News

BASKETBALL: Indians whip West Frankfort

Posted February 02, 2011 10:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Facing a winless team, Du Quoin needed to do little more than take care of business against West Frankfort on Tuesday night to earn their eighteenth victory of the season. The Indians did just that, pulling away for an 81-29 blowout of the Redbirds at Anders Gymnasium.

Frankfort stuck around in the first quarter, trailing just 13-8 when Sveda called for timeout to get the Indians back on track.

"We had to get refocused on what we wanted to do, we got a little bit impatient at times," said Sveda. "I wasn't expecting to see a zone, every time I've seen them play they've been straight man-to-man the entire way. We didn't expect that, but we've still got to be patient, and we did a better job after that timeout was called."

Du Quoin got it going at both ends of the floor shortly thereafter, outscoring West Frankfort 31-9 the rest of the first half including a 9-0 run in the middle of the second quarter.

"Defensively, we weren't grinding defensive possessions out like we wanted to, didn't rebound as well as we should have, but we refocused and did a better job after that timeout," said Sveda.

With the Indians up 25-13, Sam Gossett started the run with a two-pointer then the Du Quoin defense forced a steal and a breakaway dunk for Brandon Williams.

J.C. Davis followed that up with a three-poitner, then Wheeler hit a pullup jumper with 2:35 left in the half as Du Quoin went up 34-13.

Back-to-back threes from John Galik and Wheeler at the end of the half gave the Indians a 44-17 cushion at the break, a lead they extended throughout the second half including a 16-2 fourth quarter.

"Our kids didn't overlook them," Sveda said. "I've seen (West Frankfort) play a couple times, they play with a lot of heart. They play hard all the way through and we had to come out and give our effort."

Wheeler led the way with 26 points and Gossett added 16, both players scoring all of their points in the first three quarters before receiving extended breaks during the fourth. It was Wheeler's ability to find this teammates, however, that helped get the offense rolling for Du Quoin.

"He's got to do that, he's got to find the open man," Sveda said. "Being our point guard most of the time, he's got to look to go out and get his teammates involved and he did a good job of that. Connor's doing a better job of moving the ball around and finding the open man."

"Sam Gossett had a nice game tonight as well, hit a lot of shots from the high post against that zone."

Davis pitched in 10 points, James Williams 8, Jesse McDicken 6, Galik 5, Brenden Fred and Nate Boss 3 and B. Williams and Aaron Smith 2.

Despite losses to state-ranked opponents Murphysboro and Breese Central in the past couple weeks, Du Quoin has been playing some of their best basketball of the season since knocking Trico from the ranks of the unbeaten back on January 15.

"I hope we're starting to peak at the right time," Sveda said. "We've got a big push here we've got to make here to end the season. We've got a big weekend coming up with Carterville coming to town, we'll worry about that one first."

"You want to be peaking at the end of the year, make that conference run and then make a run in the postseason."

Du Quoin (18-4, 5-1) takes on the Carterville Lions (10-10, 1-4) this Friday at home before a trip to Herrin (13-9, 3-2) on Saturday.

Article Categories
News