QND’s Allensworth knows value of word teamwork

Published 1:57 pm Friday, June 5, 2026

By ALLAN BROWN
Special to the Herald-Whig

QUINCY — For a young man who just earned the Herald-Whig’s Boys Basketball Player of the Year award, Jace Allensworth is quick to point out that he didn’t get there alone.

Wrapping up a decorated athletic career at Quincy Notre Dame High School, where the senior excelled both on the football field and the basketball court, Allensworth’s stock is high, and on the rise, as he prepares to embark on the next step in his roundball pursuit next year.

Accomplished beyond his years, Allensworth has set records and helped this year’s Raiders’ basketball team make history.

In the process, Allensworth has made some history of his own.

Both during and even now, two months out of finishing his senior basketball season with QND, Allensworth is taking home some more hardware for his accomplishments on the court.

Recognized with multiple area and state honors as one of the best this season, this latest award from The Herald-Whig is something that he worked hard for, but is also one he neither thinks he accomplished solely on his own merit, nor takes for granted.

“It’s definitely not as important as team success, but is still a great feeling,” Allensworth said.

Teamwork, though, was the key to the Raiders’ success this past season and Allensworth lives and breathes that word – he always has and always will.

“Our team had no guys who were selfish. We were always able to pick each other up,” the 18-year-old Quincy native said.

Strictly By the Numbers

Allensworth has more than proven his worth to his team during his basketball career with QND, finishing with 1,230 points and 449 rebounds, including 507 points as a senior while averaging 14.9 per game. His production helped lead the Raiders to a state championship appearance and a program-record win total.

Great numbers if you can get them, to be sure.

He achieved the milestone 1,000-point marker in late January in a Raiders’ win against Monroe City. It’s a moment he was proud of, but also one he was glad to get out of the way to focus on the team principle that was its hallmark.

“I was kind of relieved because then I didn’t have to worry about it anymore,” Allensworth noted.

Instead, the focus could solely be on achieving great things on what the senior guard said was definitely a special team.

“We realized this team was special even going back to the end of last year. We knew we had the mindset and we had the grit,” he noted.

The team also had a punishing defense, which was something Allensworth and his basketball brothers zeroed in on this year. Their efforts worked, as this year’s squad gave up five fewer points per game when compared to the 2024-25 squad.

That winning mentality suited Allensworth and this team just fine, as the senior guard said that while losing sometimes is inevitable, it’s not a word he places in his regular vocabulary.

“I just never really liked losing, though it is just part of it sometimes,” he said when asked what motivates him to a competitive level.

Allensworth hopes to keep that winning vibe going as he plans to stay local and play basketball for Quincy University. It was a fairly easy decision for him, he said, because this town and his family mean everything to him.

“I like the way they run their offense and I’ll be close to home and be able to be with my siblings,” he said, adding that “I was pretty set staying around here” though there were a few D-III schools that could have possibly worked out.

Those siblings, all younger, are sister, Lakin, and brothers, Jax and Jett, all of whom gave Jace unconditional support during his years at QND, as did his parents, Lindsay and Jared, and grandmother, Debra Allensworth.

Keenly aware that it takes a village for anyone to achieve individual success, Allensworth made sure to note he is especially grateful to the many coaches, too numerous to list by name, who coached, mentored and inspired him along the way. While he enjoyed football, he noted basketball was always the sport he leaned toward continuing to play at a collegiate level.

“Growing up, I always played travel basketball,” Allensworth, who noted that his outside interests include fishing, hunting and working out, said.

They will all continue to be a support system to Allensworth as he pursues both his athletic and academic careers at QU. He intends to major in business in college, with the hope of one day taking over his father’s local construction business.

As for what he has learned during his years at QND, Allensworth said he is truly cognizant of the impact an athlete can have, something he and the other seniors took to heart as they tried to instill that same trait on those who follow them.

“We definitely have (made) an impression on the guys. I feel that we have been good teachers for them, for sure,” he said.

And what does the soon-to-be QND graduate offer as words of advice to those underclassmen?

“Definitely work hard and don’t take it easy on the hard reps,” he said.

For a player who built his career on team success, Allensworth hopes the next group soaks it all in and carries that same mindset forward – because, as he puts it, “it all goes so fast.”