GIRLS BASKETBALL: Defense carries Lady Indians over Pinckneyville

Three weeks after taking it on the chin against Pinckneyville in a 16-point loss, Du Quoin showcased their improvement as a team in Tuesday night's 39-27 win over the Lady Panthers at the Herrin Holiday Hoops Tournament, wrapping up the event with a 2-3 record. PCHS finished 1-4.

The Lady Panthers struggled mightily from the floor and the free throw line, where they converted just 3-of-15 foul shots.

"When you're shooting two-foot shots, you've got to make them," said PCHS head coach Alan Engelhardt. "That's the bottom line. When your teammate gets you a layup, you have to make it. When you get a post touch, you've got to score off it. It's not just one kid, it's multiple kids, we're just not putting the ball in the basket."

Pinckneyville also committed 27 turnovers against an intense DHS defense.

"We talked about playing defense and bringing the intensity," said Du Quoin head coach Shawn File. "We thought they might struggle handling it a little bit, so we were trapping and rotating, seeing if they would make their own mistakes, and they made a few. We did a better job of finishing around the basket, and we took care of the basketball, we didn't turn it over much tonight."

"We've got a bunch of kids that when they work hard and play together, good things happen."

The Lady Indians led by just one at the half, and Pinckneyville actually held a lead at 19-18 in the third quarter after buckets from Caitlyn Anderson and Keelyn Stein. But the Lady Panthers failed to score in the final three and a half minutes of the period, allowing Du Quoin to slip back in front 28-21 with points from five different players in the quarter.

"Our defense was fantastic," said File. "We contested most of the jumpers that they had, and they missed some bunnies. We missed some bunnies too, we're still not putting on an exhibition on offense, but we're running through our sets right and taking care of the basketball."

Grace Haney completed a conventional three-point play with 6:19 to go in the game, and Kate Smith scored on back-to-back trips down the floor following a Pinckneyville turnover to stick the dagger in the Lady Panthers with 2:55 to go.

After scoring nine points in the opening quarter, PCHS scored just six points in each of the next three periods.

"We were very offensively limited," Engelhardt said. "Some of the kids who we need to score have not been putting up the points we need out of them, so we're struggling with that right now, because we need somebody to just step up and hit some wide open shots. When we're at the rim as many times as we're at the rim, somebody's got to lay it in."

Smith finished with a dozen points to lead Du Quoin, and was named to the all-tournament team later in the evening.

"She's pretty hard to guard, and she's pretty quick," File said Smith. "She's one of the few kids that's probably as quick with the ball as she is without it, and that's a whole different type of quickness."

Mackenzie Jackson added seven points for DHS, Haney five, Tarynn Mays, Alaina Caldwell and Sadie Day four, and Jordyn Bullar three.

"Hannah Baxter played big minutes," File said. "Mackenzie Jackson and Grace Haney were big coming in off the bench. We rebounded a lot better tonight too."

For Pinckneyville, Anderson had twelve points to lead the way, Stein and Sophie Keith each added four, Andrea Morgan three, Kearsten Opp and Olivia Szczepanski two apiece. Stein was also named to the all-tournament team for PCHS.

Du Quoin (5-11) hosts Trico this Saturday. Pinckneyville (7-9) plays their next game Tuesday at Carterville.