Lady Yellow Jackets honored at awards night

The Chester High School Lady Yellow Jackets basketball team had an exceptional year in 2016-17, winning their own tournament, placing third in another and winning the consolation championship a third.

School records were tied or broken and Chester finished with its best record in 25 years and the team and coaches celebrated the season at their awards night on March 2.

"Our record for 2016-17 was 15-14, the best record in 25 seasons," said Chester head coach Pat Knowles. "We had a winning season and I was quite proud of these achievements."  Knowles also said, "Our tournament record was 10-4 overall, which included four different tournaments."

The Lady Yellow Jackets started out the season at the 27^th Annual Sparta Girls Invitational, where they achieved a third place finish with wins over Trico, Sparta, and Steeleville.

In December, Chester played in a holiday tournament for the first time in decades. The Lady Yellow Jackets battled hard and were the consolation champions of the Lebanon-Wesclin Christmas Tournament by winning their final three games over Steeleville, Piasa Southwestern and New Athens.

Chester came right back after the holidays and won its own tournament for the first time since 1998.

The Lady Yellow Jackets beat Dupo (50-14), Marissa-Coulterville (58-29) and New Athens (56-47) in the championship game to take home the championship trophy.

Chester beat Trico, 58-47, to open the Class 2A Anna-Jonesboro Regional, but fell to Sesser-Valier-Waltonville, 81-23, in the semifinals.

The Lady Yellow Jackets tied a former record of Most Assists in a Game with 19 against Ziegler-Royalton.  The team then broke the former record of 115 made 3-pointers in a single season.

In 2016-17 the CHS Lady Jackets made 116 3-Pointers to set a new CHS girls' basketball record.

"We also tied two individual school records this year," Knowles said. "We had players tie the former record for Most 3-Pointers Made in a single game.

"Carlee Weir, a sophomore, tied the record set by Chealcie Klausing of eight 3-pointers made in a single game and Kaitlyn Dillow tied Jenny Baldwin's records of nine steals in a single game."

Knowles concluded his praises with the announcement that the Lady Yellow Jackets had set a new school record in Most Assists in a Single Season.

"Sophomore Carlee Weir achieved the record of 83 assists this season," Knowles said. "The former school record was set by Jennifer Hittmeier and her record was 81 assists."

Knowles then reviewed the 2016-17 team statistics chart for his team. Of the team's 29 games, only three played in all of them - Kaitlyn Dillow, Carlee Weir and Emily Tudor.

Chester scored a total of 1,426 points this season, with the top scorers being Kaitlyn Dillow (332), Destiny Williams (314), Carlee Weir (275), Logan Colvis (204) and Emily Tudor (143).

Williams led the team in points scored per game with 15.7 ppg., followed by Kaitlyn Dillow (11.4), Carlee Weir (9.5) and Logan Colvis (7.6).

"Our team leader in two-point shots made was Kaitlyn Dillow with 102 two-pointers made," Knowles said. "She was followed by Destiny Williams (92), Logan Colvis (83) and Carlee Weir (68).

"Destiny Williams led the team with the best two-point shot shooting percentage with 92-of-193 shots made (53.2 percent). For the year we made 426 two-point field goals as a team out of an attempted 1,037 for a team average of 41.1 percent."

The Lady Jackets recorded 116 made 3-pointers out of 354 attempted (32.8 percent). Emily Tudor led the team in 3-point shooting with 29 shots made.

Destiny Williams was close behind with 28 and also led the team in 3-point shot shooting percentage with 28-of-65 made or a 43.1 percentage.

In the free throw category, Dillow led the team with 62 made, followed by Williams (46), Colvis (38), and Weir (37).

Williams led the team in free throw shooting percentage with 73 percent.

The Lady Yellow Jackets grabbed a total of 548 rebounds (229 offensive, 319 defensive) in 29 games this year.

Weir was the team's leading rebounder with 150, followed by Dillow (113) and Colvis (106). Weir also led the assists category with 83 assists, followed by Destiny Williams (58), Emily Tudor (46), Kaitlyn Dillow (38) and Abby Myers (36).

For the season, CHS recorded 301 assists as a team.

In the steals category, the Lady Yellow Jackets had 232 steals, with Weir leading the team with 56.

Knowles closed the program with special awards or recognitions for five different players.

Williams was recognized as the only Lady Yellow Jacket player to earn All-Conference honors in the Black Diamond Conference's West Division.

Williams was also recognized for having the Best Free Throw Shooting Percentage.

"I was very excited to receive this honor," Williams said. "I was surprised especially considering that I missed the last 10 games due to my ankle injury.

"Everyone worked as a team, however, to make up for my loss and they finished strong. I am looking forward to next year."

Weir received recognition for having the Most Rebounds with 150.

"Our season was hard-fought," Weir said. "We worked together to break several records and I expect that we will work really hard next season to get back on track."

Tudor earned the Most Hustle Award for her hard-playing style and never-quit attitude.

"I wasn't really expecting this award," she said. "I just hustled a lot and worked hard in both practice and in games."

Abby Myers was recognized with the Best Defense award.

"That was an awesome surprise," she said. "I work hard and never quit. This recognition was really amazing."

Myers and Katy Liefer were honored for being the Most Improved players on the team.