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WORTH THE WAIT: Yellow Jackets play Cobden tonight in CIT championship game

Tonight, the 16-5 Chester Yellow Jackets will be poised to win only their third Chester Invitational Tournament championship in the 57-year history of the competition.

The #1-seeded Yellow Jackets will face #2-seeded Cobden for the title, in a matchup that was meant to be played last weekend, but got delayed by Friday's snowstorm. Game time is 7:30 p.m., following the 7th place game at 6 p.m.

Coach Brad Norman said he's excited at possibly becoming just the third coach in Chester boys basketball history to win the CIT.

"I think the tournament is ours to lose," he said confidently. "If we play well and don't have a terrible night we should be able to win the whole thing.

"Our kids are focused and would like to be tournament championships, but I think they also have the composure to know that they will have to play well to secure the title," Norman added.

Canceling tournament games because of the weather was prudent, but created some scheduling issues. Most of the eight teams in CIT had games already scheduled this week, and Chester's Colbert Gymnasium also had scheduling conflicts.

For tournament updates, scores of games, and other related CIT information, fans are encouraged go to the CIT website at http://bit.ly/CHSCIT.

To get to the championship round the Yellow Jackets crushed both the Valmeyer Pirates, 77-46, and the Perryville Pirates, 71-37. In both games the officials invoked the mercy rule, that dictates if a team is ahead by 30 points at any time during the fourth quarter the clock will run continuously to the end of the game.

CHS 77; Valmeyer 46

The Pirates were no match for the YellowJackets as Chester led 37-7 after one quarter of play and 50-23 at halftime in this Jan. 8 game.

In the third quarter Chester outscored Valmeyer 21-12 to lead 71-35 going into the final stretch. That triggered the "mercy rule," and Norman's decision to go heavily to his bench in the fourth period.

The YellowJackets were led by Keith Kiner III with 20 points, including four dunks, several driving layups and a 3-pointer. Ian Reith added 11 points on a 3-pointer, three field goals and 2-for-2 free throw shooting. Jakob Cushman also scored in double figures with a pair of 3-pointers, two 2-pointers and 2-for-2 at the free throw line.

Another six players chipped in to score the other 36 Chester points, including Drake Bollman, Colin Wingerter, Matt Korando and DeOndre Martin with 8 apiece. Jordan Hughes and Aiden Jany each scored two points.

For the night the YellowJackets hit 19 baskets for 38 points, eight 3-pointers and had 15 for 17 shooting from the free throw line.

Valmeyer was led by Philip Reinhardt with 15 points; John Faust, Jacob Rowold, Riley McCarthy and Henry Weber (6 apiece), Nathan Touchette (5) and Braden Miller (2).

"We did not want to humiliate the other team," Norman said. "We attacked early and used a press to control the Pirates. I am very proud of our players, not just because they scored a lot of points and won the game.

"They are really special, like the way everyone supports each other. Our starters to our 14th player on the bench slap hands throughout the game, cheer each other on and support each other regardless of the score or how well they are doing at a given time."

CHS 71; Perryville 37

Drake Bollman, Keith Kiner III and Colin Wingerter combined to give Chester a 13-9 lead after the first quarter. Kiner got the large Thursday night crowd excited with his first dunk of the evening in that first quarter. Perryville scored nine points on the efforts of Chase Brown, Dawson Camden, Jeff Reisenbichler and Andrew Smith.

Chester held Brown to just three points, which is notable because in the Perryville-New Athens game in the first round of the tournament, Brown went on a rampage and scored 41 points, setting a new school record for the Pirates and coming within two points of the CIT tournament record.

But in this game, the Jacket defenders did an excellent job of containing Brown in the opening period of the CHS vs Perryville game to set the tone for the evening.

In the second quarter Chester unleashed the hive and outscored Perryville 24-9, taking a 37-18 lead into halftime.

After halftime the YellowJackets came out hot again and outscored the Pirates, 20-10 to lead 57-28 heading into the final stretch.

In the fourth period it took the Jackets a minute or two to get the necessary 30-point lead, but the "mercy rule" was activated and Chester rode out a continuous clock the rest of the game.

Chester had seven players contribute offensively in the victory: Kiner (20), Reith (15), Wingerter (13), Bollman (9), Cushman (6), Martin (5) and Chet Andrews (3).

The Jackets hit 20 two-pointers, seven 3-pointers, and 10 of 20 free throws. Kiner wowed the crowd three different times with monster dunks including a reverse slam.

Colin Wingerter got hot in the second half and drained two 3-pointers. Jakob Cushman added two 3s of his own and DeOndre Martin and Chett Andrews each connected for one apiece.

Perryville was led by Chase Brown who was held to just 10 points. Other contributors included Dawson Camden (9), Jeff Reisenbichler (7), Andrew Smith (5), Seth Rousseau (4) and Matthew Mueller (2).