Strong second quarter leads Steeleville past Chester
<span>STEELEVILLE -- Nic Hagel scored 18 points in his final high school basketball game on the Steeleville floor, and the Warriors built a 16-point halftime lead in a 70-59 Senior Night win over Chester on Wednesday.</span>
<span>Steeleville (20-8) reached the 20-win plateau for the first time since its regional title season of 2012-13 and got points from four of its five seniors in the victory.</span>
<span>"Really it was 'Be strong with the ball,'" said Steeleville coach Bryce Bainter on his team's strategy entering the contest. "(Chester) is very physical. Try to keep them out of the lane, they like to get to the rim.</span>
<span>"It helps when you make shots. We came out and hit a few shots and kinda got our blood flowing."</span>
<span>Seniors Trey Lazenby (15), Parker Lutz (5) and Lucas Axtell (6) also got in the scorebook for Steeleville, which had won five straight and eight of its last nine heading into the contest.</span>
<span>Fellow senior Bryar Pim played, but did not score.</span>
<span>"I can't say enough about the seniors," Bainter said. "They made this season a success. Each and every day, they come in and they work and they show good leadership and they're also good kids.</span>
<span>"A lot of the season is due to those seniors."</span>
<span>Great perimeter shooting allowed Steeleville to turn a 15-12 first quarter lead into a 31-17 advantage at halftime. Six players finished the game with at least one 3-pointer for the Warriors.</span>
<span>"They did (to us) what we did to Goreville (Tuesday) night," said Chester coach Brad Norman. "We got out early, we hit some 3-pointers and we kinda got the team down and (Wednesday), it was a fight digging out of the hole.</span>
<span>"We cut it back down to six, but then we ran out of gas, it felt like and we just can't do that."</span>
<span>Steeleville took its largest lead of the night, 36-20, on a 3-pointer from R.J. Smith with 1.1 seconds left in the second quarter.</span>
<span>Chester (19-8) came out and scored the first four points of the second half, but Steeleville kept pace and took a 48-38 advantage into the fourth quarter.</span>
<span>The Yellow Jackets managed to hack the deficit down to 54-48 with 4:39 left, but couldn't get any closer.</span>
<span>"We're the type of team that kinda has to play with the lead early and if we get down, we can't get down by too many," Norman said. "We just don't have enough firepower to fight back some nights."</span>
<span>Jack Weir led four players in double figures with 18 points for the Yellow Jackets. Savion Smith (14), Jason Schwartz (10) and Jake Golding (10) also reached double-digits.</span>
<span>Bainter also spoke on his team's hot streak.</span>
<span>"I think the chemistry of the kids has really come together here lately," Bainter said. "You always want to hit your stride late in the season and I felt after the Sparta tournament, we did that.</span>
"So, it's a good time to do it."