News

BASKETBALL: Indians slip past Panthers into Sectional

Posted February 28, 2011 10:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[For the third straight year, the Pinckneyville Panthers were eliminated from the postseason by cross-county rival Du Quoin on Friday night, as the Indians let a thirteen point lead slip away before making a late push to claim the IHSA Class 2A Sparta Regional championship 46-44.

"I'm so proud of our seniors right now, and the rest of our kids that step into the ball game, they've been a pleasure all year to coach," said Du Quoin head coach Gabe Sveda. "You can tell they don't want it to end, and that's the key. This time of the season, you lose you go home, you don't want practice to end now. When you've got seniors it's a lot easier."

The Tribe jumped ahead 15-2 but allowed the Panthers to lead by one on three occasions in the second half before a steal by Seth Baxter with fifteen seconds remaining in the game sealed Du Quoin's third victory over Pinckneyville this season, the eighth in the last nine meetings. The win also marked the third consecutive season in which the Indians have won their 2A Regional.

"Our kids really came out with a lot of energy tonight, and probably a little bit too much emotion," Sveda said. "I told them in the locker room before the game not to have too much emotion, just to come out and play hard the entire four quarters. We came out with a lot of energy, which is good, but we kind of lost that energy there and got in a little foul trouble."

Panthers' head coach Bob Waggoner praised his team's ability to fight back after the game.

"I thought overall we showed a ton of fortitude getting back in the game after being down 15-2, with (Kyle) Lamb with 2 fouls, fighting through that, getting it to a six-point game at half, and getting it tied in the third, and actually finally getting the lead a little bit," Waggoner said. "We had opportunities, but at this stage of the game, you can't have any bad possessions and we had a couple bad possessions."

The Indians were firing on all cylinders in the early-going with Sam Gossett going inside for two, then hitting a jumper after PCHS's Christian Shopinski had tied the game with a driving layup.

Gossett's shot started a 13-0 run for the Indians with Connor Wheeler scoring nine points during the spurt that saw Pinckneyville's Steve Brueggeman, who dropped 30 on Du Quoin two weeks ago, start off cold from the field much like he had in the Panthers' semifinal against Gibault.

"Seth Baxter had (Brueggeman) last time and he wanted to show he was a little bit better defender than that, and I think he really stepped up tonight," said Sveda. "(Brueggeman) is 6'3, can play in the post, he can come out and hit threes, he can drive to the basket, he's a tough match for us."

Waggoner called for timeout with 3:47 to go in the period down by thirteen, and the team seemed to respond by trying to slow the game's pace. Payton Nippe had a stick-back and Shopinski a three before the quarter came to an end with the Panthers trailing 18-9.

"That was the whole game plan," Waggoner said. "We've got to make this a half-court game, we don't have the athletes they do to run up and down the floor."

"Early on, Wheeler was running through us like it was a 100-yard dash and we couldn't get the ball stopped. Finally, once when we got the ball stopped, got it into a half-court game, then we could settle down and start guarding the ball a little bit better and our help defense was there."

Lamb would sit much of the second quarter with two fouls, but the Panthers were still able to cut into the Indians' lead before halftime.

Wheeler sliced through the lane and was fouled on a layup, then sank the free throw to give Du Quoin a 26-16 lead with 2:29 left in the second quarter, but Brueggeman made four straight free throws as the Indians got into the bonus, and Shopinski drove to the hoop for a buzzer-beating layup to make it 28-22 at the break.

"(Pinckneyville) did a good job of slowing it down when they needed to," Sveda said. "I thought both teams had a tremendous defensive effort tonight, I thought it was our best defensive effort of the year, no doubt. (Pinckneyville is) always so well-schooled defensively, they do a good job helping, getting on the ball, pressuring the ball, and boxing out, it's hard to get a second chance on them."

Brueggeman continued to heat up with a put-back to start the scoring in the second half, then James Williams banked one in for Du Quoin with 6:30 left in the third quarter. Shopinski spun in for two moments later, then Lamb scored on a fast break layup to force a timeout from Sveda and the Indians' bench.

"(Shopinski) really had a good game, both offensively and defensively, and it's great to see that from a senior," Waggoner said. "I thought early on (Du Quoin) did a good of bottling up Brueggeman, but by the start of the second quarter he started getting loose a little bit and feeling it and kept us in the ball game."

A foul on a rebound attempt gave the Panthers the ball and Lamb took it inside to tie the game at 30-30 with 4:51 on the clock, then Nippe hit one of two free throws with 3:52 remaining to give the Panthers' their first lead.

Wheeler was fouled on a drive and hit both free throws, then Brandon Williams put the Indians up three with his jumper, but Shopinski buried a three to tie it at 34-34 after three quarter.

The lead would change hands four times in the first four minutes of the final frame, and Wheeler put the Indians on top for good with 4:16 to play by draining a triple that edged DHS ahead 40-38.

Following a Panther miss, J. Williams drove the baseline and hit a jumper with 3:35 to play, but Pinckneyville would still have a chance after Baxter missed the front end of a one-and-one at the line that allowed Lamb's bucket with a minute to go to cut the Indians' lead to 42-41.

Baxter was fouled again, but this time knocked down both attempts with 35.3 seconds on the game clock to force the Panthers to attempt a three for a tie. With fifteen seconds remaining, Baxter came away with a steal and got the ball to Wheeler, who put Du Quoin ahead 46-41 with his two free throws.

"What an incredible effort by (Baxter), he came down, missed a key free throw towards the end of the game and then he got fouled again and stepped up and hit two key back-to-back free throws for us," Sveda said. "Hats off to him, incredible kid. Then he goes down and defends, probably, one of their best players and makes a big steal there at the end to get the ball back in our hands, a nice effort all the way around."

Hunter Queen sank a three with about four seconds left on the clock, but the Panthers were out of timeouts and the Indians didn't even need to inbound the basketball to allow time to expire.

"We missed some point-blank shots and didn't get them in the hole, they made a couple tough ones," Waggoner commented. "We had three straight possessions where we had the lead in a one-point game and we didn't come down and get any scores. We had a bad turnover that gave them an opportunity to score and they end up taking the lead back, hit a big three on us."

Wheeler led all scorers with 22 points for Du Quoin (23-6), J. Williams added 8, Gossett 6, B. Williams 5, Baxter 4 and Aaron Smith 1. Shopinski's 14 points were a team-best for Pinckneyville (20-9), Brueggeman finished with 11, Lamb 9, Nippe 6 and Queen 4.

The Panthers still lead the all-time varsity basketball series (since 1940-41) between the two schools 137-47, but Friday's Du Quoin victory made it five in a row for the Indians dating back to Pinckneyville's last win on December 22, 2009 in Thomas Gymnasium.

Awaiting the Indians in their Sectional are the host Harrisburg Bulldogs (28-6), who Du Quoin defeated 78-68 on the road on December 11, 2010. Gossett scored 26 points in that game that DHS led 37-19 at the half.

"You've got to kind of put that behind you it was so long ago," Sveda said, "but we'll use some things off of that."

"(Harrisburg is) so talented, they've got some incredible sophomores there and they've got some senior role players that do a good job for them. We went down to their place earlier in the season, we had a little more senior leadership (than Harrisburg) at the time. It's going to be at their place again and our kids like playing there, that's one good thing."

The 2A Sectional semifinal between Du Quoin and Harrisburg takes place Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. in Davenport Gym, the day following the other semifinal between Murphysboro (31-0) and Benton (14-15).

Article Categories
News