi Arena. QU lead by nine at halftime with opportunities to win the game at the end of regulation and first overtime but eventually succumbed to WJC in double overtime by a 74-72 score. 

The Hawks got the first two buckets of the game on a jumper from Isaiah Foster along with a layup from Zion Richardson and held on to that lead for the first five minutes of the contest until a three from Jewell at the 15:02 mark put the Cardinals ahead 13-12. 

Exactly a minute and a half later, QU tied the score up at 15-15 and built onto the advantage for the remainder of the first half. Quincy led by as many as 11 points on a three from Orlando Thomas with 35 seconds remaining before a last second jumper from WJC made it 38-29 Hawks at halftime. 

The Cardinals got to work on cutting into the lead to open the second 20 minutes of play, needing only five of those minutes to erase the deficit and even the score 42-42 thanks to a 13-4 run.

The Hawks remained ahead or tied for the next seven minutes until a layup put WJC back in front, leading by a couple possessions at times down to the 2:00 minute mark where the Cardinals held a 60-56 advantage until a pair of free throws from Richardson and a layup from Thomas knotted the score at 60-60 as the end of regulation came about. 

The Cardinals led by six to open the first overtime on a couple of threes before an 8-0 run for Quincy made it 68-66 with under a minute to play on a free throw from Jake Hamilton. Jewell tied it up with 20 seconds left and fouled but the Hawks couldn't convert on either free throw the game to its second overtime. 

Quincy trailed from wire-to-wire in the second OT, suffering a turnover of the possession in the final seconds of the game to seal the 74-72 defeat. 

Zion Richardson led QU in scoring with 15 and another double-double pulling down 11 boards and bringing his total on the season to four. Foster was the second-leading scorer with 14 followed by Orlando Thomas with 11.

QU pulled down 55 rebounds in the contest, out rebounding its opponent by an astounding +23 margin. 

The Hawks shot over 40% in only the first half, managing 44% while making the teams only three-pointer of the entire game compared to nine threes from WJC and 40% shooting in three out of the four periods played. 

Next up for the Hawks is a trip down to Lebanon, IL to face off with the Bearcats of McKendree University on Thursday evening (Feb. 8). Tip-off is slated for 7:30 PM.