The Ironmen boys basketball team take on 31-3 Quincy Blue Devils in tonight’s Pekin Sectional Championship game, hoping to prevent the storied program from adding to its list of accolades. 

The Quincy program, which played its first game in 1907, has claimed Illinois high school records for state tournament appearances (32), regional titles (60), sectional titles (32), state tournament games wins (52) and state trophies (14).

Quincy is a step closer to adding a 33rd Sectional title after Tuesday’s Class 4A Pekin Sectional Semifinal victory.

The Blue Devils dominated the Belleville West Maroons in a 74-46 victory at the O’Fallon Panther Dome.

Four Devils posted double-digit scoring in that contest, with junior Bradley Longcor III leading the charge.

The 6-foot-4 Longcor, the Western Big Six conference MVP., posted 28 points in the win. Junior Dom Clay scored 11, and Ralph Wires and Keshaun Thomas each added 10 points. 

Quincy will have some height on the floor to counteract Community’s tall talent. At 6-foot-6, Thomas is the tallest player on a roster that lists eight players above 6-foot-2. 

Community ended the 2024 campaign for a different roster of Maroons Tuesday, knocking off Moline 61-44 in Pekin. 

Niko Newsome led all Iron scorers with 20 points. The senior was key in Community establishing an early lead, jump-starting their 16-point victory. Newsome is getting hot at the right time for the Iron, shooting 65% over the last five games and averaging 13.2 points per game, an improvement over his season averages of 57.6% and 9.1 points per game.

Newsome’s “not ready to go home,” he said. 

Neither are his teammates. 

The team, Newsome said, has “high expectations” and “plan to live up to them.”

Moline was a common opponent for the Iron and Blue Devils this season. While Community went 2-0 against the Maroons, including a one-point win, Quincy split the season series with Moline. After a 54-37 victory over the Maroons in late January, the Blue Devils were on the other end of a one-point game, falling to Moline 42-41 on Feb. 9.

Longcor finished that contest with 19 for Quincy and accounted for their only points in the contest’s closing quarter. Longcor was the only Blue Devil to record more than five points in the contest. 

The Blue Devils demonstrated they are vulnerable from deep, as Moline’s Marcus McQueen drained four three-pointers for 12 points in that game. 

Perimeter shooting is a weakness for the Iron offense this season. The team averages just over three threes a game, converting at a 28.1 clip. 

Braylon Roman leads the Ironmen from beyond the arc, converting 35.7% of his attempts, good for 41 makes this year.

The Ironmen are looking to avenge 2022’s 56-51 Sectional Title game loss to Quincy. The Iron finished that season with a 33-2 record when the Blue Devils ended the Iron’s historic 26-game win streak, dashing their State hopes. 

That is an experience Roman, Jaheem Webber and Noah Cleveland, all sophomores on the roster, don’t hope to repeat.

“Quincy is very talented,” Webber said, “but if we lock in and stay ready, it should work out well for us.”

The winner of tonight’s contest would head to Super-Sectionals, taking on the winner of tonight’s Bolingbrook (26-4)/Downers Grove North (27-4) game. A win would put Community back in Super-Sectional play for the first time since 2015. Quincy lost their 2022 Supersectional contest to eventual 4th-place finishers Bolingbrook.

Tip-off is at 7 p.m. at Pekin High School; Quincy is 10-0 in neutral site contests this season.