Chester boys take third at CIT

Posted January 16, 2016 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Staff Writer

Two days after a tough loss to eventual CIT champion Perryville, Chester rebounded to take third place in its own tournament with a 58-44 win over Cobden on Saturday.

Jack Weir scored 14 points, Savion Smith added 11 and Jason Schwartz and Jake Golding each contributed nine as Chester kept Cobden at arm's length in improving to 13-5 on the season.

"Intensity was something we stressed the last couple of days," said Chester coach Brad Norman. "We came out a little flat against Perryville in the second half and we worked on that (Friday). We addressed it, especially to our leaders and our older guys, and they came out and responded pretty well."

Cobden's Logan Spalt, who led all scorers with 17 points, swished a 3-pointer to open the contest, but seven straight points by Weir gave the Yellow Jackets a lead they would never relinquish.

Spalt scored all 11 of his team's points in the frame, as Chester took a 16-11 advantage into the second period.

"He's definitely one of the better players in the tournament," Norman said of Spalt, who was selected to the All-Tournament team along with Weir, Schwartz and Golding. "We're having a tough time guarding real good players at the moment, so we tried to run a couple guys on him and I think that was effective."

Chester opened up an 11-point lead, 22-11, on Cobden midway through the second period thanks to a layup and a free throw by Golding. The Yellow Jackets took a 27-15 advantage into the locker room at halftime.

Chester continued to extend its lead early in the second half, pushing its advantage to 32-17 on a 3-pointer from Demontae Martin 56 seconds into the frame.

"We just drew up a couple of things and we finally executed a couple of things," Norman said of the halftime message. "We've been struggling with that all year, actually executing, so we got a chance to actually set up something because we figured that Cobden would come out of a zone, so we set something up against a zone.

"They actually were patient enough to run through it and it opened up a couple of easy buckets baseline."

Chester took a 42-29 advantage into the fourth quarter and cruised to the victory.

"We knew coming in (Cobden) would have problems guarding Savion and Weir on the baseline," Norman said. "We tried to exploit that a little bit in their 1-3-1."

Chester has a couple of days off before beginning a tough final month of the regular season. The Yellow Jackets still have yet to play preseason Black Diamond Conference favorite Christopher and a tough Goreville squad that lost to Christopher in overtime on Friday thanks to a half-court heave from Hunter Wheeler.

Other opponents on the final 10-game slate include a rematch with Trico (Feb. 13), Duster Thomas Hoops Classic runner-up Gibault Catholic (Feb. 4) and Steeleville (Feb. 17).

Chester needs eight wins to equal the 21 it achieved during its regional championship season in 2012-13.

"If we can get a couple of wins here and there against some good teams, and maybe knock off Christopher once, we might have a chance at that (conference) title," Norman said.

Chester takes on the Bearcats Friday in Christopher. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Other All-Tournament team members included Conner Stark (Perryville, MVP), William Rogers (Saxony Lutheran), McGwire Bartley (Perryville), Kyle Smith (Marissa-Coulterville), Corie Williams (Saxony Lutheran), Brady Reynolds (Shawnee).

Chester's cheerleaders took home the tournament's cheerleading trophy, winning the title for the second year in a row.

Perryville 70, Chester 55

In a game that featured a reported five technicals, Perryville erased a nine-point halftime deficit with a 21-10 third quarter - leading the Pirates to a victory over the Yellow Jackets in the semifinals of the CIT.

Conner Stark led four players in double figures with 17 points for Perryville, while Josh Robinson added 12, Nathan Nolan contributed 11 and McGwire Bartley chipped in 10.

Jack Weir scored 21 points for Chester, while Jason Schwartz scored 11 and Jake Golding added 10. All of Schwartz's points came in the fourth quarter.

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