Chester opens tournament 2-0

Posted December 01, 2015 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Staff Writer

CAMPBELL HILL -- There was a big fight feel on Monday during the opening night of the Trico Pioneer Invitational Tournament.

Chester overcame a five-point deficit late in the fourth quarter and Owen Gross's potential game-tying 3-pointer fell short, giving the Yellow Jackets a 67-64 win over Steeleville.

"It's the first time in how many years we've gotten a win the first night of the year?" asked Chester coach Brad Norman. "I was surprised at how good the atmosphere was for it being a late game and first game of the year.

"Steeleville can play now. (Nic) Hagel can play, he can shoot from anywhere. We know that for a fact now."

The Warriors led 30-28 at halftime, but the teams headed to the fourth tied at 47.

"I felt like it had a kinda championship feel to it," said Steeleville coach Bryce Bainter. "Both teams played hard. I've been in a lot of games where I've been on the other side of this, so I know how both sides feel."

Steeleville held a 60-55 lead with 3:10 remaining when Chester started to rally. Two free throws by Jason Schwartz gave the Yellow Jackets a 61-60 advantage with 1:31 to go.

More free throws by Schwartz and Savion Smith gave Chester a 64-60 lead with 29.9 seconds left.

"I think we can definitely score the ball," Bainter said on what he learned about his team. "We're going to have to take care of our rebounding.

"I thought second-chance points and rebounding is where they beat us."

"Especially late," Bainter continued. "We had a five-point lead with three minutes left and they had a possession where they had four or five offensive rebounds, we've got to clean that up."

The teams traded baskets until Chester took a 67-64 advantage with 4.2 seconds left. Gross had a decent look at the game-tying shot, but it didn't fall.

"No. 3 (Gross), the little guard, he's really good too," Norman said. "They've got some players who can bang and we had some spurts in the second half where we just let down defensively."

Hagel led all scorers with 29 points for Steeleville, while Gross finished with 13 and Parker Lutz added nine.

"Hopefully, we learn from this," Bainter said. "We're a lot farther along than we were last year and we just have to go from there."

For Chester, Schwartz had 20 points, while Jack Weir added 19. Jake Golding contributed nine points for the Yellow Jackets and Demontae Martin chipped in eight.

"They can go into any open gym and play 2-on-2 with anybody," Norman said of Schwartz and Weir. "They've got that old-school mentality of pump-fakes and jump-stops. It's pretty cool to watch them work together."

Overall, Norman was happy with the effort and intensity from the first game of the season.

"I learned that it's going to be a fun year," Norman said. "Win or lose, live or die, it's going to be a fun year. The bench was absolutely amazing.

"We had six guys who didn't even see the floor and they were more happy at the end than the starters."

Wednesday's games occurred after the Herald Tribune went to press. After taking Thursday off, the tournament resumes tonight with Red Bud taking on Shawnee at 5:30 p.m., Steeleville facing Trico at 7 p.m. and Sparta battling Chester at 8:30 p.m.

Chester 71, Shawnee 25:

Jack Weir scored 15 points, Demontae Martin added 13, Austin Carpenter chipped in 12 and Savion Smith provided 10 as Chester (2-0) rolled to an easy victory over Shawnee.

Steeleville 55, Sparta 49:

R.J. Smith scored 16 points, while Nic Hagel added 12 to give the Warriors (1-1) their first win of the season in overtime.

Sparta led 21-9 after the first quarter, but Steeleville rallied to trail only 30-24 at halftime. The Warriors outscored the Bulldogs 19-10 in the second half and 12-6 in the extra session.

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