By MATT SCHUCKMAN

Herald-Whig Sports Writer

EAST MOLINE -- As much as the Quincy High School boys basketball players want to win back-to-back Western Big Six Conference titles outright for the first time in more than two decades, a more pressing issue has become their top priority.

The Blue Devils have to figure out how to score.

Held to its lowest output of the season in Friday night's 48-31 WB6 loss to East Moline at the Panther Den, Quincy has shot less than 35 percent in its last two games and reached double figures in just one of its last eight quarters.

"It's hard for me to tell you what happened," Quincy forward Mitchel Rein said after the Blue Devils went 14 of 47 from the field (29.8 percent). "Guys weren't making shots. We weren't mentally focused. We weren't running plays right. There were a lot of offensive flaws tonight."

Despite it, Quincy can still win the WB6 title.

The Blue Devils (13-9, 7-2) will go into the final week of the regular season tied with East Moline (14-10, 7-2) atop the league standings. Quincy has the advantage of playing at home next Friday against Galesburg. The Panthers travel to Rock Island.

Quincy is undefeated at home in WB6 play the last two seasons.

"The goal is to win the league for all six teams, and there's only two of us who have a chance," Quincy coach Sean Taylor said.

It may not have come to this if Quincy had maintained some rhythm.

The Blue Devils built a 12-5 lead, hitting back-to-back shots after opening the second quarter with a turnover. However, Quincy wouldn't score again until 2 minutes, 58 seconds remained in the third quarter.

During the 9:52 drought, the Blue Devils missed 10 consecutive shots and were outscored 18-0.

The tide-turning moment came with 3.5 seconds remaining in the second quarter when East Moline's Shaq Lowery capped a 10-0 spurt by hitting a 3-pointer from the left corner that gave the Panthers a 15-12 halftime lead.

"It ends up looking like a big shot, but I'm not sure why," Taylor said. "We're down three at half. That's a one-possession game. You should be excited about being in it. But I think that shot had more of an effect than I thought it would on our guys."

The lack of outside shooting, though, took a bigger toll. The Blue Devils went 1 of 13 from 3-point range, not hitting a trey until they were down 20 with less than four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

"We don't live and die by the three," Rein said. "But when you hit a couple of threes, even just one or two, it takes the focus completely out of being just in the paint. People are more aware that we can hit the three. So when perimeter guys get it there, the defense has to jump to them. The inside becomes open for that look."

Quincy has made just 3 of 38 3-point attempts in the last 13 quarters with leading scorer Jordan Witte having gone 2 of 18 in that stretch.

"We're not a real prolific 3-point shooting team," Taylor said. "So we have to be able to score in other ways. Jordan will make some in the future, but we need to get other guys making some plays."

At least making shots. Quincy committed only seven turnovers.

"That tells me we couldn't throw it in," Taylor said. "It's the same thing we talked about after West Aurora (a 49-40 loss at the Batavia Night of Hoops), if you're going to beat good teams, you need to make baskets."

East Moline figured out a way to do that.

The Panthers made just one of their first seven field goal attempts, but they hit 10 of their last 16 attempts (62.5 percent). Better yet, they were at times automatic from the free-throw line.

Kannon Burrage, East Moline's leading scorer at 21 points per game, went 14 of 17 from the line and finished with a game-high 23 points, while the Panthers went 23 of 31 from the line overall.

"We haven't really won anything yet," Burrage said. "This is big, but it just put us in position to win (the conference title)."

-- mschuckman@whig.com/221-3366