BASKETBALL: Indians fail to halt Herrin's streak
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[If they weren't already, the Herrin Tigers are now unquestionably southern Illinois' hottest team not from Murphysboro.
A day after blowing out then 20-4 Harrisburg by 25 points, the Tigers (16-10) used a 15-3 run late in the ball game to put away another potential 20-game winner on Saturday night, downing Du Quoin 67-61 for their 12th straight victory.
"We got beat by a very tough ball club," said Indians' head coach Gave Sveda. "You've got to give them a lot of credit, they took us out of what we like to do and they stuck with their game plan and did a good job. We've got to learn to still play as a team when times get tough."
JoJo Hart scored 11 first quarter points including a pair of three-pointers to give the Tigers a commanding 23-10 lead while the Indians struggled from the field and against Herrin's 1-2-2 trapping zone defense. Not helping Du Quoin was the fact that Connor Wheeler and Sam Gossett had both been whistled for two fouls and had to come out of the game before the end of the first quarter.
Things started to change in the second, however, as after Bobby Mannie gave Herrin their biggest lead at 31-15, J.C. Davis sank a three, then made all three free throws after being fouled on another attempt a possession later.
After Hart drove to the hoop for two with 1:15 left, Davis connected from downtown twice more in the final minute and suddenly Du Quoin was only down 33-30 at halftime.
"We wanted to continue to play defense like we started to in the second quarter," Sveda said. "We did a much better job on the ball screens from the second quarter on and rotated over a lot better. Offensively, we started to take it at the big kids a little bit, we got them in foul trouble, Brown had three fouls in the first half, and then Harris had three fouls early in the second half."
Wheeler and Aaron Smith each had conventional three-point plays near the end of the third quarter to give the Indians a brief 47-45 lead, but that's when the wheels fell off and the shots stopped falling.
Manning sank two free throws to tie it before the end of the third, the start of a 15-3 run for the Tigers, all of the remaining points coming on shots inside of five feet of the basket, many of them coming in transition.
"We missed a lot of shots tonight, you've got to credit their defense for that some but we've got to hit some of those shots," said Sveda. "We missed some bunnies under the basket, some nice looks at pull-ups, some nice looks at threes, we've got to put those in. It was a tough night for us shooting the ball."
Down 65-54 with less than a minute to go, Davis hit back-to-back threes to cut the lead to five, but there was just too little time remaining for a serious comeback.
"I'm proud of our kids' heart, they fought back, we were down quite a bit early," Sveda pointed out. "It took a lot of courage to come back there, a lot of character, and we did it a couple times, did it once in the first half, did it again in the second half. We've still got to work on things and get better."
Davis led all scorers with 26 points making 7 three-pointers in the game. Wheeler finished with 11 points, Brandon Williams and Gossett 6, Smith and James Williams 5 and Seth Baxter 2. Manning led Herrin with 18 points, Demarlo Harris added 16, Hart 15.
Du Quoin was victorious in the junior varsity contest by the score of 48-46.
<u>Baxter's return sparks blowout of Carterville</u>
On Friday night, the Indians were firing on all cylinders in a 77-49 spanking of Carterville on the road to move to 6-1 in Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division play, remaining just a game behind Nashville.
"Our kids came out with a lot of energy tonight," said Sveda. "We've had a real good week of practice, that's where these kids got better."
"Having Seth Baxter back, that was a big spark for us. He's really competing in practice and getting the kids involved and they're kind of rallying around him."
The game was tied at 11-11 with 4:11 to play, but the Indians dominated the last half of the opening quarter, and the majority of the game that followed.
Wheeler hit a turnaround jumper to start an 18-0 Indians' run, also adding a three-pointer during the stretch. The senior guard hit back-to-back triples late in the half to extend the lead, and Carterville got no closer than down 17 points in the second half.
After the game, Sveda credited much of the superb effort shown by his team to the return of Baxter.
"(Baxter) does so many things for us, he's a very good cutter, he's a very good passer, he goes to the boards hard, he plays defense hard, he talks out there, so many things," Sveda said.
"It kind if gets the kids fired up around him, he's a senior leader, we've missed him the last 11 games but he's still be competing in practice. He could have used that as a crutch and went the other direction with it but he stayed positive, did the right thing, kept his head up and bounced back."
Wheeler led the way with 27 points, Gossett had 17, Smith 16, B. Williams 7, Davis 4, Baxter, John Galik and John Boss 2.
The Indians J-V squad also picked up a win over Carterville 37-33.
Du Quoin (19-5) has a tough weekend coming up, traveling to Pinckneyville (17-7, 3-4) on Friday before a showdown with division leading Nashville (21-3, 7-0) on Saturday.
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