QUINCY — The Quincy Jacks (2-5) defeated the visiting Othello Huskies (1-6) 58-54 in overtime Saturday. Quincy head coach Johan Farias said a league win was a great confidence booster for them.   

“We have a fairly young team and just knowing time and situation management, especially when we're up. That game should have not gone to overtime, but it did, but we pulled it off, so I'm happy,” Farias said.   

The Huskies started strong in the first quarter by taking a 12-8 lead over the Jacks. However, Quincy’s offense erupted in the second quarter by putting up 19 points and holding Othello to just two points. From there, both teams went back and forth until the Huskies went on a run and hit some clutch shots late in the fourth quarter to force overtime. Though the Jacks were able to outlast a late comeback by the Huskies to earn their second win of the season.   

“I was proud of how they were able to turn it around,” Othello head coach Caleb Tovar said. “Kind of had a really sluggish first two quarters, and they didn't really look like themselves out there, and they were able to turn it around there in the second half, and almost still won.”  

Both teams were neck and neck out of the gate. However, the forecast showed three-point showers by the Huskies’ Meila Zuidema, Cierra Giles and Suzzie Henley, which allowed them to take a 12-8 lead heading into the second quarter.   

In the second quarter, Quincy found their rhythm from inside the paint and midrange to go on a scoring run of their own. A couple of three pointers sprinkled in by Juniper Thorsen and Chloe Medina, and the Jacks outscored the Huskies 19-2 to take a 27-14 lead at halftime.   

“We controlled (the game). We were up; we were rolling. We were doing everything. We're playing as a team, playing together,” Farias said.   

During the halftime break, Tovar called on his team to recenter their focus on the game and show more heart.   

“That pep talk at halftime, just tell them to dig deep. ‘If you want it, you guys still have a chance. There's a lot of game left,’ and they were able to take it up a couple notches. They felt like they were playing a lot harder in that second half,” Tovar said.   

In the third quarter, Othello came back to life. They were able to utilize ball movement to find open looks from the perimeter. Four three pointers split between Cumorah Giles, Cierra and Henley helped the Huskies edge out the Jacks 15-14 in the third quarter.  

However, Quincy still led the game 42-28, heading into the fourth quarter.   

The Huskies found a way to dig deep like Tovar asked and went on a 21-point scoring run in the fourth quarter. With the score close late in the same quarter, Othello made several hustle plays to tie the game in the final seconds, including a full-court drive by Acbde Garza.   

With the game tied 49-49, the game went into overtime. Tovar was complimentary of the turnaround his players had in the second half.   

“They did a lot better, moving that ball around, making the extra pass to make sure we got the best quality shot that we could with each possession, which seemed to help a lot,” Tovar said.   

The Jacks were able to put up nine points and hold the Huskies to just five in overtime to ultimately secure the win. Despite the loss, Tovar said he believes his players can take a lot of positives from this game.   

“I'm just hoping that they're starting to build some confidence and believing in themselves, because being so young, I think a lot of them are just so used to being the underdogs and expecting to lose, but I'm hoping that glimpses of this opens their eyes and lets them see that they can compete and they can play with any of these teams,” he said.   

Farias and the Jacks are focused on building off their win, going forward and turning around their season.   

“We take it one (game) at a time,” Farias said. “We got to fine-tune what we want to run during our league (games) when we come back from this little break after Christmas. We preach mental toughness, especially for this young core.”  

The Jacks play two road games against Cascade on Dec. 22 and Chelan on Dec. 23 before they hit pause for the holiday break. At the time of press, the results of those games were unavailable.   

BOX SCORE:  

OTHL: 12-2-14-21-5: 54
QNCY: 8-19-15-7-9: 58 

    Acbde Garza (12) drives up the court as Janely Ramirez Farias (22) applies defensive pressure. Garza hit a late contested shot to help tie the game against the Jacks on Saturday.
  

    Huskies Head Coach Caleb Tovar watches as his team battles to force overtime against the Jacks. Tovar said he was proud of how his team turned the game around in the second half.
  

    The Jacks bench erupts after a late shot to take the lead over the Huskies. Head Coach Johan Farias said their win over Othello was a good confidence booster for them going forward.