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HENRY — A 10-day layoff may have slowed the DePue Little Giants down but the 10th ranked team in the state was able to shake off the early cobwebs and come away with a 49-40 victory of Tri-County Conference opponent Henry-Senachwine Mallards Friday in Henry.
With time running down in the first half, the Mallards' junior Schuyler Hughes knocked down a three to tie the ball game at 33-33.
The only tie of the contest was short lived as DePue’s Austin Cisco answered on the final possession of the half and drilled a three of his own to untie the game. The Little Giants opened the second half the way they closed the first, this time Cisco assisted senior guard Eddie Moreno’s trey.
“Manny (Winfert) at the beginning took over. He had almost all of his points in the first half; he drove to the basket to score and hit a big three. That really helped us get going because he hasn’t been scoring a lot,” DePue coach Charlie Klinefelter said
DePue gradually built upon their lead with sophomore Manny Winfert’s 16 points leading the way. Winfert’s 12 first half points were a bright spot to a slow start for the Little Giants.
“I just took it to the rack and shot good threes,” Winfert said. “We tried to drive and pass because they had a box and one on Rahim (McKee-Strong) so we just tried to use ball movement to get good shots.”
“They have some shooters on that team and when they’re hot they’re tough to stop, they play hard. And I just think those 10 days kind of hurt us a little bit and we got back in sync there towards the end and finished like we are supposed to,” Klinefelter said. “We’ve got to have all of our guys to play on all cylinders if we want to win at regional."
The Mallards only lead came on the first point of the night, a free throw from senior James Mann’s just 43 seconds into the game.
The free throw was topped when McKee-Strong drove, drew the defense and dished to Winfert for an easy lay up. The Giants maintained their hold on the lead for the remaining 31:17 save for 23 seconds when Hughes' three tied the contest late in the second quarter.
DePue built its largest lead of the game during an 11-1 first half stretch that featured all four of junior Rafa Puga’s four points. He also dished out two assists in the four-minute span.
The Little Giants got most of their scoring from three guys — Winfert (16), Moreno (14) and Cisco (13).
Moreno was quiet early but turned only three second-half field goals into 13 second-half points as the senior came up with a huge 6-for-6 effort from the charity stripe in the final quarter.
The Little Giants moved up one in the state rankings to the ninth position but are still only the second seeded team in the Somonauk sub-sectional A behind state-ranked Annawan.
The second-seeded DePue anxiously await to square off against No. 10 Amboy at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Indian Creek Regional at Shabbona.
“I was a little disappointed that we didn’t break out and blow this game open and they were able to stay in the game. We have to realize we have to play a lot better if we want to win the regional,” added Klinefelter.
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