By RICHARD MARKEY

Herald-Whig Sports Writer

The Quincy High School girls basketball team hasn't played for the QHS Thanksgiving Tournament championship since 2001.

Thanks to some late game heroics by St. Louis Metro's Jamielah Yancey, after a QHS comeback, the Blue Devils will have to wait until next year once again.

With the game tied at 42 and Quincy's 6-foot-2 Jordan Fletcher fouled out, Metro went inside.

Yancey caught an inbounds pass at the left block, took a drop step to her right and banked home a fade-away jumper to down QHS 44-42 semifinal loss at the QHS gym.

"We set that up because we knew with their big girl fouled out that we could go in the post," Metro coach Gary Glasscock said. "... We figured with 5 seconds we'd just throw the ball right into the post and it was open."

Quincy coach Sandi Devoe could take nothing away from the play Yancey made.

"It was a great finish," Devoe said about the shot. "Beautiful turn-around jumpshot off the glass. Hats off to them, that was a great play."

For much of the first half, it didn't even seem probable that the Blue Devils (5-2) would be in position to lose a close game. Metro started the game on an 11-1 run, in which QHS had nine turnovers before scoring its first field goal.

The poor start led to a 27-20 halftime deficit for the Blue Devils, but QHS would force the Panthers into nine third-quarter turnovers to take a 31-30 lead into the fourth.

"We did not start playing our game until the second half," Devoe said. "That first half really hurt us not getting what we wanted."

Fletcher split a pair of free-throws to give the Blue Devils a 42-39 advantage, their biggest of the night, with 2 minutes, 53 seconds remaining in the game.

However, QHS failed to score again while turning the ball over 6 times after that point. The Blue Devils turned the ball over 33 times, opposed to Metro's 31 giveaways, and shot 15 of 27 from the foul line.

The little things may have been the determining factor for a young QHS team playing without senior guard Shelby Wires who missed the game due to a family emergency.

"We struggled with decision making on our passes," Devoe said. "Unforced turnovers, we did struggle with that and in the first half we were not mentally ready to play and as the game went on we slowly progressed in to having our game face on...And at the end they just game back and got it."

Breanna Scholfield led the Quincy with 10 points after she led the Blue Devils, scoring 13-points, to a 45-32 win over Normandy in the opener.

The Blue Devils face Normandy again at 9 a.m. today and are looking to bounce back during consolation play.

"Our goal tomorrow is to make sure that we're ready to go when the ball is tossed up," Devoe said. "From the beginning to the end we want the same intensity and the same desire and the same tenacity all to happen as soon as the ball is thrown up. Not wait to settle into it."

--sports@whig.com/221-3365