BASKETBALL: Du Quoin defends Tip-off crown
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Tip-off M.V.P. Connor Wheeler scored 20 points and Du Quoin used a strong second half to get by Benton 63-48 Saturday night in the finale of the 13th annual Du Quoin Tip-off Classic.
The victory gave the host Indians their second straight Tip-off championship after going without one from 2003 to 2008.
Leading by four with just under seven minutes to play, Du Quoin went on an 11-0 run to put the game out of reach for the visiting Rangers.
"Our seniors did an awesome job to lead the way in the second half," said first-year DHS head basketball coach Gabe Sveda. "Those Benton kids battled, they're well-coached, they fought us hard, they had a good game plan."
A four-point play by Wheeler with 6:04 to go in the first quarter gave Du Quoin an early 9-5 lead, but the Rangers fought back with a 13-0 spurt in which they held the Indians scoreless for four and a half minutes.
J.C Davis hit a three-pointer from the corner near the end of the period to cut the Benton lead to 18-14.
Du Quoin appeared to have grabbed some momentum during the second period as a rebound and putback by Jesse McDicken put the Indians up 25-21 with 3:09 to go in the half.
The Indian defense held Benton without a field goal in the period until 2:42 remaining, but the Rangers would score on their last three attempts and lead 27-25 at halftime.
Du Quoin mixed up their defensive sets with a zone along with their usual man-to-man, and another big three-pointer from Davis at the end of the third put the Indians up by five.
"We had some foul trouble number one, and then number two we had some mismatches in some areas," Sveda said when asked about the zone defense.
"(Benton does) a very good of screening, they lay into you and its tough to get around sometimes. We tried a zone, we wanted to do a better job of finding their shooters, they've got some very good shooters at the perimeter. We just wanted to mix it up."
Benton hung around, however, as Tyler Leffler's bucket early in the fourth made it 46-42 in favor of Du Quoin.
Seth Baxter drove and hit a pullup jumper, then after a Benton miss, Baxter found Sam Gossett under the basket for an easy bucket and an eight-point lead. Davis hit another three the next time down and Rangers' head coach Ron Winemiller called for time to try and stop the bleeding.
"(Davis) was a stud this tournament," commented Sveda.
Wheeler cut to the lane for two, then another stop by the defense set up two free throws for James Williams, who knocked down both with 2:38 to play to put Du Quoin up 57-42.
Du Quoin out-rebounded Benton 21-18 on the night and shot 50% (18-for-36) from the floor while holding the Rangers to 11-of-34 shooting (32%). The Indians were a red-hot 8-for-13 on three-point attempts.
Davis finished with 17 points, Gossett 11, J. Williams 5, Baxter 4, and Brandon Williams, McDicken and John Galik each had 2. Leffler led the Rangers (2-1) with 13.
Wheeler, Davis and Baxter were named to the Tip-off's all-tournament team along with Cairo's Cori Williams, Hershel Graham and Devin Mayfield, Benton's Leffler, Cody Smith, and Caleb Surver, and Waltonville's Trey Witges and Luke Stanhouse.
On Friday night, Wheeler poured in 30 points as the Indians put away Cairo 73-57.
"Conner Wheeler is a very versatile player," said Sveda. "He drives to the bucket, he can hit the open shot, he's a leader on defense. Our kids rally around him."
Du Quoin jumped ahead 22-10 at the end of the first quarter and made the lead hold up the rest of the way to win their second game of the season.
Davis added 14 points (including 3 three-pointers), Gossett 12, J. Williams 6, Baxter 6, Smith 5.
The 30 points by Wheeler were 7 shy of the all-time Tip-off Classic record of 37 set by Benton's Doug Kirk against Carterville in 1999.
Du Quoin (3-0) travels to Sparta on Friday before a trip to Harrisburg on Saturday night.
"We'll come in Monday and get better," Sveda said. "That's one of our goals every day is to get better and work as hard as we can."
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