BASKETBALL: Indians stop skid, hold off Red Bud 51-37

SPARTA, IL - The Indians hit the skids after losing their star Brenden Fred to a bone bruise over the past couple of weeks, but finally proved on Tuesday night that they are capable of putting a team away with the rest of their parts.

Du Quoin started fast and finished strong in their 51-37 win over Red Bud on day one at the Sparta Mid-Winter Classic as three Indians notched double digit point totals. Daulton Beltz took advantage of a size advantage down low to lead all scorers with 15 points, 13 coming in the first half.

"We've got to work off of him," said Du Quoin head coach Gave Sveda. "He's been doing a really good job for us filling in for some injured teammates. We've still got to do a better job of looking in there and working off of him, and cutting off of him, and finding the open guy on the perimeter when they double-team us, but overall we were pretty good looking inside."

Deeja Cole found some open space in the lane and ended up taking 12 free throws, making 8 of them and finishing with 14 points. Sophomore A.J. Smith added 11 points making his first career varsity start.

"(Cole) creates so many problems for the other team," Sveda said. "He does such a good job when we get some spacing of getting into the lane, finding the open man, or getting to the free throw line, or hitting the open jump shot. That's what he's got to do, that's his game."

"Our spacing was pretty good to get him some looks in the lane like we did tonight. Overall I thought it was a pretty good step going in the right direction for us."

The Indians led 17-9 after the opening quarter of play with Beltz putting in seven points to go along with three-pointers from Smith and Austin Mapps.

It was the Musketeers turn to hit from the outside in the second quarter when all twelve of their points came from beyond the arc, but Du Quoin still led 31-21 at the break.

Up eight heading to the fourth, the Indians locked down defensively and held Red Bud to just four points in the final period while Cole had eight points by himself.

"I thought the entire game we played pretty good defense," said Sveda. "Most of their points came on the perimeter, hitting some threes. I thought we made our adjustments at halftime and found their open shooters a little bit better in the second half. Overall it was a good effort. We rebounded pretty well. We were unselfish tonight, found the open man, and worked well as a team."

Mapps finished with 7 points and Spencer Cook had 4 to round out the scoring for Du Quoin. Greg Godier led the Musketeers with 11 points.

The Indians are still hoping to get Fred back at some point this week.

"He's still day-to-day," Sveda said. "He goes to the doctor tomorrow and may get released (to play), so we can maybe get him back slowly and get him in there a few minutes at a time."

DHS (7-9) will be back in action at the 49th Annual Mid-Winter Classic on Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. when they take on Murphysboro.