Du Quoin girls basketball: Lady Indians hit slump without Mocaby
Last week, with Abbi Mocaby and her 9.3 points a game sidelined because of the COVID protocols, her Du Quoin Lady Indians teammates had trouble making up her points and ball movement. The team lost two in a row, averaging just 27 points a game instead of their previous 40.7 average.
"This is our first two-game losing streak of the season and I don't like it very much," said Du Quoin Coach Shawn File. "Hopefully we can put a stop to it Monday night and don't have any more."
Du Quoin (11-5, 2-2 Mississippi) plays three games this week starting with a home game against Sparta on Monday. The mini-homestand continues with a home game against Carterville Thursday before hitting the road Saturday as the first game of a Du Quoin girls/boys doubleheader against Trico starting at 3 p.m.
Last Thursday, Du Quoin hosted Mississippi Division rival Nashville and played the Hornettes to a standstill in the first half. They trailed by one after the first quarter and tied the game at the half.
Nashville held a mere two-point lead after the third quarter, but the Lady Indians couldn't keep up in the fourth. They were outscored 16-8 to lose 40-30.
"Hats off to (Nashville), they made shots and we didn't get the ball in the bucket enough in the second half like they did," File said. "Defensively we did a pretty good job on Emily Schnitker and Alyssa Cole, holding them both to single digits."
Lauren Heape as a starter and Loveleen Dunklin off the bench led the Lady Indians in scoring with 13 points each, but the rest of the team was held to just four points.
"We didn't get the ball spread around as much as we wanted to," File said. "We had some opportunities, but didn't get it done."
Two regular starters Kallie Oestreicher and Sophie Hill were held to two points each while the third starter Grace Alongi and Emma Fischer, who replaced Mocaby in the starting lineup, were held scoreless. Besides Dunklin the entire bench was also held scoreless.
Last Saturday afternoon the Lady Indians hit the road for a nonconference game against Hamilton County with Mocaby still on the sidelines and Dunklin missing the game for personal reasons.
The Lady Indians scoring woes continued with a 38-24 loss. Earlier in the season during the Benton Holiday Tournament with Mocaby and Dunklin in the lineup Du Quoin beat the Lady Foxes 41-38.
"We were a little undermanned," File said. "I was incredibly proud of the young ladies - they played very well - we just had some spurts where we didn't quite get the ball in the basket. We also got a little sloppy on a couple of occasions with the basketball and they took advantage of some of that. We'll work on that and be better on Monday night."
Once again the Lady Indians played a good first half trailing 11-8 after the first quarter and 15-14 at the half. Hamilton County took control in the third quarter holding Du Quoin to just four points by Hill and Grace Phipps to take a 26-18 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
"With Sophie on the bench with foul trouble and Loveleen unavailable our height disappeared very, very quickly," File said. "That takes some threats off the floor when that happens."
Heape, Oestreicher and Alongi scored one basket each in the fourth while the Lady Foxes doubled their output to pull away.
Heape led the team with eight points with Oestreicher and Alongi finishing with six points each. Fischer and Hill were held to two points each and without Dunklin the scoring off the bench was just Phipps with two points.
"We lost by 14 points and I got my first technical of the year - it was ugly," File said. "We'll regroup even though we don't have a whole lot of time to do so since we are right back at on Monday."