CHS boys hand Christopher first BDC loss

Savion Smith said he just wanted to remain humble. A lesser man may not have.

Smith swished a 3-pointer with little initial celebration with 1.2 seconds left, and Chester handed Christopher its first Black Diamond Conference loss with a 37-35 win over the Bearcats on Tuesday.

"I was just wanting to hit the shot, trying to get the win for my teammates," Smith said. "We hadn't beaten Christopher. We didn't beat them last year and we lost the first game (this year) pretty badly to them."

Facing a team averaging 70 points per game, the Yellow Jackets (17-7, 5-2 BDC West) took the air out of the basketball, letting almost four minutes pass before taking their first shot of the game.

"We really had to," said Chester coach Brad Norman. "If you're an old-timer, you'd probably come into this game and you appreciated it a little bit in the first half.

"We ran the old-school flex on them a little bit, just tried to maintain the ball. We went to their place last time and were down 20 before we could even blink."

The climactic play occurred after Chester called a timeout with 15 seconds left and trailing 35-34.

"We ran an out-of-bounds play for Jason (Schwartz) to come off a double screen and then Jack (Weir) was going to loop in behind him," Norman said. "But if Jason saw the screen by Savion, he was going to come off of Savion's screen instead."

Schwartz decided to do that and after getting an off-balance shot off, Chester got the rebound.

"When it came off the offensive rebound, (Schwartz) knew he had to get to the middle," Norman said. "He was going to the rim, he got double-teamed and saw a wide-open Savion.

"Savion did what he was supposed to do and stepped into the pass, feet square and knocked it down."

Norman was asked if the coaching staff knew the shot was good when it came off Smith's fingertips.

"It looked great," Norman said of Smith's shot. "Coach (Chris) Toledo is behind me yelling 'Just one time Savion, just one time.'

"So when he hit it, coach is yelling and Gritty said when I jumped, my head hit the light, I'm pretty sure it didn't because (the light) is pretty high. I've still got mad hops."

Smith was asked about the muted celebration after the shot went in.

"I'd never hit a game-winning shot," he said. "I tried to be humble about it."

After the play, the officials conferred and put 3.1 seconds back on the clock. Christopher worked the length of the floor and had a good look at the game-tying layup at the other end, but the Bearcats bobbled the pass under the basket.

"Coach Norman had a great gameplan tonight," said Christopher coach Eric Stallman. "They held the ball for the entire first quarter, they came out and they stalled on us.

"We average 70 points a game and we finish tonight with 35. I've got players who score more than that some nights."

The first points of the game didn't come until 2:40 remained in the first quarter. Schwartz drove for the layup and was fouled, swishing the free throw to give the Yellow Jackets the early 3-0 lead.

"We played into our strengths, slowed it down a little bit, tried to get great shots early and as the game progressed - I told them at halftime 'Now's the time to start looking for a good shot' - and then in the fourth quarter, we unleashed the hounds," Norman said.

The lead never got larger than five points either way during the entire contest and seemingly changed with every possession of the fourth quarter.

A layup from Christopher's Bradley Young with 1:46 left gave the Bearcats (19-3, 7-1 BDC West) a 35-31 advantage.

"We didn't have the ball for very many offensive possessions whenever they're holding the ball for that long," Stallman said. "But we played alright considering things, we just didn't finish on top."

Schwartz led the Yellow Jackets with 13 points in the victory, while Smith had seven. Young led Christopher with 13 points, while Kaeleb Pedigo contributed 10.

Up next for Chester is a rematch with Trico on Saturday at Colbert Gymnasium. Varsity tipoff is scheduled for around 7:30 p.m.

A 45-40 road loss to the Pioneers on December 18 gave the Yellow Jackets' their first BDC loss of the season and combined with the split of Christopher, Chester will need some help if it wants at least a share of the conference title.

"We dropped one at Trico and that's really going to probably come back and hurt us," Norman said. "I don't think Sesser has enough firepower to beat Christopher.

"But if they were to do that, I think with us playing the way we're playing right now, we've got a real shot to beat Trico, Goreville and Sesser-Valier here in the next two weeks."

In the JV contest, Chester took a 63-31 win over Christopher. Freshman Drake Bollman scored a game-high 19 points, while Jake Haberberger added 11.