Duster Thomas Hoops Classic: White-Hot Tigers Tame Du Quoin

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Its about 125 miles-as the crow flies-from Olney East Richland Community High School to Dick Corn Court inside Duster Thomas Memorial Gymnasium.

For the Olney Tigers, however, Duster Thomas Gym and the tournament bearing his name seem awfully lot like home.

Late Tuesday night, in the final game of the 3rd annual DTHC, Olney notched its second title and won for the 11th time in tourney history, impressively dispatching Du Quoin 56-42.

The Tigers, 8-3 and riding a six-game win streak, secured their spot as again one of the elite deep south teams in all of Class 2A, are now a two-time DTHC titlist.

Du Quoin, 10-2 and 3-1, returned home with best holiday tourney showing since a runner-up showing at Carbondale in 2002.

The Indians had no answer for an incredible shooting night by Olney, which opened a 10-point halftime lead after hitting its first seven three-point tries.

"Lets give Olney and coach (Rob) Flanagan all the credit in the world," Du Quoin coach Mike Crews said.

"That's an awfully good basketball team that played at the top of its game from the opening tip-off. I felt like our defensive effort was pretty strong and they still shot lights out against us."

All-stater and eventual Most Valiable Player Brandon Berry had seven of his points in the opening quarter as the Tigers pullled ahead early.

Berry, Christian Kabbes and sophomore reserve Michael Fehrenbacher all recorded three's as the Tigers ended the first frame on a 13-4 run.

Ahead 19-10, O-ER swished its four attempts from beyond the arc in the second quarter and threatened to blow things open before a mild Du Quoin rally cut the halftime margin down to 10, 31-21.

A five-point flurry by guard J.C. Davis kept the Indians in contention, but three's from Fehrenbacher and Derek Van Gundy kept Du Quoin at bay.

O-ER's rugged man-to-man defense also limited Du Quoin's all-state candidate Matt Gossett to just two first half points on only four field goal tries.

Jamor Reed, who finished with a title-game high 16 points, kept Du Quoin alive with two key baskets. Reed topped the Indians with four assists and also had four steals.

O-ER's lead was 44-36 to start the final frame, fueled by Mitchell Schonert's seven third quarter points.

Twice with Du Quoin threatening to slice the margin down to four points, Schonert turned offensive rebounds into easy baskets.

A 6-0 spurt by Olney to start the final quarter all but sealed Du Quoin's fate and stretched the margin to 14.

The Indians, however put together a six-point run of their own and pulled within six again-at 48-42 after Gossett's conventional three-point play.

Du Quoin wouldn't score in the waning two-plus minutes as two Berry baskets and a runner by Schonert secured the victory.

"We shot a decent percentage, took care of the ball and played well enough to beat a lot of people," Crews said. "But Olney really raised their level of play and we had trouble defending at times."

As a team, O-ER was a blazing 24-for-33 (73%) from the field and missed just one of its three-point tries-all of which came in the opening half.

Kabbes had 19 points and six rebounds for Olney with Schonert, and Berry each scoring 11 apiece. Fehrenbacher had 10.

Behind Reed, Gossett (11 poins, three rebounds) was the lone Indian to reach double figures.

Davis had eight points and a tourney single game record seven steals.

Gossett and Davis were Du Quoin selections to the DTHC All-Tournament team with Berry and Kabbes representing Olney.

Pinckneyville had seniors Drew Dudek and Shay Kellerman on the lost with Ryan Bonifield (Carterville), Caleb Suver (Benton), Kory Liefer (Red Bud) and Nick Potts (Larwenceville) also named.

Du Quoin continues a busy week with Saturday's home game against Herrin.

Olney 56, Du Quoin 42

Olney 19 12 13 15-56

DHS 10 11 15 6-42

Olney (8-3, 4-0):

Berry 5 0-0 11, Schonert 5 1-1 11, Kabbes 8 0-0 18, Pampe 1 0-0 3, VanGundy 1 0-0 3, Eagleson 0 0-0 0, Fehrenbacher 4 0-0 10. TOTALS 24-33 7-8 1-1 56.

Du Quoin (10-2, 3-1):

Davis 3 0-0 8, Carson 0 0-0 0, D. Rose 0 0-0 0, Clarry 0 2-2 2, Reed 8 0-0 16, C. Rose 0 1-2 1, Williams 0 0-0 0, S. Gossett 0 0-0 0, Baxter 0 0-0 0, Schneider 2 0-0 4, M. Gossett 5 1-1 11. TOTALS 18-39 2-10 4-5 42.

THREE-POINTERS-Olney 7 (Kabbes 2, Fehrenbacher 2, Berry, Pampe, Van Gundy). Du Quoin 2 (Davis 2). REBOUNDS-Olney 17 (Kabbes 6), Du Quoin 10 (M. Gossett 3). TEAM FOULS-Olney 10, Du Quoin 8.