Du Quoin Warriors Meet Collinsville Thursday for state championship

Rend Lake College

The Du Quoin Middle School Warriors Tuesday held Triad in check through the final minutes of a cardiac semi-final Class "L" game at Rend Lake College.

The Warriors play Collinsville Thursday for the state Class "L" championship at 7:30 p.m.

Du Quoin won 55-47 to advance to the title game. "I thought we were a little flat again to start," said coach Aaron Wright. "We just have had a knack here lately to just play through it. I think that says a lot about our toughness. It's all about survive and advance," he said. "Triad did everything I thought they would do, right down to make a run at us in the fourth. We practiced against every defense I thought they would throw at us, so I thought we were prepared for them very well. Again, I thought when Tay got his fourth foul, we exploited our quickness on them to the rim. I've told our kids for three weeks we are going to need free-throw shooting and we struggled with it."

"At one point we missed nine straight. ..we are very fortunate to win. We have to do better. I thought the biggest play of the game was AZ getting that offense rebound putback off a missed freethrow..that was huge. We have a tough task Thursday going against Collinsville. They are a very good team with multiple weapons on offense and play sound defense. We will be ready."

Scoring was led by Mays with 16, Pursell with 14 and Daughtery 14.