BASKETBALL: After comeback win at A-J, Indians fold against Lebanon
ANNA and PINCKNEYVILLE, IL - Through 25 minutes of action on Saturday, it appeared as though Du Quoin was building off of their dramatic comeback win at Anna-Jonesboro the previous night as they led Lebanon by 11 points early in the fourth quarter.
Instead, the Indians suffered a letdown much like the one they had against Trico a week earlier, getting outscored 15-1 in the last seven minutes of the game and allowing the Greyhounds to sneak out of Thomas Gymnasium at Pinckneyville with a 37-34 victory at the Panther Basketball Shootout.
"I don't know why we quit attacking," said DHS head coach Gabe Sveda. "They were never instructed to do that, we just quit attacking, we lost our urgency. You think we'd learn from that after last Saturday against Trico but apparently we haven't, so we've got to get over that hump and learn from this for a second time now."
Everything was going smoothly for the Indians in the first quarter when they held the Greyhounds to a single field goal and led 12-3. Lebanon started to make some shots from there on, staying within twelve points or less through three quarters.
John Erwin's bucket with 7:18 left in the fourth quarter would be the final field goal make for the Indians, but Du Quoin led 33-22 and seemed to be in full command.
Zach Grob quickly came down and hit a three for Lebanon, then turnovers by the Indians allowed Mason Christ to rattle off six straight points on his own and cut the lead down to two with 3:40 to play.
Austin Mapps hit one-of-two at the line with 1:18 to go to restore a three-point cushion for Du Quoin, but Taylor Schmitt hit a pullup jumper moments later to cut it to one.
With 54.6 seconds to go, Deeja Cole missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity at the line, then the Indians grabbed the rebound only to turn it over almost immediately and foul Shayne Price, who hit both shots to put Lebanon on top.
The Indians got two contested shots on their next possession, but couldn't get them to fall.
"We called a set play that we've ran 1,000 times in practice and in games, I don't know what happened," said Sveda. "We broke down, and with 12 seconds left we wanted to attack there, we thought we had a good look, but we didn't run it correctly. I'll take the blame for that, but credit Lebanon for hanging in there and fighting, they beat us 16-3 in the fourth quarter so give them credit."
Lebanon won despite being outrebounded by Du Quoin 30-20 in the game.
"When you control the boards like that and hold a team to 37 points, you'd think you'd come out on the top end of that," said Sveda, "but we quit attacking in the second half and especially in the fourth quarter, and we can't do that."
Brenden Fred led Du Quoin with 11 points, Beltz had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Cole added 4 points, Mapps 3, and Erwin, Spencer Cook and A.J. Smith each finished with 2.
Du Quoin (8-11, 3-3) hosts West Frankfort on Tuesday night, Sparta on Friday, then heads to Herrin on Saturday.
-Du Quoin 57, Anna-Jonesboro 51, OT
On Friday night, Du Quoin trailed by as many as 16 points before outscoring Anna-Jonesboro 14-5 in the third quarter and go on to win 57-51 on the road in overtime.
"They kept believing," Sveda said. "I thought the difference in the game was the first three minutes of the second half, we made a big run there. They listened in the locker room, we had a horrible first half, but they kept fighting."
With under a minute to go in the opening half, Du Quoin trailed 28-12 after an ice-cold start to the first fifteen-plus minutes of the game. Beltz, who had 11 first half points, added two free throws with 30 seconds left in the second quarter and Smith buried a three-pointer at the horn to keep the Indians within striking distance at 28-17. DHS shot just 4-for-23 from the floor in the first half and committed 16 turnovers.
Du Quoin made their run in the third quarter with a 12-0 stretch to grab the lead with 1:40 to go in the period. Beltz continued to trouble the Wildcats, scoring six in the period, two on a putback where he was fouled. Beltz missed the three-point opportunity at the line, but Fred stuck the rebound back to make it 30-29 A-J.
A minute and a half of game clock later, Fred's jumper gave the Indians their first lead since 3-2 in the early going.
The Wildcats retook the lead just before the final eight minutes with a three-point play by Jay Kemp and scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to move ahead 37-31. The Indians responded with a 9-1 run moments later with baskets from Fred, Beltz, Cook and Mapps to go up 44-41 with under three minutes to go in regulation.
Neither team could break away late in the fourth and the Indians committed their 23rd turnover with a one point edge inside of a minute to go. A-J tied it with a free throw, then Mapps shot at the buzzer fell off to send the game to overtime.
Mapps redeemed himself with a three in the OT to put the Indians up by four after Beltz fouled out, and Du Quoin free throws kept the Wildcats at a distance.
Beltz led the Indians with 19 points, Fred had 16, Mapps 10, Cole 5, Cook and Smith 3, and Erwin 2.
The Indians also won the J-V contest, 56-45.