DuQuoin Indians fall to Carterville, 68-57
On Friday, Carterville took the lead at the end of the first quarter and never relinquished it, beating Du Quoin 68-57 in a physical SIRR Mississippi Division boys basketball game at Anders Gymnasium.
"Every time we made a run they answered," said Du Quoin coach Jason James. "Kudos to them. They took Braeden Pursell out of his game. Kadin Mays hit a few jumpers on the outside, but other than that we didn't hit a whole lot of them. So if we're not going to hit those outside shots I'd pack it in too and to try to take him out of the game. They did a good job of that. We have to do better on that."
Carterville improved to 11-11 overall and 3-3 in the conference while Du Quoin fell to 8-14 and 1-5. The Indians have six games left in the regular season starting with road games against West Frankfort from the Ohio Division Tuesday and conference foe Pinckneyville Saturday.
Mays led the Indians and the game with 25 points, including three from beyond the arc. Pursell finished with 12 points, but before the game he was honored at center court for recently surpassing the 1,000-point mark.
The Lions made nine 3-pointers and finished with four players scoring in double figures, led by senior Connor Hawkins with 22 points, including five 3-point baskets.
"Hawkins got them going," James said. "We kind of lost him, and he did a good job knocking them in when he had the opportunity. We just have to do a better job of finding people in those situations."
Eli Downen scored 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for a double-double while Carson Pearson finished with 10 points and Nikolas Laird came off the bench to score 10 points.
"They are a physical group with some strong kids in the post," James said. "They are big all the way around with a 6-4 kid knocking down 3's. It's kind of hard to guard."
Carterville took the early lead on the first of six 3-pointers in the first half when Carson Pearson swished one from the right corner at the 42-second mark. After Wade Roberson got two of those points back, Bryce Anderson did the honors with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give the Lions a 6-2 lead.
Du Quoin rallied to tie the score 8-8 with 3:48 remaining, but Hawkins scored back-to-back 3-point baskets, first from the left side and then from the left corner.
The Lions lead was still six at 1:13, when Hawkins sank his third 3-pointer this time from the right side. Pursell scored on a jumper, but Anderson drew a foul with 6.3 seconds left. He missed his first, but made his second to give Carterville a five-point lead heading into the second quarter.
Carterville extended its lead to 10 points on Hawkins fourth 3-pointer with 4:11 remaining in the half. The Indians were down by 12 with 1:53 left, but the Indians cut the lead to six going into halftime with last points coming on two layups by Mays and Pursell.
After Austin Garbe scored to open the third quarter Mays sank his second 3, to cut the lead to five. But Anderson matched him 21 seconds later and Pearson followed with a steal and a layup to double the Lions lead to 10.
"Mays hits a 3 on an out-of-bounds play and then in three seconds they are going in transition and they hit another one out of the corner, so everything we worked for right there we wasted and gave it right back to them," James said.
The Lions extended their lead to 16 points with the help of three 3-pointers from Anderson, Pearson and Hawkins' fifth long distance basket with 1:32 remaining in the third quarter.
Du Quoin rallied again to cut the lead to 11 on a 3-pointer by Mays and a steal and a layup by Dasani Edward with 36 seconds left in the quarter. With 10 seconds remaining Hawkins attempted his sixth shot from beyond the arc, but it missed badly as he was falling down.
The Indians rode the momentum from the last 1:20 of the third quarter and cut the lead down to eight points.
Mays opened the final quarter with one-hand tip roll down the middle of the lane. Hawkins missed his final attempt from beyond the arc, but Downen scored on the rebound to extend the lead back to 11 points.
Jaden Smith then scored an old-fashioned three-point play when he stole the ball, scored while being fouled and converted the free throw to cut the lead to eight with 6:07 left.
The Indians still trailed by eight with 3:16 remaining, but Hawkins made two free throws. Pearson, on a fastbreak layup, extended the Lions' lead to 12 points with 1:56 left.
The Indians cut the lead to seven with 1:07 remaining on a Mays layup and 3-pointer by Smith after a steal by Edward. But Hawkins closed out the game with a jumper and two free throws.