BASKETBALL: Indians snap skid, finish 5th at Sparta
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Indians had hit perhaps the low point of their 2011-12 varsity basketball season on Thursday night, falling to Cairo for their fifth consecutive loss and assuring themselves of no better than third place at the 48th Annual Sparta Mid-Winter Classic after two games.
Forty-eight hours later, Du Quoin is riding a two-game winning streak and showing signs of improvement after a 47-43 win over Red Bud on Friday and a 56-50 triumph over the host Bulldogs in the fifth place game on Saturday evening.
"It would have been really easy to check out of this tournament a couple days ago," said Indians head coach Gabe Sveda. "(Our kids) came back last night, they weren't satisfied with those first two games."
"We started to finally get the effort for the entire four quarters. You could tell at times tonight we were a little bit dead after four games in a row, but overall I'm proud of them, every kid that got in there did an outstanding job."
Du Quoin led by nine after three quarters before holding off a late charge by the Bulldogs and claim fifth place. John Galik led the Indians with 16 points and was later named to the all-tournament second team as Du Quoin's lone representative.
While Galik has been a constant source of offense for the Indians this season, Brandon Williams looked brilliant in the post at certain times during both weekend games, and the Du Quoin offense saw success as a result.
"We've got to work off of him, he's a load inside on both ends," Sveda said of Williams. "He's starting to understand the game as far as on the offensive end, if he feels the pressure he'll kick it a little bit now, he's still got some work to do there."
"He came to play, the team really rallies around him on defense, he's doing an outstanding job. He probably gets half of our defensive rebounds every night and that's just tremendous."
Cayle Diggins (6 points), Daulton Beltz (6), Jon Boss (6), Brenden Fred (6), Austin Mansker (4) and Nate Boss (2) also scored for Du Quoin against Sparta.
Murphysboro successfully defended their Classic championship from a year ago with a 50-47 victory over Waterloo in the nightcap on Saturday.
Joining Galik on the all-tournament second team were Sparta's Aaron Rushing, Cairo's Jalen Childs, Waterloo's Justin Kretchmer and Trico's Chase Heins. The first team consisted of Murphysboro's Pierre House and Mitchell Rose, Trico's Daron Meyerhoff, Red Bud's Jacob Kueker and Waterloo's Shane Lenhardt.
The Indians (9-11) return to action on Friday when they host Anna-Jonesboro at Anders Gymnasium.
<u>Third quarter run carries Du Quoin over Red Bud</u>
Down 27-24 and in danger of losing their sixth game in a row, Du Quoin rallied back with a 9-0 run to close out the third quarter and went on to beat Red Bud 47-43 on Friday night and earn a spot in the fifth place game at the Sparta Mid-Winter Classic.
Williams had six points and five rebounds during a five-minute stretch after the half before checking out with his third foul, but was around long enough to spark the key stretch in the game for the Indians as Dillon Beltz found him for a lay-up with 3:26 to go in the third period.
J. Boss followed with a three-pointer, then later tracked down a steal that led to a Galik bucket and a 33-27 Indians lead after three.
Galik had a key three in the fourth, and he and N. Boss both hit clutch free throws in the final two minutes to keep Du Quoin in the lead.
Fred had the team high for DHS against Red Bud with 10 points, Galik had 9, N. Boss 8, Diggins 7, Williams 6, J. Boss 3, and Dillon and Daulton Beltz each finished with 2.
Keuker led Red Bud with 22 points in the losing effort.