INA -- The Du Quoin Middle School girls' basketball team (12-3) competed in the Rend Lake College Shootout Saturday morning.
The Warriors played hard and earn a 39-25 victory over the Benton Rangerettes.
"We're really coming around," said Warriors' coach Debbie Ritter. "We beat Nashville at Nashville the other night and that never happens. If we could just stay out of foul trouble we'll be good, but these girls want the ball. They will go for it all the time because they want it."
The Warriors came out hot, striking first with a field goal and extra point by point leader Abbi Mocaby (14 points).
She followed those points up with a 3-point bucket to give the Warriors a 6-point advantage.
The Rangerettes fought back in the second quarter and stole the lead before halftime. They were helped by eighth-grader Chloe Hill (12 points) who drained three treys in the period to make it a 16-15 point game in favor of the Rangerettes.
Back in the action, the Warriors stepped up their game and knotted the score at 16 with a lone free throw by Maddie Stevenson (five points).
The Warriors took back the lead thanks to a field goal by Emma Fischer (six points).
The Rangerettes were not able to recover the lead, though they came within one point several times throughout the second half.
Other point scorers for the Warriors were Ayanna Dunklin (eight points), Loveleen Dunklin (four points) and Lauren Heape (two points).
"Every one of these girls has their role to play on the team," Ritter said. "They're all getting very good at them."
