BASKETBALL: Indians thrash Lebanon after mauling from Carterville
Du Quoin responded to a lopsided loss to Carterville on Friday night with a thrashing of their own on Saturday, manhandling Lebanon 50-23 on the road and holding the Greyhounds to just one point in the fourth quarter, eight total points in the second half.
"We have to (play great defense)," said Indians head coach Wendell Wheeler. "It's another step in our progression. I thought we actually played better defensively as the game went. What I really liked was that we made a couple of adjustments at halftime to try and improve on a couple things, and we were able to take it from the locker room onto the floor."
DHS led by only five at halftime, but came out and put the game away quick in the third quarter.
Nolan Showalter, who led Du Quoin with 18 points on the night, scored the first seven points by either team after the break, starting with a driving layup just 17 seconds into the third period. A Greyhounds turnover led to another Showalter layup, and after the Indians got another defensive stop, Showalter got an open look at a three-pointer and buried it to give DHS a 27-15 lead with 6:13 to go in the quarter.
"That's coming from him playing hard," Wheeler said of Showalter. "We've talked about the change he's made coming into this year, he's been really good."
The run didn't stop there. A.J. Smith added a three-pointer himself during the 13-0 spurt to start the second half, and Du Quoin never let Lebanon back into it.
Two three-point plays - one from Showalter, one from Jordan Carson - and a dunk from Carson (with an assist to Showalter) put the exclamation point on the victory in the fourth quarter.
Both Carson and Levi Brening provided big minutes off the bench for the Indians, grabbing several rebounds, and Carson finished with nine points.
"When you get down to seventh, eighth man in the rotation, who you're playing is going to determine the minutes a lot of the time," Wheeler said. "They may not get in for many minutes one night, and then get 16-18 the next, it really depends on who we play. This was an opportunity to get them some minutes. With Levi being new, we got him some minutes and some reps, Jordan is getting his first real varsity experience, we got him some reps. Both of them stepped up pretty well for us."
"(Carson) had a little more bounce in his step tonight. That's the most aggressive he's been this season, and that's what we need from him."
Du Quoin's leading scorer on the season, Jarred Thomas, scored seven points on a night where the Indians didn't need him to do too much. Still, Thomas handled the ball more than he had a week earlier, showing that his knee injury seems to be improving.
"The better his health, the more we'll have him handle the ball," Wheeler said. "That's kind of been the plan all the way, we've just got to get him healthy. That's why we took him out the last couple minutes, there was no reason to (risk further injury)."
Brock Bullar (5 points), Caleb Vogel (4), Smith (3), Brening (2) and Tucker Kuhnert (2) also scored for Du Quoin.
The victory brings Wheeler's win total as head coach at DHS to 197, just three shy of the school record held by Ray Saunches (200).
A difficult weekend lies ahead for the Indians (4-2, 0-1) as they will travel to Pinckneyville (5-2, 1-0) on Friday and Harrisburg (5-2, 0-1) on Saturday.
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Carterville 75, Du Quoin 46 (Friday)</span>
The Indians were steamrolled on Friday night by the visiting Carterville Lions (5-1, 1-0), as Du Quoin scored only five first quarter points and fell 75-46 in the conference opener for both schools. Former DHS students and brothers Will and Matt Galik led the Lions with 22 and 13 points respectively.
Carterville led 9-5 at the first quarter break, 34-20 at halftime, and 57-29 heading into the fourth period.
Showalter led Du Quoin with 10 points, Thomas had 9, Vogel 6, Smith and Carson 5 apiece, Cole Hopkins 4, Brening 3, and Kuhnert and Chad Heatherly each had 2.