Lady Yellow Jackets fall to Sparta in third place game

Posted January 09, 2016 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Staff Writer

All-tournament team selection Kera Kiner poured in 26 points, and Sparta erased an early five-point deficit with a 12-2 run as part of a 53-47 win over Chester on Saturday.

The Lady Bulldogs (8-10) took third place in the Lady Jackets Mid-Winter Classic thanks in large part to the 6-foot-2 Kiner, who led the tournament with 69 points in three games.

"It is good for them," said Sparta coach Jim Jeffers of his players. "I am not sure, except for a couple, that they ever received a trophy.

"So we went from not competing, we are competing now and now, they want to win. So, I'm proud of them."

Two days after coming up a bucket short of advancing to the championship game in a 42-41 overtime loss to Dupo on Thursday, Chester got off to a good start in taking a 9-4 lead on a 3-pointer from Haley Middendorf with 4:57 left in the first quarter.

But Sparta came charging back, taking a 16-11 lead on a jump shot by Savannah Oliver with 10 seconds left in the frame.

"The whole game we were out of help," said Chester coach Pat Knowles. "We had one starter out, didn't get to play at all, came up lame in warmups. Point guard, she's got a bad ankle, so we didn't get to play her much in the game.

"We had to use a lot of JV players, and they were making JV mistakes. We fought back, but we just didn't execute (Saturday)."

Trailing by as much as 10, 38-28, early in the fourth quarter, Chester freshman Carlee Weir stepped up to give the Lady Yellow Jackets a chance.

Weir, who had a team-high 15 points for Chester, scored four straight points to cut Sparta's lead to 42-39 with 3:29 remaining.

But the Lady Bulldogs scored the next four points to push the lead back to seven.

"That kinda happened when we played Chester at home this year," Jeffers said. "They pressed us and they got back in it - I think we won by seven that game - but we knew it was coming, but we knew we had to make free throws.

"We're only shooting less than 40 percent from the stripe, so I didn't know what was going to happen there."

Haley Middendorf finished with nine points for Chester (9-6), while Alexis McMath contributed eight and Kaitlyn Dillow added seven.

Dillow was named to the all-tournament team for the Yellow Jackets.

Against Dupo, a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Emily Tudor tied the game for Chester at the end of regulation, but Weir's shot at the end of overtime was no good.

Dupo went on to lose to New Athens, 61-29, in Saturday's championship game. Tournament MVP Alina Lance scored 24 points to help give New Athens its second straight title.

"That did take a lot out of us," Knowles said of the loss to Dupo. "We had a good practice (Friday), but we were flat starting out and not having certain players made a difference mentally."

Other all-tournament team selections were Leia Campbell (Dupo), Abby Marlow (New Athens) and Megan Brown (Dupo).

Trico 49, Marissa 45

Haley Nagel scored 19 points and Jade Kranawetter added 12, giving Trico a win over Marissa-Coulterville in the consolation championship.

Trico led 24-16 at halftime and 31-29 after three quarters. The Pioneers then outscored the Lady Meteors 18-16 in the final frame.

Kenzie Kern paced Marissa-Coulterville with 17 points, while Kyla Krause added 14.

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