By BLAKE TOPPMEYER
Herald-Whig Sports Writer
DECATUR, Ill. – It's become an all-too-familiar sight for opponents facing the Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball team this season.
The Lady Raiders set up a half-court high-low offense to combat the opponents' 2-3 zone. Three QND guards work the perimeter, while senior Tori Kuhn mans the high post and Jordan Frericks works the low post on the baseline. Kuhn receives a pass near the free-throw line and zips a pass to Frericks, who converts a basket.
That scenario unfolded three times Monday during the Lady Raiders' 69-28 victory against Champaign St. Thomas More in the Class 2A Decatur Super-sectional at Millikin University. Overall, Kuhn finished with a team-high six assists to go along with eight points and four rebounds. Frericks recorded a game-high 24 points.
High assist nights aren't rare for Kuhn, a 6-foot senior forward who has shown off her passing skills this season by racking up 2.6 assists per game, good for fourth on the team.
"She can do a lot of things when we need her to," Frericks said of Kuhn. "She's good at a variety of things."
Passing, especially out of QND's zone offense, is one of them.
In addition to dishing to Frericks for a trio of baskets, Kuhn also set up Kassidy Gengenbacher for a pair of 3-pointers.
"Everybody on the team has a role," said Kuhn, who averages 11.7 points and a team-high nine rebounds per game. "Some days, maybe it is my job to step up and score, but I'm OK (not scoring). It's not about how many points I score. It's not about how many points anybody scores. It's just about finding the open person and making sure they're successful."
About half of the Lady Raiders' opponents this season have played a zone, as teams decide they can't handle QND's size and quickness with man-to-man defense.
That was the case with St. Thomas More.
The Sabers don't have any players who are taller than 5-foot-9, while QND has four players at 5-11 or taller.
Thus, STM coach Jason Schreder opted for a 2-3 zone rather than his team's traditional man-to-man. But with Kuhn consistently setting up teammates for baskets, QND reached the 60-point plateau for the 25th time this season.
"They are very good passers out of that (zone offense)," Schreder said. "They run their spots very well. When you've got a girl (Kuhn) who can shoot it from that high post spot, it makes it a lot tougher. And then when you're sneaking somebody in there (on the baseline), and (Kuhn) can make that pass down low, it's really hard to defend."
The Lady Raiders' zone offense was vital against STM.
QND often uses its full-court press to generate plenty of steals and convert them into fastbreak layups.
Although the Sabers committed 27 turnovers, that was eight fewer than any other opponent QND has faced this postseason.
The Lady Raiders scored 16 points off fastbreak layups against STM – two fewer than it scored off fastbreak layups in the first quarter alone in the sectional championship against Williamsville.
By relying on Kuhn and Frericks in the high-low and sprinkling in Gengenbacher's 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range, QND had no trouble remaining effective in more of a half-court game.
"We've been running this (zone) offense so much this year because we've been facing zone so much, that a lot of us know where each other are going to be," Gengenbacher said. "Tori knows where Jordan is going to be, so it's easy for her to make that pass when she knows she can count on her being right there."
– btoppmeyer@whig.com/221-3367
Tori Kuhn, a 6-foot senior on the Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball team, tallied a team-high six assists to help the Lady Raiders defeat Champaign St. Thomas More 69-28 on Monday in the Class 2A Decatur Super-sectional. (H-W Photo/Steve Bohnstedt)
