BASKETBALL: Du Quoin escapes Anna with a win
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Du Quoin trailed after three quarters, but knocked down key free throws in the fourth quarter to sneak by Anna-Jonesboro 65-56 in their final regular season game before regional action begins next week.
The Indians made their last nine free throws, the difference in the final score, and sank a total of thirteen shots from the charity stripe in the fourth period.
"I'm proud as heck of the kids," said Indians' head coach Gabe Sveda. "(Anna) is a tough ball team, they've got a 6'7 kid that's well-schooled, gotten much better, a tough match for us, another 6'4 kid that can play inside, outside."
Conner Wheeler's jumper before the first quarter buzzer and an inside bucket from Brandon Williams had the Indians up 17-9 and seemingly in charge early in the second.
The Wildcats hung tough, however, tying the game up on Tyler Duckworth's three-point play with 3:54 to go in the half. Duckworth added another three-point play for the first of five lead changes in the second quarter, the last coming on Duckworth's lay-up with under thirty seconds to play in the half to put A-J up 29-28.
With the game knotted at 36-36, Brady Wright knocked down a three, part of an 8-0 run for Anna to take their biggest lead at 43-36. Wheeler then came up with a steal with around ten seconds left in the period and fed J.C. Davis for a key three-pointer to keep the Indians close.
James Williams tied the game at 43-43 with a three to start the fourth quarter, then added another with 4:40 to play that swung the lead back to Du Quoin.
Duckworth tied it with a lay-up with 2:35 to go, but the Wildcats got into some foul trouble, which allowed the Indians to win it from the line.
Wheeler sank two free ones with 2:19 to go, then Davis hit one of two with just under a minute left. Davis then came up with a steal that led to a Wheeler tip-in, plus a foul, resulting in a three-point play that capped off a huge 6-0 run late in the game for Du Quoin.
"Give (Anna) a lot of credit, they played their hearts out," Sveda said. "We knew it'd be tough coming in here and our kids did a great job at the end of the game of piecing things together."
Including Wheeler's toss to put the Indians up 57-51, Du Quoin would not miss from the foul stripe the rest of the way as Seth Baxter knocked down four free throws and Gossett and Wheeler each put in two more in the final minute.
Wheeler's 21 points led the way for DHS, Gossett pitched in with 17, Davis 1, Baxter and J. Williams 6, Aaron Smith 3 and B. Williams 2. Duckworth led all scorers with 25 points for Anna-Jonesboro (13-14, 3-7).
The Indians forced 17 turnovers on the night while committing 10 of their own.
Du Quoin wrapped up regular season play with a 20-6 mark, finishing second at 8-2 in the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division behind Nashville.
The Indians are the top seed in the Class 2A Sparta Regional, which begins on Tuesday night with the game between fourth-seeded Sparta and fifth-seeded Red Bud. The winner meets Du Quoin in round two on Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m. in Sparta.
"It's going to be a tough one," Sveda said. "We could have Sparta for a fourth time, or Red Bud for the first time, we'll just see how it goes. We've got to really make our push now. We've still got plenty of things to work on, there's still time to improve."
"We're going to look to make a run here, our kids are capable of doing that, and we're excited."