The Road to Peoria- Du Quoin Class 2A Regional: Defensive Tribe smother 'Birds
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[From an offensive standpoint, Tuesday night's effort certainly wasn't the best Du Quoin High School's boys basketball team has produced in 2009-2010.
Looking at things from a defensive angle, however, its hard to say if the Indians have been any better than they were against West Frankfort.
Holding the Redbirds (2-24) scoreless for the first 12:47 of the opening half, Du Quoin rolled to 50-18 win n the semifinal round of its own Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Class 2A
regional.
Next up for the Tribe (23-6) will be Friday's championship game against Benton, which upset second-seeded Herrin 60-50 in Tuesday's late semifinal.
Du Quoin limited an out-manned Frankfort squad to just seven field goals and forced 27 turnovers. For the game, the Redbirds hit just 7-of-38 field goal tries and missed all 10 of its tosses from three-point land.
"At times we had trouble getting into any kind of offensive flow," Indians coach Mike Crews said. "We had some pretty good looks at the basket early in the game, but overall we have to pretty pleased. Our defensive effort was very good again."
West Frankfort certainly won't disagree with that statement.
Du Quoin scored the first 16 points and blanked the Redbirds until Kendrick Simelton's three-point play with 4:13 left.
The Indians were up 28-9 at the break as seniors Jamor Reed and Matt Gossett combined for 20 points.
Reed had a team best 13 points on the night, adding five assists and four steals. Gossett's 10 point night included nine rebounds.
Gossett moved up a pair of spots on Du Quoin's all-time scoring list. He passed Jason James (1,037) and Gordy Showalter (1,044) and is now ninth in DHS history with 1,049 points.
JC Davis had seven points, seven assists and six steals.
Simelton led Frankfort with seven points.
Tuesday's effort marked the 20th time Du Quoin's defense limited its opposition to 50 points or less. Seven of those times, foes have managed under 40.
CARSON to DUNK
Crews confirmed last week that Carson will represent Du Quoin-and the Herrin Sectional Complex-in the IHSA Slam Dunk contest.
Preliminaries begin at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 11 at Carver Arena in the Peoria Civic Center.
Part of the huge "Happening 2010," the evening also includes the first round of the Country Financial Three-Point Showdown.
"It's hard to predict or handicap something like a dunk contest," Crews admits. "But I'd say Logan's got a pretty good chance up there. He can really do some things."
Four players are nominated and chosen from each of the eight sectionals around the state.
Du Quoin's last state dunk contest participant was Harvey Smith, who finished fourth in 2000.
Carson threw down a third quarter slam Tuesday night, sending Du Quoin's fans into a frenzy.
Three-point advancers: Taylor Cash - West Frankfort, Grant Montgomery - Johnston City, Marcus Clarry - Du Quoin, Logan Schneider - Du Quoin, Thomas Simpson - Benton, Jared Johnston - Benton, Landon Stewart - Benton and Jamie Jones - Herrin.
The group shoots at 6:45 Friday with the top four finishers reaching the sectional round.
Du Quoin Class 2A Regional
Tuesday's games
Du Quoin 50, West Frankfort 18
FRANKFORT (2-24)
Vaughn 0 0-0 0, Ashtiani 1 1-5 3, Butler 1 0-0 2, Simelton 2 3-3 7, Cash 1 0-0 2, Weeks 0 0-0 0,
Filkins 1 0-2 2, Dial 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 7-38 4-10 18.
DU QUOIN (23-6)
Davis 3 0-1 7, Reed 5 1-2 13, Clarry 0 0-0 0, Schneider 2 1-3 5, M. Gossett 4 2-4 10, D. Rose 1 0-0 2
Carson 2 0-0 4, C. Rose 2 1-4 5, S. Gossett 1 0-0 2 Baxter 1 0-0 2, Williams 0 0-0 0, Kuhnert 0 0-0 0.
TOTALS 21-48 (3) 5-14 50.
Frankfort 00 09 06 03- 18
DHS 14 14 11 11- 50
THREE-POINTERS: Du Quoin 3-10 (Davis, Reed 2). Frankfort 0-10. REBOUNDS-Du Quoin 34 (M. Gossett 9), Frankfort 22. TEAM FOULS-Du Quoin 14, Frankfort 16.