BASKETBALL: Nashville makes adjustments, crushes DHS
SPARTA, IL - The Nashville Hornets hit a snag last Friday night when they were knocked off by Du Quoin on the Indians' Senior Night, but the SIRR Mississippi champs and top seed of the Sparta 2A Boys Basketball Regional showed up to play on Wednesday.
Nashville jumped ahead 6-0 to start the game and never let Du Quoin get any closer than eleven points after the first quarter came to an end, winning the Regional Semifinal in blowout fashion 61-29 to move on to Friday's championship.
"We knew they'd make their adjustments (after last Friday's game)," said Indians head coach Gabe Sveda. "We were a little bit late on our adjustments tonight compared to Friday night. They did an outstanding job of getting the ball inside."
"The biggest key was probably rebounding. When we did get there on our rotations and they took shots and missed them, we didn't rebound. We gave them way too many second-chance opportunities tonight. That's a credit to them - they're a great ball club. When they're hitting on all cylinders like that, they're awfully tough to beat."
Again playing shorthanded, Du Quoin struggled with a mere three points in the opening quarter - two on a cut and lay-up by Spencer Cook and the other on a free throw from Daulton Beltz. Meanwhile, Nashville big men Royce Newman and Devin Holle, who combined for just 12 points five nights ago in Du Quoin, had 11 in the first period on Wednesday as the Hornets built a 14-3 lead after eight minutes.
"We did a nice job getting the ball down low and they converted," said Hornets head coach Brad Weathers. "I thought we did a decent job at both ends of the floor. After Friday night, I know (Du Quoin) is missing a couple players, but we wanted to come out and make sure that we played extremely hard at both ends of the floor and take care of business."
By halftime, that business was pretty much taken care of. In the second quarter, Chance Reuter threw in a pair of three-pointers and Newman finished off an 11-point first half to help the Hornets take a 27-11 edge at the break.
"They're so big and so smart," Sveda said of the Hornets. "They do a really good job of finding the open man. Our kids kept fighting, I'm really proud of them - especially our seniors. They're great kids to be around, they mean so much to our community, not just the basketball program, but to all the athletic departments, the community, and the school."
DHS senior Brenden Fred, who had just two free throws to show for his first half, converted on a couple of good looks from beyond the arc in the third period, but Du Quoin still trailed 44-25 heading to the fourth as the Hornets kept hitting on short-range buckets from the paint.
"They were trapping and overplaying a little bit," Weathers said. "Our bigs did a decent job of passing on some of those plays where it went inside and they doubled and we slipped in the back, but (our guards) penetrated in and were able to dish it, we found the seams. They were having to gamble a little bit and fortunately we were able to take advantage of it."
Nashville scored the first nine points of the final frame to erase any hopes of an Indian comeback like the one DHS made on Red Bud two nights earlier.
"(Nashville does) such a great job defending," said Sveda. "Mapps hurt them last time, and they did an outstanding job of guarding him and not giving him many looks, denying him some catches. I thought our kids handled things fairly well, we just didn't get some shots to fall. They were hitting on all cylinders, it wasn't our night, but I'm still proud of our kids for this entire season."
Beltz had 11 points to lead Du Quoin in scoring, Fred chipped in 10, Cook 4, and Mapps and Jacob Wright 2. Newman led Nashville with 19 points.
The Indians finish their season with a record of 12-16 while the Hornets (22-7) move on to face Pinckneyville in Friday night's Regional Championship.