SIJHSAA State Tournament: Powerful Carriel eliminates DMS

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Du Quoin Middle School's bid for its fourth trip to the Southern Illinois Junior High School

Athletic Association (SIJHSAA) Class L final four ran into a buzzsaw Saturday afternoon.

The Warriors, 14-8, lost against a tall and talented Carriel Junior High School squad from O'Fallon 58-19, in the SIJHSAA quarterfinals at Rend Lake College.

Carriel advances to play Carbondale in Monday's semifinals. Centralia and Mt. Carmel also posted Saturday wins.

Despite the lopsided outcome, DMS actually dominated the first four minutes of play. The Warriors opened an 8-2 lead, cashing in on three of their first four shots.

Spencer Cook's conventional three-point play, a drive to the hoop by Camden Youngman and Dalton Bigham's long three-pointer forced Carriel (21-2) into a pair of early timeouts.

The Cougars, however, recovered quickly and scored the final 16 points of the quarter to open an 18-8 advantage.

By halftime, with DMS held scoreless until Cook's free throw in the last 30 seconds before intermission, Carriel was in total command at 34-9.

Du Quoin had just four field goals in the final half, trailing 41-12 as the fourth quarter began.

Cook topped DMS with seven points.

6-foot-2 seventh graders Caleb Wagner (12 points) and Isiah Armstrong (10 points) were the Cougar leaders.

Carriel is one of two public junior high schools in O'Fallon. The school has a grade 6-8 enrollment of nearly 1,800.