Saturday Prep Basketball: Tribe Reaches 20-Wins
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[For the fourth time this decade, Du Quoin High School's Boys Basketball team has reached the coveted 20-victory plateau.
Saturday night, the Indians posted a solid 77-63 road victory against Anna-Jonesboro, improving to 20-7 overall.
Du Quoin (7-2) kept pace with first place Nashville as the River-to-River Conference's Mississippi Division race enters its final week of play. The Hornets are 8-1.
Both teams close SIRR play this coming Friday. Du Quoin hosts Sparta and Nashville battles winless Chester.
"Winning 20 games is a nice accomplishment and I am really proud for our seniors," Indians coach Mike Crews said. "We were a little disappointed with how the regular season finished (19 wins) last season and felt like we could have gotten 20 then, too. The kids are glad it didn't slip away this year and I am very happy for them."
Crews' team had big play- again- from its senior big man. Center Dalton Morgan notched a ninth straight double-double with 23 points and 13 rebounds. He also blocked three shots and scored 14 fourth quarter points as the Tribe pulled away.
Classmate A.J. Hill added a double-double of his own- 11 points and 10 rebounds. The other two Du Quoin seniors- Seth Flint (four points) and Cody Youngman (one point, three steals) were also solid.
Junior point guard Jamor Reed scored a season-high 19 points to provide Morgan and company with a solid inside-outside combination. Reed also had eight assists and eight rebounds. Matt Gossett (10 points) was the fourth Indian to reach double figures.
Marcus Clarry added seven first half points.
"All up and down the line-up we had solid contributions," Crews said. "This was really a pretty good team effort tonight,. At times, we didn't close out things defensively like I wanted. But you've got to give A-J a lot of credit. They hit some big-time three-pointers and the (Cody) Hubble kid gave us fits inside."
Du Quoin recovered from a slow start after the Wildcats sailed to an early 8-2 lead.
A three by Clarry put the Indians in front to stay, 14-13, midway through the opening quarter and hoops from Hill and Morgan extended the margin late in the quarter. As the horn sounded, Du Quoin led just 20-18.
The second quarter saw the Indians slowly begin to pull away, going ahead 37-28 by intermission. Reed had six points during the frame and then hit two big three-pointers as the Indians opened a double-digit lead late in the thid qiarter after A-J started the half on a 7-0 spurt.
"Jamor Reed had an outstanding game and really took the ball strong to the basket," Crews said. "When we really needed a basket in the second quarter he went right to the rim. And then in the third quarter when A-J started to make a run, he hit those two three's. Jamor also gave us some great leadership."
Morgan took over in the final quarter, scoring 14 points. Hill had the only other field goal in the period for Du Quoin, which hit seven free throws in the closing minutes to keep the Wildcats at bay,
Four three-balls in the quarter by Jordan Adams- and all from NBA range- kept things respectable for the Wildcats.
Hubble's 23 points and the 15 by Adams topped A-J, which fell to 8-19 and 3-6.
15 in a row...
Despite the absence of J.C. Davis (illness) and limited by Clarry (illness) and David Rose (injury)- three of its four top scorers- Du Quoin's junior varsity team rolled its record to 15-0 with a 63-52 victory in Saturday's preliminary.
Trailing most the way, the young Indians used a 20-7 fourth quarter to keep its unbeaten streak alive. Clarry had seven key points during an 11-0 Du Quoin run that sealed the victory.
Cody Rose (17), Logan Schneider (13) and Logan Carson (10) were the leading scorers.
Clarry finished with seven while Seth Baxter (four points) and Sam Gossett (two) also marked.