News

BASKETBALL: Free throws carry Indians past Lions

Posted December 29, 2010 10:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Du Quoin made nine-out-of-ten free throws during the last 1:28 of the ball game to remain undefeated with a 59-53 road win over Carterville on Thursday night.

The Indians were good on 22-of-27 free throw attempts in the game in which they led by as many as fifteen points, but could not put away without clutch shooting at the line from throughout the lineup in the closing minutes.

"It's never easy on the road, it's going to take 32 hard minutes of basketball," said Du Quoin head coach Gave Sveda after the victory.

"You have to give the Carterville kids a lot of credit, they really hustled and played hard. We got outplayed in some areas tonight. We've got to take care of that and we've got to practice and prepare a little bit better."

The Indians appeared to be well in control early on, scoring the first twelve points of the contest, ten coming from Connor Wheeler.

Sam Gossett added a three-point play before the end of the opening quarter, but Drew Bonner buried one from beyond the arc to keep the Lions in striking distance down 20-8.

Zach Watson scored the first four points of the second quarter to complete a 6-0 run for Carterville, but the Indians would settle down following a timeout.

James Williams' three-pointer with under two minutes to go in the half extended the Du Quoin lead to 32-18, but again the Lions closed out a quarter strong with a putback by Bonner and a three-point play on a putback by Ryan Bonifield.

Bonifield scored six straight points early in the second half, starting a break with a blocked shot at the other end as well, as Carterville crept to within one at 34-33.

"We came out with a lot of energy and did a good job early, then we kind of got away from what we like to do," Sveda said. "We stopped running, we didn't pressure defense near as much, and we've still got to do a much better job running our offense, to be patient, to get a good shot. We did a little better job in the second half at times, but we have to do a better job all of the time."

The story from there was the free throw line for Du Quoin, as Williams and Wheeler each made 2-of-2 at the stripe and also sank field goals before the end of the quarter to put the Indians up 43-36.

Du Quoin didn't make a field goal after the 4:00 mark of the fourth quarter, but Wheeler was a perfect 5-for-5 at the line in the period and Williams, Gossett, J.C. Davis and Seth Baxter each added at least one free throw in the final frame as well.

Bonner sank a three with fifteen seconds left in the game to cut the Du Quoin lead to 57-53, but Wheeler sank both free throws with eleven seconds left to ice it.

"They've got a good post game and they've got some guards who can shoot it," said Sveda. "They do a good job running their offense, they created some problems inside for us, and they battled on the boards."

Wheeler led all scorers with 25 points, J. Williams added 15, Gossett 11, Baxter 4, Davis 3 and Brandon Williams 1 for the Indians.

Watson led the Lions with 16 points, Bonifield added 13.

The Indians head to Pinckneyville on Monday for a 1:00 p.m. meeting with defending tournament champion Olney to begin their 2010 Duster Thomas Hoops Classic before returning in the night session to meet Benton at 8:30 p.m.

The Indians (7-0, 3-0) already own a 63-48 win over the Rangers from earlier this month at the Du Quoin Tip-Off Classic.

"It'll be a real test for our kids," said Sveda. "Every day's going to be important for us, we can't walk through and go through the motions like we do sometimes. We've got to do a better job in practice, I think our kids will respond."

Article Categories
News