DU QUOIN -- The Du Quoin Lady Indians basketball team heads into the final game of the COVID-19 shortened season on a high with a four-game winning streak after going through a deep low of five straight losses.
"We are rounding into form," said Du Quoin head Coach Shawn File. "I feel like we're just now hitting our stride figuring out who we are as a team just as the season ends. Usually that happens in the middle of the season, but with our greatly condensed COVID season we haven't picked up as early as we should have. I'm very pleased where we're at."
On Monday night the Lady Indians hosted Anna-Jonesboro with a chance to finish their SIRR-Mississippi Division schedule with a .500 record for the first time since 2011. (The game ended after the Call deadline).
"We've made a concerted effort the last several ballgames where everyone tried to ratchet up intensity early in the games and it's helped us," File said.
Du Quoin went into the game with a 4-5 conference record and with Anna-Jonesboro having one more game to play on its schedule against league leader Carterville. A win Monday night and a loss by the Lady Wildcats on Thursday would leave Du Quoin tied with Anna-Jonesboro at 5-5 in the conference. Last year Du Quoin finished 3-7 in conference play.
The Lady Indians (6-6 overall) also have a chance to finish above .500 for the season. That prospect looked bleak on Feb. 25 when Du Quoin had lost to Carterville, 46-34, for its fifth straight loss to drop to 2-6.
The turnaround started with road wins against Sparta, 51-32, and Pinckneyville, 45-38, to end February and begin March. Junior Abbi Mocaby had a career game against Sparta with five 3-ponters to lead the Lady Indians with 15 points. Junior Lauren Heape added 12 points and senior Delaynie Dearmond finished with nine.
"We shot the ball really well from the perimeter with eight 3-pointers," File said. "They ran a little zone and box-and-one and we were able to put the ball into the basket."
Two days later in Pinckneyville, Dearmond had the game of her career pumping in 26 points to give the Lady Indians a rare sweep of the Lady Panthers. Despite Dearmond's offensive explosion the key to the game was on defense where Du Quoin held Pinckneyville to five points in the second quarter and nine in the third.
"We felt like we had a mismatch with them in the man-to-man setting and we took advantage of that, especially in the first half where Delaynie had 14 points," File said. "Defensively, our mantra is single digit quarters. Forty points has always been my magic number. Keep them under 40 and our chances of winning go up exponentially."
The rematch against Sparta was last Thursday and the key to the 47-28 win was at the free-throw line where the Lady Indians made 13-of-16. Heape led the team with 13 points with junior Ayanna Dunklin and Dearmond finishing with 12 points each.
"Free throws are always incredibly important to finish out a ballgame and we did a good job of doing that," File said.
The streak extended to four games with a 62-14 win at Elverado Saturday afternoon. Dunklin was the team leader with 17 points and Heape added 11.
"Everybody got into the ballgame and everybody scored," File said. "Defensively we did a good job there limiting them to 14 points and none in the fourth quarter."
The first time Du Quoin played Anna-Jonesboro the Lady Wildcats came away with a 39-36 win on their home court for the second loss in that five-game losing streak.
