BASKETBALL: Du Quoin coughs up early lead, shot at Mississippi
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Indians had the Hornets right where they wanted them - at home, on senior night, and a shot at the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division title on the line, but Nashville came through with a 57-51 victory to clinch the championship outright.
Du Quoin led by as many as thirteen points in the second quarter, but allowed Nashville to storm back into the game with an 11-0 run just before halftime, then the Indians let a six-point lead slip away with just under five minutes to go in the game.
"I feel for the kids, they played their hearts out," said DHS head coach Gabe Sveda. "We didn't make enough plays down the stretch."
"You've got to give Nashville the credit, they hit the big shots when they needed them, made their run to end the first half and the second half, they've got an awfully good ball club. Give them a lot of credit there, their kids stepped up and made the plays at the end."
Du Quoin had control of the game for most of the first half. Connor Wheeler's three-pointer before the end of the opening quarter made it 15-9 Indians, then Aaron Smith connected from downtown in the second to extend the lead to 22-11.
Wheeler added two free throws moments later to complete a 9-0 Du Quoin run, then Gossett hit a turnaround to make it 26-13, giving the Indians their biggest lead.
Gannon Mamell kick-started the Hornets on offense with a three, then J.C. Davis hit a pair of free throws with 3:56 left in the half, and from that point on until the break it was all Nashville.
Mamell had a stick-back with 3:04 on the clock and added another three-pointer later in the quarter, then Tyler Meyer's fast break lay-up with 40 seconds to go in the half cut Du Quoin's lead to just one at the mid-way point, completing an 11-0 run for the Hornets.
"We got kind of relaxed there when we got that lead, didn't take care of the ball, didn't run our offense the way we should have, shot too quickly, a little off-balanced on some of our shots," Sveda pointed out.
"We've got to do a better job of protecting a lead like that, especially against a good team like Nashville."
The Indians would get some separation from the Hornets again late in the third quarter, as Wheeler sank a three from the top of the key then penetrated and laid it in with his off-hand, drawing a foul and completing the conventional trifecta for six straight points all on his own.
With 4:30 left in the game, Davis hit a jumper to put Du Quoin up 47-41, but the Hornets were resilient in mounting yet another charge behind threes from Zack Fieber and Sam Brown.
"We knew coming in what kind of ballgame this would be," Sveda said. "We want to always protect our home floor, we knew it was senior night, and last time we played (Nashville) it left kind of a bad taste in our mouth. We came out strong, just didn't make plays down the stretch in the first half or the second half."
Wheeler had a pair of free throws that gave the Indians a 51-50 advantage with 1:47 to play, but then the Hornets went 7-for-8 at the free throw line the rest of the way while forcing tough looks (and misses) at the other end of the floor.
"We've got to get our heads back up," Sveda said. "There's still time to get better in this season, I think our seniors will regroup and be there."
Wheeler led all scorers with 22 points before fouling out, Davis had 9, Sam Gossett 7, James Williams and Seth Baxter 4, Smith 3 and Brandon Williams 2. Brown led the Hornets (23-3, 10-0) with his 20 points, Meyer added 11, Mamell 10.
Indians Wheeler, Baxter, Davis, Smith, and J. Williams were all honored during the evening's 'Senior Night' festivities.
The Indians took home the win in the junior varsity game 56-37.
Du Quoin (19-6, 7-2) wraps up their regular season at Anna this Friday night before heading to Sparta for the Class 2A regional on Wednesday, February 23, where they will meet either the host Bulldogs or Red Bud at 6:00 p.m.