BOYS BASKETBALL: Indians end Tip-Off on three-game skid
The Indians finished up the 18th Annual Du Quoin Tip-Off Classic on Saturday night with their third consecutive loss, falling 62-44 to Sesser-Valier after giving up runs of 13-0 in the second quarter and 10-0 at the end of the third.
Du Quoin led early, the trailed by as many as 18 points in the first half before cutting it down to 9 in the third period, but couldn't stop the Red Devils from pouring it on again.
"We started out strong, we got up 8-4, and the next thing you know we're down 10 points," said DHS head coach Justin Barrington. "We can't have those lulls offensively. I'll take the blame, we should have made a few more adjustments. (Sesser-Valier) Coach (Shane) Garner got me tonight."
In total, it was a 22-1 stretch from late in the first quarter through the midway point of the second that put the Indians in a deep hole. Du Quoin made a small run at the end of the first half but still trailed 34-20 at the break.
A baseline drive and bucket by Caleb Vogel with 2:55 to go in the third quarter brought DHS to within 42-33, the closest they'd come after the half. But the Indians would go without a point for the next 3:45 while Sesser-Valier broke the game open again.
A quick 7-0 spurt by the Indians - including two baskets from Vogel and a three from Brock Bullar - cut the deficit back down to 14 early in the fourth, but it wouldn't be enough.
Sevearl Du Quoin players labored through foul trouble on the night, particularly in the first half.
"Tonight was the first time we really experienced the new rules, the new points of emphasis," Barrington said. "The hand check, the physical play underneath. We didn't really adjust to that tonight. It's something that we needed to happen early in the year so that we can see it, and later on we'll be able to make our adjustments and go from there."
"We saw a lot of things things this week that we need to work on, and we'll be back at it on Monday morning ready to go."
Vogel wrapped up an all-tournament team week with a dozen points to lead the Indians in scoring. Tucker Kuhnert, also on the all-tourney team, finished with 8 points, as did Hank Stewart. Bullar, Jacob Wright and Braden Heape each had 5 points, Devin Jones added 1.
"The effort has been there all week," Barrington added. "We were a little tired tonight, fourth game of the week. We saw some things that we can learn offensively. We have a lot to work on defensively, and that was to be expected. I told them this week we wanted to kind of treat it as our preseason, because we knew conference play started next Friday. Now we're moving forward, our eyes are on Carterville Friday night."
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Cairo 72, Du Quoin 54 (Friday):</span>
Tip-Off champion Cairo (4-0) used a late 14-0 run to pull away from Du Quoin in Friday night's game after the Indians had stormed back from down 17 points to cut the lead to 4 with just under 4 minutes to play.
It was a five-point game at 35-30 Cairo early in the second half when the Pilots seemed to take command. A 12-0 run in the third quarter featured a pair of triples from Demarious Taylor and tournament MVP Dave Taylor.
Du Quoin closed out the third period strong and trailed by 11 heading to the fourth when they used solid free throw shooting to get it to a two-possession game before the Pilots regained composure and put the Indians away.
Dave Taylor lit Du Quoin up for a game-high 33 points in the victory for Cairo.
Vogel led the Indians with 23 points, Heape had 13, Bullar 10, Cole Hopkins 5, Tucker Kuhnert 2 and Ryne O'Rourke 1.
DHS (1-3) is at Carterville this coming Friday night before hosting Murphysboro on Saturday.