Lady Yellow Jackets edge Steeleville
STEELEVILLE -- It won't end up on ESPN Classic anytime soon, but a win's a win for the Chester Lady Yellow Jackets.
Kaitlyn Dillow scored 18 points and Alexis McMath added 13, leading Chester to a wild 50-47 win over the Lady Warriors on Monday. A 3-pointer from Dillow with 48 seconds left tied the game at 47 for Chester.
"She did a good job," Chester coach Pat Knowles said of Dillow. "We ran a nice set there for her when we were down by three. (Steeleville) knew we were going inside alot, so we shoved in, kicked back out, (Dillow) got her feet set and nailed the 3 and tied it up."
Leading by three with 9.1 seconds left, McMath had a chance to ice the game for Chester at the free-throw line, but missed both foul shots.
Steeleville's Bailey Gale came up with the rebound after the second miss and Lady Warriors coach John Antonacci almost immediately called a timeout to give his team a chance with 8.1 seconds left.
Coming out of the break, Steeleville worked the ball around the perimeter in trying to get a shot and McMath redeemed herself by swatting a Lexi Middendorf pass out-of-bounds with only nine-tenths of a second remaining.
After the inbounds pass at half court, Lady Warrior Chloe Gerlach couldn't get a shot off before the buzzer.
"What we had drawn up was for Chloe to get the ball, she was going to come off the screen, look for a shot and if they doubled her off that screen or sent somebody else after her, we were supposed to spread out around the outside and look for the open person and try to get one," Antonacci said.
"I think we had a shot. Lexi Middendorf had a chance to get one up, she tried to pass it and that left us with 0.9, and we didn't really have enough time to do too much."
Sydney Hood led Steeleville (8-13) with a game-high 28 points, including 13 during the third quarter alone.
Trailing 27-22 at halftime, Steeleville scored the first 11 points of the second half to take a six-point lead with Hood as the catalyst for the offensive surge.
"Sydney has definitely come into her own," Antonacci said. "When she gets the ball, she does look to attack the basket. She's doing a much better job of controlling her body.
"From the beginning of the season until now, a completely different player and that's what we really needed."
A layup from Hood late in the third quarter gave Steeleville a 39-33 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
Chester (11-7) continued to chip away at the deficit in the final frame, tying the game at 44 on a Maddie Hoffman layup with 2:45 remaining.
Hoffman finished with six points for the Lady Yellow Jackets.
"Maddie Hoffman came in and had a little stretch there and got some points for us," Knowles said. "She did really well."
Logan Colvis added five points for Chester, while Emily Tudor and Carlee Weir combined for eight more. Chester also won the JV contest, 39-23, thanks to a combined 28 points from Hoffman and Lauren Welge.
Chester was scheduled to resume Black Diamond Conference play on Tuesday at Christopher before returning home to face the Bearcats on Monday, Jan. 25.
Tuesday's game was later canceled due to winter weather, with a reschedule date of Feb. 1.
Steeleville was scheduled to return to conference play against facing Dupo on Tuesday, but that game was also canceled due to weather.
"Last game we played against Dupo, we went into overtime and lost in overtime," Antonacci said. "We were missing a couple of players because of injury and hopefully that will help this time around."