The Road to Peoria: Du Quoin Repeats Regional Champ

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ For the 29th time in its boys basketball history, Du Quoin High School is an Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Regional champion.

Friday night- in front of a nearly packed Thomas Gymnasium, the Indians defeated host Pinckneyville 57-44 to claim its second straight Class 2A regional crown.

Now 23-7, Du Quoin advances into Tuesday's West Frankfort Sectional to play 13-19 Fairfield, a surprise winner over Hamilton County at the Carmi Regional.

Dalton Morgan- despite playing barely over 14 minutes due to foul problems, scored 17 points and had seven rebounds for the Indians- who broken open a tight game late in the third quarter. Morgan then scored seven unanswered points to start the fourth quarter as the Tribe pulled away.

A.J. Hill added 15 points and a season-high 12 boards. Matt Gossett finished with 11.

Pinckneyville (22-7) led just twice in the game, both coming during an early stretch of the third quarter.

Cody Sims had 17 points to pace Pinckneyville.

A complete story will be posted on this site by early Saturday morning.