BOYS BASKETBALL: Indians are competitive, but leave Hoops Classic 1-3
Last year, Du Quoin came into the Duster Thomas Hoops Classic without a victory and left with one of only two wins they picked up all season. The Indians again went 1-3 at this year's holiday hoops tournament (running their overall mark to 5-7), but played four quality opponents and showed they are capable of competing with just about anyone on a given night.
"We've come a long way," said DHS head basketball coach Wendell Wheeler, "and we've got a long way to go, but the biggest thing is to play this many games in a short amount of time and come out of it without any major injuries. That's something you fear coming in (to a tournament like this), losing somebody for the rest of the year, and I think we came out of it alright.
The tournament began for the Indians with Friday morning's 74-66 loss to Wesclin (Trenton) when the Warriors were red-hot from beyond the three-point arc, sinking 11-of-21 triples for the game. Wesclin also out-shot Du Quoin at the free throw line, making 21-of-25 while the Indians were good on just 10-of-17.
The game features eleven lead changes and five ties and neither team had a lead bigger than five points until jumped ahead by six midway through the fourth quarter with a three-pointer from Brendan Bernhardt to make it 59-53.
The lead was back down to two after a three-point play from Du Quoin's Caleb Vogel, but the Warriors hit their last fourteen free throws to hold off any hopes of an Indian comeback.
Four DHS players finished the game in double figures - Jarred Thomas (14 points, 3 assists, 3 steals), Brock Bullar (14), Nolan Showalter (14) and Vogel (11). Tucker Kuhnert added nine points and led the team with seven rebounds. A.J. Smith also scored for Du Quoin, finishing with four points.
Few people gave the Indians much of a chance in their second game, Friday night's match-up with two-time defending tournament champion Jersey High School from Jerseyville, Ill. But at the half, Du Quoin trailed by just five points after playing a strong second quarter where they outscored the Panthers 18-13.
A dismal third quarter put the game away for Jersey, though, as the Panthers made their third straight trip into the Gold Pool at the DTHC with a 55-41 victory.
Du Quoin got as close as four down early in the second half, but the Panthers ripped off a 10-0 run midway through the third period and led by sixteen headed to the fourth.
"Coming out in the third quarter we had a couple turnovers and we didn't execute," said Wheeler. "They capitalized on it and got a little bit of separation on us."
In of the more uplifting moments of the tournament for DHS, the Indians had seemingly backed off in favor of resting some key players when they sent in the last five men on the bench for the start of the fourth quarter - but those five players (Hank Stewart, Hunter Behm, Jordan Carson, Cole Hopkins, Chad Heatherly) actually outscored the Panthers 11-9 in the final eight minutes.
"What a great effort by those guys," Wheeler said. "I'm proud of all of them. They attacked the rim, they cut, they did a good job at the end of the game."
Jerseyville's top units played all but the last minute and a half of the fourth period, which may have caught up with them on day two of the tournament when they suffered losses to Carterville and Pinckneyville.
Bullar, who added five steals, led DHS with eleven points against Jersey. Thomas added eight, Vogel and Behm five, Smith three, Carson, Heatherly and Levi Brening two, and Hopkins, Stewart and Kuhnert one.
The two losses sent Du Quoin into the Bronze Pool on Saturday, where they were able to knock off Roxana 40-36 despite not scoring a single point in the game's third quarter.
In a game of runs, the Indians fell behind early at 18-9 before closing out the first half on a 14-2 run. Bullar had a big three-pointer after a Vogel steal to put Du Quoin up 23-20 heading into the break.
Roxana scored all nine points in the third quarter and seemingly had command of the game, but the resilient Indians made another run early in the fourth quarter, scoring the first fifteen points of the period - seven of those at the free throw line.
By the time the Shells finally got on the board in the final frame with a banked-in three pointer, it was too little, too late.
Du Quon's scoring attack was balanced in the win, with Vogel (9 points), Showalter (8), Bullar (7), Thomas (7), Smith (4), Brening (3) and Kuhnert (2) all getting in the book.
A slow start in the ninth place game against Chester left Du Quoin playing catch-up the rest of the way, and the Yellow Jackets out-shot the Indians 43% to 33% from the floor en route to a 51-39 final.
The Indians made a game out of it after trailing 11-2 after one quarter, and 22-10 at the break. Chester had pulled ahead by sixteen in the third period before back-to-back threes from Showalter and Bullar brought Du Quoin back to within seven at 29-22 with 3:24 to go in the quarter.
But Chester's Savion Smith had a stellar night, registering sixteen points and nine rebounds while keeping the Jackets comfortably ahead down the stretch.
The Indians got as close as five in the fourth quarter, but seemed to lose some of their punch after a call didn't go their way on a fast-break foul as Thomas drove to the bucket but was sent crashing into the padded area underneath the goal.
"When we had the run-out with Thomas and weren't able to get anything out of it, that hurt," said Wheeler. "We were hoping to get an intentional foul called, that could have been a huge boost. We didn't even get free throws out of it, because it was on the floor."
"We were really making a nice run there, but we didn't come out and play at the start of the game like we needed to. We were tired, and we acted tired. You can't do that, you still have to go and give your best effort. They did that once we got down, but it was just too big of a hole to come back from."
Showalter had ten points against Chester to lead DHS. Thomas added nine, Bullar and Smith each had six, Kuhnert five, Vogel three.
"We've got to protect the ball better," said Wheeler. "We did a poor job of protecting the ball (against Chester). We've got to play hard, we've got to play together, and we've got to take care of each other."
Du Quoin (5-7, 0-2) resumes their conference schedule this Friday night at home against Sparta.
Wheeler picked up career victory number 198 as head coach of the Indians against Roxana, leaving him two behind Ray Saunches for the school record for boys varsity basketball head coaching wins.