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TIP-OFF CLASSIC FINALS: Indians Share Tournament Title

Posted December 07, 2008 10:00 pm

Jeff Profitt

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ For the first time all week, Du Quoin High School's Basketball team looked like a group with only a few days of practice under its belt Saturday night.

The Indians-slow out of the gates from the beginning-took a brief lead in the final quarter but wilted down the stretch in a 56-52 loss against Waltonville to finish the 11th Annual Du Quoin Tip-Off Classic.

Du Quoin and Waltonville shared the tournament's title with 3-1 records. Benton and Cairo (2-2) tied for third. Winless Carterville (0-4) took home fifth place.

"We had some bad matchups right out of the blocks," Indians coach Mike Crews said. "I thought we had things going in the right direction, but we just continued to be four to seven points down all night."

Waltonville led the entire game-with the exception of an 11-11 first quarter tie-until just over two minutes remained.

At the 2:12 mark, Du Quoin went ahead 50-49 as Dalton Morgan turned his own missed free throw into an easy rebound basket.

Skyler Witges-one of three Spartans named to the classic's all-tournament team-then knotted things at 50-50 apiece with a foul toss.

Waltonville went back in front to stay on its next two possessions, scoring on Devin Lamke's drive to the basket and a pair of Joseph Lewis free throws.

With the score 54-50, Du Quoin pulled within two when A.J. Hill marked inside. Just over a minute remained and the Indians wouldn't score again.

The Tribe had one last chance at a tie- or potential victory- but struggled in its halfcourt offense and managed only an off-balance runner by Jamor Reed with 7.8 seconds left.

Waltonville rebounded and Witges sank two free throws, sealing Du Quoin's fate.

Lewis (17), Witges (12) and Brock Wheatley (10) cracked double digits for the Spartans.

Matt Gossett-named the tournament's Most Valuable Player-finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists before fouling out.

Marcus Clarry and Logan Schneider each had six points. Hill added five.

Waltonville out-rebounded Du Quoin 36-30 and enjoyed a 21-8 advantage at the foul line.

Gossett, Morgan, Hill and Clarry represented the Indians on the all-tourney list with Lewis, Witges and Wheatley making the grade from Waltonvillle.

Trevor Myers and Zach LaBuwi (Benton) were named along with Arthur Williams (Cairo) and Brad Drust (Carterville).

Tim Corn of Benton won the Sportsmanship Award.

Du Quoin 67, Benton 34

Plagued by illness and injury, the Rangers proved no matched for Du Quoin in Saturday's first game.

Scoring the final 16 of the opening quarter, the Indians were up 16-2 as the buzzer sounded and 36-10 by intermission.

Benton managed just four field field goals in the first 16 minutes while the Indians had eight players score at least two points by intermission.

"In all defense of Benton they had two senior starters (Zach LaBuwi and Tim Corn) out and that's tough to overcome," Crews said. "But I do feel like we did a lot of things right and were much sharper than last (Friday) night. We got after it pretty good defensively on (Trevor) Myers and valued the basketball a lot more offensively."

Morgan scored 13 points and again dominated play in the paint with 10 rebounds and two blocks. Gossett added a dozen points with Davis and David Rose each coming off the bench to add 10 apiece.

Crews played the entire roster in the last half.

Myers-who ended up as the tournament's leading scorer with 87 points-managed just nine against the Tribe.

"Myers is a nice player and I felt like we defended him pretty well," Crews concluded.

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