BASKETBALL: Indians take round one over Panthers
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Du Quoin clamped down defensively in the second half as Pinckneyville's shooters went cold and the Indians held on for a 61-51 victory over the Panthers in front of a standing-room only crowd at Anders Gymnasium on Tuesday night.
"We gave ourselves an opportunity to win and we just didn't come through tonight," said Pinckneyville head coach Bob Waggoner. "Give Du Quoin some credit for making more plays than we did, we'll get a chance to play them again."
First-year Du Quoin head coach Gabe Sveda has been on the bench as an assistant for these cross-county rivalry games before, but was still elated after his first career victory over the Panthers.
"It's very exciting, our fans, our student section is one of the best in the area, they do an awesome job," said Sveda. "It was standing room only tonight in a gym that's under contruction, it's a lot of fun."
The unbeaten Indians (6-0, 2-0) were coming off of a 10-day layoff since their game on December 11 against Harrisburg due to the postponement of last Friday's game at Carterville, but Du Quoin didn't seem too rusty in the early-going.
Sam Gossett, Conner Wheeler and James Williams all connected on three-pointers as the Indians led 11-8 with three minutes to go in the opening quarter.
J.C. Davis added a pair of threes in the second quarter during a 10-1 run for the Indians as Waggoner called for timeout with 5:48 remaining in the half and his team down 24-17.
Bryant Shute hit a wide open three-pointer after the timeout, but Wheeler answered with a pull-up jumper over Shute's tight defense.
"(Wheeler) hit some tough shots for us," Sveda said. "He's a nice player, he's very versatile, he can hit it from long range and he can drive in, draw fouls, he can drive to the bucket and finish, he does a nice job for us."
The Panthers fought back as Payton Nippe scored on a stick-back and completed the three-point play at the line. Hunter Queen then stole it away from the Indians and found Kyle Lamb, who had 13 first half points, for an easy lay-up to tie the game at 29-29 with 2:19 to go in the half. The teams would head to the locker rooms knotted at 34-34 as the Panthers topped their entire offensive output from last Friday's game with Nashville (29). Wheeler had the last 5 points of the half for the Indians to give him 16 of his game-high 18 points at the mid-way mark.
"(Wheeler) made some tough shots, he's going to, he's a good basketball player, and they have a good team," Waggoner said.
As the Panthers went cold in the third quarter, the Indians made their move on the scoreboard.
Davis hit a reverse layup to start the scoring, Williams added a fadeaway, Gossett a free throw, and Baxter completed a three-point play with 3:35 to go in the third quarter as Pinckneyville was still looking for their first point of the half.
"We came out in the second half and tried to help more in the post, their post game was really hurting us (in the first half)," said Sveda. "Our kids did a good job in the second half on the weak side, and we moved to Lamb's hip instead of behind him, he was hitting a lot of shots over the top of us."
The Panthers ended up with only six points in the period and trailed 46-40 heading to the fourth.
"We didn't post as strong in the second half as we did in the first half," Waggoner said. "You have to continue to try to do the things that play to your strengths and we didn't do that."
Queen knocked down a three-pointer with 3:00 to play to bring Pinckneyville within six, but Baxter and Gossett got easy baskets at the other end to negate the effort as the Indians moved ahead 57-47 and time began to run out on the Panthers.
The victory tied Du Quoin with Nashville at 2-0 for first place in the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference's Mississippi Division.
Davis joined Wheeler in double figures with 11 points while Baxter, Gossett and Williams each finished with 9. Aaron Smith had 3 points, Jesse McDicken 2.
Lamb led the Panthers with 15, Steve Brueggeman added 12, Queen 8, Shute 7, Dylan Hardin 4, Nippe 3, and Christian Shopinski 2.
Pinckneyville (3-4, 1-2) has now faced three area teams that remain unbeaten (Murphysboro, Nashville), holding their own against them all before coming up short in the end.
"It's early for a team as inexperienced as we are to play the competition we've had," Waggoner admitted. "I think we've come through it pretty well, we're getting better, we just have to continue to work and strive for February."
Both the Panthers and the Indians will take part in next week's Duster Thomas Hoops Classic at Thomas Gymnasium in Pinckneyville, with Pinckneyville starting things off on Monday against Lawrenceville at 8:30 a.m. and Du Quoin taking on defending DTHC champion Olney at 1:00 p.m. to close out the morning session.
First up for the Indians, however, is Thursday's rescheduled game at Carterville (4-3).
"We're going to play six games in seven days," said Sveda. "It's going to be a real test for us."