BASKETBALL: Lady Indians cruise past short-handed Sparta
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Coach Shawn File said "it was worth the long drive on a very cold night to get two wins at Sparta." Both the Varsity and Jr. Varsity teams won their basket ball games on Tuesday evening. The Varsity handily beat Sparta 57-32, and the JV came back from a deficit to win 37-33. DuQuoin came away with two conference wins.
DuQuoin's Varsity record is now 10-8 and 2-4 in the conference. Coach File was able to get every player into the game. The leading scorer for DuQuoin was Rebekah Maddox with 13, and she only played in the first half. Steffanie Gates had 10 pts. Freshman Hailey Stewart had 8, Jessica Hirsch 6 (only played in the first half), Taylor King 4, Shelby Presley 4, Curry Emling 3, Ashley Ward 3, Abby Myers 2, Bailie Caldwell 2, and Morgan Dennis 2. Cassidy Rice, Ashanti Warren, and Katrina Whitley also saw action for the Indians.
DuQuoin had the lead at the end of the first quarter 23-3, and at the half was winning by 44-12. DuQuoin led throughout the game and at the end of the third quarter had a huge lead at 49-22. Again, the final score was 57-32.
Sparta played without leading scorer Jessica Robinson, who scored 43 points in a late-November victory over Du Quoin.
Coach File thought his team "defensively played great. We were sable to get everyone into the game, and eleven players were able to score. This gets us ready for Benton on Thursday evening."
The Junior Varsity, coached by Jason James, also were victorious. The final score was 37-33 in DuQuoin's favor. The Junior Indians were down by 9 points with 6 minutes to play and came back to win the game by four points. The leading scorer was Taylor King with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Cassidy Rice and Katrina Whitley had 7 points each, Abby Myers 6, Hailey Stewart 2, and Bailie Caldwell 2. The Jr. Varsity record is 4-5.
DuQuoin travels to Benton on Thursday, January 13.