Saturday Boys Preps: Herrin Slows Down Du Quoin

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Herrin Tigers are learning how to win without Alex Brown, which does not bode well for their competition in the second half of the season.

Brown, who has a Division I scholarship in hand and draws plenty of attention with his 6-foot-9 frame and shot-blocking ability, had another limited appearance Saturday night - due to nobody's fault but his own after picking up a technical foul after a second personal early in the first quarter - and yet he and his teammates played one of their best complete games of the season in a 58-49 victory over Du Quoin at Anders Gymnasium.

"All of our kids stepped up and I thought Alex shrugged that off pretty well in the third quarter," said Herrin coach Irv Lukens. "He was mostly upset with some of his teammates for leading players down in there to him. But he's got to learn to defend that better. This might have been a growing period for him where he can see that and move forward."

DeMarlo Harris, playing well beyond a sophomore's level, had 21 points and steady senior David Mallow had 10 points and 11 rebounds, while JoJo Hart had 13 points for the Tigers, who improved to 9-5 and handed Du Quoin (10-3) its first home loss.

Jakob Caldwell, called into duty as a third guard when Brown went to the bench, was a steady ballhandler along with Hart and Jamie Jones chipped in seven points as Herrin shot 61 percent from the field (23-for-38) and held the Indians to 32 percent on 18 of 57 shooting.

Matt Gossett scored 19 points and J.C. Davis had 15 for the Indians.

"I thought our defense was excellent," Lukens said. "Any time you hold a team under 50 points, that's a pretty good defensive job especially going up and down the floor like we were."

There were eight lead changes in the first half, which ended with Herrin going on a 10-4 run sparked by a 3-pointer from Hart and featuring strong layups by Mallow and Harris in the final minute as the Tigers took a 28-23 lead into the break.

Herrin went up by 11 points at 36-25 in the third quarter but the Indians chipped that down to 42-37 at the final stop and got within three when Gossett scored the first basket of the fourth period.

But a bucket from Harris and a triple by Jones quickly pushed the lead back to eight with six minutes to play and Du Quoin couldn't get closer than four the rest of the way thanks to the Tigers making their last eight free throws and finishing 10-for-17 at the stripe.

Brown, who has signed with SIU-Edwardsville, finished with just four points but altered or blocked his share of shots in the second half and also shook off a brief injury after being undercut while going for an alley-oop.

While he was out, in both halves, the rest of the Tigers rallied and the end result was an impressive win.

"We really hadn't dealt with anything like that yet," Lukens said. "It was good for us to bounce back and maintain while he was out."

Du Quoin visits a strong Metro East Lutheran (11-3) team Tuesday night in Edwardsville and will then host Nashville Friday as a difficult stretch of games continue.

"Right now there's a lot of things that need addressed," Indians coach Mike Crews said.

"And they will be at Monday's practice. We are just way too stagnant offensively and have plenty of issues defensively to work on as well."

In Saturday's junior varsity affair, Du Quoin (3-2) crusied to a convincing 59-45 victory over the young Tigers.

Sam Gossett's game-high 22 points paced the Indians with James Williams adding 16 points.

Cayle Diggins and Seth Baxter each scored eight.

-Jeff Profitt contributed