01-02-15

It is also very true on the hardwood.

On Friday night in a town and at a school with a rich tradition of football success, this saying rang true.

When the 'five-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust' contest ended, the Indians survived the scrum and picked up the programs' first Mississippi Division boy's basketball win in over a season with a 50-44 victory over Sparta at Anders Gym on Friday night.

Both team combined for 35-turnovers but the Bulldogs made more of the mistakes.

While one team, Sparta, wanted to get up and down the floor, the host Indians wanted to grind the game down.

On this night, the methodical pace of DuQuoin worked as Coach Wendell Wheeler and his club picked up the league win to improve to 1-2 on the season and 6-7 overall.

“This game had no flow to it. We would get a nice rotation going and get a lead up to six or eight but we would make a couple of bad choices and then they would hit a shot or two and it would be back to four,” said Coach Wheeler. “We just never could keep it going. But we did play pretty well with the lead, and that is something kind of new to us. We have come so far (improvement) but we still have a long way to go.”

Sparta, now 0-3 and 6-8, never got into an offensive flow and were frustrated by the Indians on the night.

Coach Jeff Bowlby's club played hard but found the going tough as they never made any big runs that could have resulted in their first conference “W.”The Indians capitalized on 19-turnovers by the Bulldogs and they managed to make enough free throws in the final quarter to earn the victory.

DQ was topped in scoring by Jarred Thomas, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, who has battled football injuries and, on this night, foul trouble but managed 13-points.

Six-foot senior AJ Smith added 11-points while Nolan Showalter and Caleb Vogel tossed in nine points each.

The Indians held a slight 23-19 rebounding edge and finished with 16-turnovers of their own.

However they managed to hit 10-of-17 free throws in the fourth quarter to keep Sparta from making a run.

The Bulldogs fortunes weren't very good on Friday night as, to go along with their turnover issues, Sparta was just 14-of-38 from the floor (36.8 percent).

They managed to canned six 3-pointers, led by senior guard Seth Ferguson who made three of the treys and finished with 12-points.

Dwayne Dodson, another senior guard, added 11-points while junior forward Ethan Gwin tossed home eight-points for Coach Bowlby.

“The frustrating thing for me is that if we play well in the first 27-minutes, then we are in the game and not in that position (behind) and for whatever reason we weren't ready to play when the ball went up in the air tonight,” said Coach Bowlby. “Our effort was good but give them (DuQuoin) credit, their defense was good. They kind of took us out of our game plan early but it isn't a defense we haven't seen before. For whatever reason we weren't able to get the ball in the hole tonight.”

DuQuoin ended up 16-of-36 overall (44.4 percent) and were 5-of-11 from downtown.

Another of the old adages about sports is that “in basketball everyone makes a run.”

Apparently not as neither of these combatants made any sort of major offensive sprint.

It was a game that neither team was able to sustain any momentum.

A 7-0 march by the Indians in the first quarter was their best burst on the scoreboard.

Two of the scores came from Thomas, a steal and a fast break and another drive to the goal.

When Smith hit a long bomb from the right wing, DuQuoin led 14-6 with 4:11 to go in the opening frame.

After a pair of free throws by Dodson, DQ got another trey from Smith and when the Indians Thomas hit 1-of-2 free throws to close the quarter, the Tribe was up 18-11 at the horn.

DuQuoin was poised to make quick work of the guests on this rainy evening, but they managed to score just four points in the second quarter.

But the problem that Sparta had was that they failed to take advantage of the Indians issues.

As it turned out, DQ scored the first four points of the second, on a reverse lay in by junior forward Tucker Kuhnert and a score near the basket by Vogel on an assist for Kuhnert for a 22-11 lead.

However soon after that score, Thomas picked up his second personal foul and went to the bench.

The Indians offense hit the skids as they missed their next six shots and committed four of their turnovers in the final 4:28 of the quarter.

It was a prime spot for the Bulldogs to make a move but they only managed to make 1-of-7 shots themselves and they converted 5-of-8 free throws, to close the half down 22-17.

Though Coach Wheeler's struggled offensively on this night, defensively they were sound enough to pick up the win.

The Indians forced Sparta into seven more turnovers in the third quarter, and got five more points from Vogel around the basket.

This 6-foot-3 sophomore forward converted a three-point play in conventional style on a drive to the basket.

He later hit a shot from the right blocks for a 31-24 lead.

In this stanza, Thomas picked up another foul (his third) and went back to the pine with 3:18 remaining.

One of the bright spots for Coach Bowlby's Bulldogs on this night was Gwin.

He hit for back-to-back baskets to close the quarter for Sparta.

One score was on a fast-break on an assist from Ferguson and the second was in transition as well as the quarter ended at 31-28 DQ.

Sparta was oh so close to springing the surprise win in the final minutes but just couldn't get over the proverbial hump.

Three different times the Bulldogs closed gap down to have a chance at getting the lead.

The final time came with under two minutes left.

Consecutive 3-point shots by Dodson and junior guard Drew Kordys suddenly had the Indians worried.

When Kordys found the mark with 1:08 left, Sparta trailed just 45-43.

That turned out to be the final basket from the Bulldogs.

DuQuoin held off the Bulldogs by getting a lay in on a wide-open fast break against the Sparta press by Showalter on a nice pass from Thomas and then hitting three more free throws in the final :59.4.

“Football has him (Thomas) hurting (knees, ankles) and hopefully we will get him healthy this spring and summer,” added Wheeler. “We have a young team and we do a lot of teaching every night. Last year we would have lost this game by eight or ten points. This year we hang on and win by six. We are getting better.”

Sparta had shots in the final seconds, but missed all five attempts (5-of-16 for the fourth quarter, 0-of-5 in the last minute) as they fell on the road.

“They are one of those teams that if you get behind four or five points you feel like you are down 20 because he (Coach Wheeler) is going to run that high-flex offense and make you defend,” said Coach Bowlby. “Give them credit, they got us to play their style.”

The Indians get right back into action on Saturday night as they will host Massac County in a SIRR crossover game while Sparta will host Steeleville, also on Saturday.