Friday Night Boys Prep Basketball: Tribe Starts Mississippi Chase with Convincing Win, Record now 5-0

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Placing five scorers in double figures, Du Quoin High School's Boys Basketball team stretched its early season winning streak to five games Friday night.

The Indians pulled away from a much-improved and spirited Sparta squad, 75-50, as Mississippi Division play in the River-to-River Conference opened.

Now 5-0, Du Quoin hosts Harrisburg (4-2) Saturday night. Sparta's records fell to 4-2 and 1-1.

"Overall, I am pretty happy with our efforts in all phases of the game," Indians coach Mike Crews said. "Sparta's going to create some problems for a lot of people and is a very much-improved ballclub. The final margin doesn't really indicate how close this game was."

Sparta led until the waning moments of the first quarter, but lost the lead for good when Logan Carson scored with 37 seconds remaining. Ahead 14-13, the Tribe used a big early second perioid run to open a 14-point cushion (34-20) by intermission.

J.C. Davis- held to just a pair of free throws in the opening half- exploded for 14 of Du Quoin's 22 points in the third quarter as the lead expanded to 21 points. Ahead 57-39 as the final period started, the Indians steadily pulled away. Carson dunked off a perfect alley-oop pass from Jamor Reed to highlight the run, sending the Anders Gymnasium crowd into a frenzy.

Davis led Du Quoin with 16 points. He also had four assists and four steals. Matt Gossett had another double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) with Marcus Clarry adding 10 first half points.

Carson (12 points, 7 rebounds, three blocks) and David Rose (12 points, 6 rebounds, four steals) were strong off the bench. Senior forward Logan Schneider added eight rebounds with Reed recording six steals to go with five assists.

Dartanis White's 14 points topped the Bulldogs.

"I tip my hat to the Indians, " first-year Sparta coach Rich Williams. "That's a very good team. Not only are they quick and skilled, they are also very physical and play excellent defense. We weren't able to force a lot of turnovers (10) and that's been a big part of our attack in the first five games. Du Quoin really handled our pressure."

In a wild preliminary game, Sparta (3-0) outscored Du Quoin 15-6 in overtime en route to its 94-85 win.

The loss snapped a nearly two-season winning streak for the young Indians-who did have a game-high 29 point effort from sophomore Sam Gossett.