WARSAW, Ill. — The gymnasium was packed before the game started. It also got hotter as the night went on resulting in the floor being wet. When the Quincy Notre Dame Raiders come to town, it feels different. That was the case at Warsaw High School on Tuesday night as the West Hancock Titans fell just short with a 57-51 loss.

In the first quarter it was a feeling out process as both teams played well. The lead switched hands in the first quarter, but QND was up 16-14 at the end. Cooper Knowles led the Titans with eight points. Jace Allensworth was the leading scorer for the Raiders with seven points. It was the start of a big night for him.

The second quarter was much different than the first quarter. Both defenses tightened up. West Hancock did just enough on offense to grab a slim halftime lead 23-20. Knowles had 10 points. Hunter Froman also had 10 points. Allensworth had nine points for Quincy Notre Dame.

“We played excellent defense in the first half,” West Hancock coach Jeff Dahl said. “We did a great job of rebounding as well.”

The third quarter was the Titans worst of the night. They were outscored 20-10 as they lost the lead and fell behind. West Hancock struggled offensively and they couldn’t stop Allensworth most of the night. He made five two pointers for 10 third quarter points. Whenever QND needed a basket, he was the guy they went to. He finished with a game high 28 points on the night.

The Titans were able to hang in there as the game went on. Froman was the top scorer for the Titans with 18 points. Five of his six made field goal attempts were from two-point range. WH was down 40-33 at the end of the quarter.

“We tried to do too much individually,” Dahl said. “We got to do a better job of setting our stuff up on offense unless Froman is going downhill.”

West Hancock needed a spark in the worst way possible. The crowd had been waiting for a few minutes for something to cheer about. With 6:36 left in the game. Wade Gooding buried a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 40-36. The West Hancock faithful were right back in it. With 5:00 left and trailing 40-37, Hunter Froman scored on a layup to make it 40-39. It felt like this might be the time the Titans take the game over.

Unfortunately, that was as close as the Titans would get. The Raiders showed why they’re so good at closing games out. When the Titans cut the deficit to one, an unlikely source of offense hit one of the biggest shots of the night. Kaden Marth hit a three-pointer to give the Raiders a 43-39 lead. That silenced the crowd momentarily.

“In the second half we started out really well,” Dahl said. “We stopped solving problems on defense. We didn’t guard as well which led to us not rebounding as well. That gave them some momentum which caused us to have some turnovers.”

Allensworth put the Raiders on his back scoring nine fourth quarter points to seal it at the end. Even though it was a good game, both teams didn’t end the quarter the way they would like. QND leading by six with 21.5 seconds left decided to throw a long pass that ended up going out of bounds. As a result, no time was taken off the clock. That could’ve cost QND big time.

“We missed a lot of free throws,” Quincy Notre Dame coach Greg Altmix said. “We had two silly fouls that weren’t needed in a two-possession game. We have to knock those free throws down to make it a three-possession game. West Hancock was in it until the very end.”

Knowles scored 16 points for West Hancock. Braden Hurt had seven points. Jordan Crowley and Wade Gooding had four points each, and Jess Scott had two points.

QND’s Robbie Reed scored 11 points. TJ Togorepi and Kaden Marth added five points apiece. Beau Eftink and Sully Walker contributed four points each.

The Raiders improve to 24-1 as they played Rushville-Industry on Wednesday and get ready to host Keokuk on Friday. West Hancock drops to 22-6 and will have senior night against Rushville-Industry on Friday at 6:15 p.m. before the postseason begins.