01-02-10
BY JACK BULLOCK
DU QUOIN - Despite its own shortcomings the Herrin Tigers picked up an important non-conference victory on Saturday night to improve to 9-5 on the season.

Coach Irv Lukens witnessed his team commit 17-turnovers, give up some late game easy scores and commit a silly technical foul early in the game.

But on the up side the Tigers drilled home eight consecutive free throws in the final 1:02 of the contest that turned into a 58-49 triumph over host Du Quoin in a SIRR crossover game in front of a big crowd at Anders Gym.

DeMarlo Harris topped the Tigers with 21-points on the night as this 6-foot-4 sophomore hit 5-of-7 free throws himself in the win.

Matt Gossett scored 19-points to pace the Indians – who saw their record drop to 10-3 on the campaign.

Herrin’s David Mallow picked up some inside slack for the Tigers with 10-points and nine rebounds.

As a whole the Tigers opened up the second half of the season on a positive note.

“I thought all of our kids stepped up tonight,” said Coach Lukens. “I thought our defense was excellent. Anytime you hold them (Du Quoin) to under 50-points then that is a pretty good defensive job. We have been working on that and concentrating on that.”

Herrin got off to an inauspicious start with 6-fooot-9 senior center Andre Brown picking up two quick personnel fouls and a technical foul which put him on the bench next to Coach Lukens with just 3:20 gone in the first quarter.

Brown fouled Du Quoin’s Marcus Clary and then slammed the ball to the court - which warranted the technical foul.

But Herrin played well without Brown for the remainder of the half with Harris and Mallow both scoring points in the 12-11 Herrin advantage at the end of one.

There were few bright spots for Du Quoin other than Gossett.

Junior guard J.C. Davis hit five 3-pointers for 15-points for Coach Mike Crew’s crew.

Davis canned back-to-back treys in the second quarter to give the Indians its final lead of the contest.

His second bomb – one that banked in from the right wing – put DQ up 19-18 with 2:43 left before halftime.

However Herrin responded with JoJo Hart nailing a 3-pointer of his own that started a 10-4 sprint to give the Tigers a 28-23 halftime lead.

Harris closed the half with a conventional three-point play while being fouled by Cody Rose with :05.2 left

The Tigers added four more points to the run to open the second half with Brown scoring on an inside move and the 5-foot-8 Hart hitting a soft jump hook in the lane over a crowd of taller Indians.

Herrin got its largest lead of the evening when Harris found Mallow underneath the basket for a score and a 38-27 lead with 2:41 to go.

Behind eight points in the quarter by Gossett – Du Quoin rallied get within three at the end of the stanza.

His last four points came from the foul line.

He got Brown to foul him on a drive to the basket with :35.9 left – which sent Brown back to the bench with his fourth foul.

Herrin committed six of its turnovers in the third quarter to let DQ back into the contest.

The Indians last hurrah came with a basket on a drive in the lane by Gossett and a 3-pointer from the top of the arc by Logan Schneider that closed the gap to 50-46 with 1:02 remaining.

But Harris, Hart and Jakob Caldwell finished the contest with eight-consecutive made charities.

“Mallow is always steady for us and he is one player I don’t have to worry about,” added Coach Lukens. “He always works hard around the bucket and he played very good defense tonight on Gossett. He made him think about different things. Gossett is a good player and he can finish.”

Du Quoin shot horribly in this contest – connecting on just 18-of-57 shots from the floor (32 percent) and sent the Tigers to the foul line too many times.

Herrin – on the other hand – hit 23-of-41 shots in the game with most of them coming in close to the basket by Mallow and Harris.

Hart was the third Tiger in double-figures with 13-points.

“We didn’t run enough offense all night long to even start and argument,” said a disappointed Du Quoin mentor Mike Crews. “I give them (Herrin) credit. They played really hard and they went where they needed to go. We got him (Brown) in foul trouble and he misses about 11 minutes in the first half and we don’t do a thing.”

The Tigers head back into action next Friday January 8 with a date at Massac County while DQ travels to Edwardsville on Tuesday January 5 to face a very good Metro-East Lutheran team.

Herrin (58) – Jones 2 1 0-0 7, Hart 4 1 2-3 13, Mallow 5 0 0-2 10, Brown 2 0 0-1 4, Harris 8 0 5-7 21, Caldwell 0 0 3-4 3, Wayer 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-21, 3FG-2, FT-10-17, PF-9.
Du Quoin (49) – Davis 0 5 0-0 15, Carson 0 0 0-0 0, D. Rose 0 0 0-0 0, Clary 1 0 1-2 3, Reed 1 0 1-2 3, C. Rose 0 0 0-0 0, S. Gossett 0 0 0-0 0, Schneider 3 1 0-0 9, M. Gossett 7 0 5-7 19.
2FG-12, 3FG-6, FT-7-11, PF-17.
Fouled Out – C. Rose - Du Quoin.
Technical Fouls – Brown - Herrin.