Boys Prep Basketball: Tribe keeps Frankfort winless
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[It was anything but flashy or pretty, but a victory nonetheless.
Du Quoin High School's boys varsity basketball team trudged past winless West Frankfort Tuesday night, 51-30, for its 18th win in two dozen starts.
The Tribe visits Chester Friday as the regular season enters its final four games.
West Frankfort is 0-20.
"At times we were a little casual in our approach but I felt like we had a pretty good stretch to start the second half," Indians coach Mike Crews said. "We challenged the kids quite a bit at halftime and they dialed up the intensity pretty good there in the third quarter."
Matt Gossett was one of 10 players to score, but was the lone Indian to reach double figures. Gossett, who's believed to have exceeded the 1,000-career point mark in the victory, finished with 18 points five assists, four steals and nine rebounds.
Du Quoin jumped to a quick 6-0 lead and held 12-6 and 23-17 advantages at the first two quarter-stops.
Ahead by just six at intermission, the Indians responded with a 14-3 spurt to start the third quarter and were never headed.
Gossett and David Rose each had a pair of field goals during the flurry which pushed Du Quoin's lead to 17 (39-22) as the final quarter began.
Kendrick Simelton (14 points, 12 rebounds) tossed in six of his points in the last quarter for the Redbirds, who also had five point efforts from Nathan Butler and Kyle Weeks.
J.C. Davis (seven steals) and Logan Schneider each added six for Du Quoin with Jamor Reed (five steals, six assists) adding five apiece.
Crews will double-check official scorebooks from the past three seasons and the current campaign this week to confirm Gossett's exact point total.
He's set to become the 16th DHS player to reach the coveted 1,000-point mark. Gossett will join an elite group that includes Monte Kuhner, Alan Crews, Nick Hill, Louis Baxter, Bill Neal, Maurice Brown, Drew Porter, Darrell Anders, Don Stanhouse, Reid Bastien, Gordy Showalter, Jason James, Jason Karnes, Bilal Spiller and Scottie Anders.
In Tuesday's junior varsity game, Du Quoin (9-3) rolled to a 60-35 victory.