BOYS BASKETBALL: Indians' offense slumps against Waterloo
On a night when their offense just didn't have it, Du Quoin managed just 32 points in their 58-32 loss to Waterloo on day one of the Sparta Mid-Winter Classic boys basketball tournament on Tuesday.
The Indians committed too many turnovers and gave the Bulldogs too many second chances on the offensive glass, which led to a few long stretches where DHS couldn't buy a bucket at their end.
"They played stronger than we did," said Du Quoin head coach Wendell Wheeler. "There's things that we work on every day that we've got to do a better job of bringing onto the floor. We did not play very well tonight."
"Our focus has got to be a strength, and tonight it hurt us. The small details have got to be our strength, not something that hurts us. We had some physical turnovers, we had some mental turnovers and we absolutely can not afford that."
Another slow start got the Indians in a deep hole early, as Waterloo led 11-2 before A.J. Smith hit a three at the buzzer to cut the lead to six heading into the second quarter.
Jarred Thomas connected from downtown with six minutes to go in the half to make it a three-point game, but the Bulldogs answered with an 8-0 run.
Brock Bullar scored five points in the final 22 seconds of the first half, though, giving the Indians a chance down 21-15 at the break.
But Waterloo's Ryan Aycock hit one of his three triples to start the third quarter, and things simply went downhill from there for Du Quoin. The Bulldogs scored the last seven points of the third quarter and led 37-21.
A bright spot for the Indians was the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, when Wheeler sent in five sets of fresh legs - much like he did against Jerseyville back in December at the Duster Thomas Hoops Classic - in the form of Cole Hopkins, Jordan Carson, Hank Stewart, Hunter Behm and Chad Heatherly. The group provided a spark in their brief appearance in the game.
"They really brought some energy to the floor," Wheeler said.
Fittingly, when the first unit returned with just over five minutes to go, they turned the basketball over their first two trips down the floor.
"That basically summed up the night for us," said Wheeler.
Again, the Indians struggled at the free throw line, making just five-of-eleven. Twenty-one of their points came on three-pointers.
Smith led DHS with ten points, Bullar had eight, Thomas six, Tucker Kuhnert four, Stewart three and Hopkins one. Aycock had fifteen points to lead Waterloo.
The Indians (7-10, 0-1 at Sparta) will try once again to get Wheeler his record-breaking 201st victory as head coach at DHS when they take on Steeleville Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m.