BASKETBALL: Du Quoin girls beaten at Benton
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The DuQuoin High School Girls Basketball Team was "on the road again" Thursday evening. This time the trip was to Benton High School. The Varsity Indians, unfortunately, did not win. The Varsity Indians lost 61-44 while the Junior Varsity won 40-24. Coach Shawn File thought the Junior Varsity played their best game of the season.
DuQuoin's Varsity was leading at the end of the first quarter 17-15, but behind by one point at the half
29-28. Benton pulled away in the third quarter winning 45-35, and the lead was extended in the fourth quarter. Benton won the game 61-44. The Varsity record is 10-9 overall and 2-4 in the conference.
Jessica Hirsch was again the leading scorer with 21 points. Hirsch had five-three pointers in the game. Curry Emling had 10 points, Taylor King 4, Rebekah Maddox 4, Steffanie Gates 3, and Shelby Presley 2.
Curry Emling was 8 of 10 at the foul line.
Coach File indicated that Maddox got into foul trouble early in the game, and had to come out of the game.
Coach also commented, "Benton came out in a zone defense in the first half. When they switched to a man to man in the second half, we tightened up and struggled. We missed too many lay ups and shots in the paint. We need to be more aggressive on defense. We were very passive defensively. Benton killed us on the boards. We got down in the third quarter and never recovered."
The Junior Varsity, coached by Jason James, extended their record to 5-5 with a victory over Benton. The final score was 40-24. Taylor King was the leading scorer with 13. Shelby Presley and Bailie Caldwell had 10 points, Katrina Whitley 5, and Abby Myers 2. Coach File thought that Shelby Presley played one of her best game of the season.
The Varsity will play at home against Trico at 5:00 on Saturday. This game is prior to the Boys Junior Varsity and Varsity games also with Trico.