BASKETBALL: Wheeler scores career-high 43 in win over Steeleville
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Connor Wheeler poured in 43 points to carry Du Quoin to a 87-63 victory over Steeleville on day one of the 47th annual Sparta Mid-Winter Classic Tuesday night, torching the Warriors for 19 points in the first quarter alone.
"A tremendous game," Sveda said of Wheeler's night. "He's starting to learn how to take it when it's there, and when it's not there to move the ball and find his open teammates, he's doing a better job of that."
"He's a nice player, on the defensive end too, he did a good job of helping people out, rebounding, looking to push the ball."
Wheeler was red hot in the early going, and all night long for the Indians. The senior hit a pair of threes to give Du Quoin an 18-5 lead with 3:09 left in the opening period, then scored the last four points of the period driving to the lane to push the Indians in front 24-9.
The onslaught continued in the second quarter, as Aaron Smith drove on a fast break and was fouled hard, but sank the lay-up and added the free throw that followed for the conventional three-point play.
In what was nearly an instant replay, Wheeler grabbed a steal was fouled on a fast break, then converted the three-point play that gave the Indians their biggest lead at 36-14.
Torrey Gerberding did his best to keep the Warriors in it with back-to-back threes, and Colin Smith drove to the hoop on consecutive possessions to complete a 10-0 Steeleville run that kept the halftime deficit at a managable 41-26.
Threes from Wheeler and A. Smith kept the Indians in front 54-44, but Darin Winkelman's bucket with 1:12 left in the third cut Du Quoin's lead to just six as the Warriors mixed up their defense with a trapping zone
"The zone hurt us a little bit," Sveda admitted. "We needed better ball movement at times. When we moved the ball, we found good looks, just didn't put them in."
"We were hot early, hit a lot of tough shots, and they were good looks, they were early in the offense a lot of times, but we just took what the defense gave us and went with that," he continued. "Hit some shots, then they went to a zone on us, hurt us a little bit, we weren't patient enough."
Wheeler responded with six unanswered points to close out the period as the Warriors finally began to run out of gas.
"We were settling too much for the outside perimeter shot and not looking inside, and then we did a better job looking inside and getting some buckets off of that," said Sveda. "We just had to do a better job of putting the ball in the hole sometimes."
Steeleville would get no closer than eleven in the final frame as Wheeler put the finishing touches on his career-best 43-point night.
"As a coach you always worry about a game like this, coming off of an emotional and physical game Saturday night," said Sveda, referring to the Indians' double-overtime victory over previously unbeaten Trico
"We had a real good practice yesterday, which was really nice, a real good practice. We talked about it before the game, how we've got to take it one game at a time, and that game Saturday, don't dwell on it too much, but use it to propel us to the next level."
Smith finished with 15 points for Du Quoin, Sam Gossett 7, J.C. Davis, Jesse McDicken and James Williams each had 5, Brenden Fred 3, and Brandon Williams and Jonathan Boss 2. Gerberding led the way for the Warriors (8-7) with 19 points, C. Smith added 18, Andrew Pokrzywinski 12.
The Indians (14-2) forced 13 turnovers on defense while committing only 4 of their own, making up for the 23-16 Steeleville advantage in rebounding.
The Indians' next opponent at Sparta will be Waterloo on Thursday at 8:30 p.m.