BOYS BASKETBALL: Indians triumph at Trico to end skid

The Indians busted out of a five-game funk on Saturday night at Trico High School, pummeling the Pioneers 65-46 with double-digit scoring efforts from Braden Heape, Jacob Wright and Hank Stewart. Du Quoin hit ten three-pointers in the game and had nine different players get in the scoring column.
"We had five guys with 5 or more (points)," said DHS head coach Justin Barrington, "and Tucker Kuhnert who only had 4 was very aggressive defensively, caused a lot of trouble, he caused two illegal screens. The balance was nice to see, the balance and the energy on both ends of the floor is what carried us through tonight. Hopefully it'll lead into next week."
The game was all tied up at 12-12 with under two minutes to go in the opening quarter when the Indians' offense caught fire. Heape kicked off a 14-0 run for DHS with a shot from the post, then Stewart drained Du Quoin's first triple of the evening. Heape found the bottom of the net again with a couple seconds left on the clock to put his team up 19-12.
That run extended well into the second as Heape, Kuhnert and Wright all scored in the first two minutes of the quarter. But the big damage came at the end of the period when the Indians buried three three-pointers in the final minute - two from Brock Bullar, another from Heape - to go into the half up 35-18.
"That gave us a lot of momentum heading into halftime," Barrington said. "I thought our guys played free and easy, they moved the basketball well tonight. It was as good of a half as we could play offensively and defensively."
The Pioneers chipped away in the third quarter and got to within seven early in the fourth, but Wright seemingly couldn't miss from beyond the arc in the final frame. He had three threes as part of Du Quoin's 24-point fourth period, and Chad Heatherly added a fourth with just over a minute to go.
"Third quarter, it got a little bit closer than we wanted it to, but in the fourth quarter we put an end to it," said Barrington. "I thought in the third quarter we settled too much for shots, in the fourth quarter we were back to getting open looks. Any time you can hit 10 threes, and I'd say 8 of them were off penetration or quick ball reversals, it's a lot easier to play defense off of that."
Heape topped the scoring for Du Quoin with 17 points, Wright had 15, Stewart 10, Caleb Vogel 7, Bullar 6, Heatherly 5, Kuhnert 4 and Cole Hopkins and Trace Klein each finished with 2.
This week, Du Quoin (4-13, 1-4) will make four trips over to Sparta for the Mid-Winter Classic beginning with Tuesday's 5:30 p.m. matchup with Waterloo. The Indians take on Murphysboro Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. and Red Bud Thursday at 5:30 p.m. before Saturday's to-be-determined schedule.

Nashville 60, Du Quoin 39 (Friday):
Nashville showed Du Quoin why they're on top of the SIRR Conference's Mississippi Division on Friday night, hammering the Indians 60-39 at Anders Gymnasium. Royce Newman led the Hornets with 25 points despite making just 5-of-12 free throws.
Wright led the Indians with 12 points, Vogel added 7, Heape 5. Bullar, Klein and Ashton Smith all finished with 3 points, and Kuhnert, Stewart and Hopkins each had 2.
The Indians had eight three-pointers in the game, but managed only four makes from inside the arc.