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Chester boys finish 9th at Pinckneyville

Posted December 27, 2014 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler The Herald Tribune

PINCKNEYVILLE -- A pair of strong Savion Smith performances help Chester turn a disappointing Friday into a ninth place finish at the Duster Thomas Hoops Classic on Saturday.

Smith had 15 points and six rebounds in the Yellow Jackets' 51-37 Bronze Pool semifinal win against Red Bud in Saturday's morning session, and followed that up with 16 points and nine rebounds in a 51-39 win over Du Quoin that night in the ninth place game.

"I think he's getting more comfortable with these guys," said CHS coach Brad Norman of Smith, a sophomore who transferred into the district prior to the start of the school year. "We've also figured out how to spread the floor a little bit with him.

"He usually gets the fourth man on him and we try and pull him out away from the rim a little bit. That way, Jordan (Berner) can work, but it allows (Berner) to get (Smith) off the dribble."

Smith was a combined 10-of-16 shooting (62.5 percent) from the floor in the two contests and was 11-for-14 from the free-throw line.

"We've been working on his ballhandling a little bit and giving him a couple of different moves that he can attack with," Norman said. "But, the biggest thing is his effort is a little bit better and he is finishing at the rim now.

"He wasn't finishing earlier in the year."

After rallying in the second half against Red Bud earlier in the day, Chester jumped out to a 11-2 start against Du Quoin. Nolan Showalter had the Indians' lone two points in the first quarter, as Du Quoin shot 25 percent (4-for-16) in the first half in trailing 22-10 at the break.

The Yellow Jackets stretched their lead to 13, 29-16, with 4:15 left in the third quarter, but Du Quoin kept hanging around.

Back-to-back 3-pointers from Showalter and Brock Bullar cut Chester's lead to 29-22 with 3:24 left in the frame.

"We finished, that's probably the biggest thing," Norman said on the difference between the team's play on Friday and Saturday. "We had an issue all year of not finishing when it came to crunch time and we had a four-point lead on Gibault (Catholic) and we let that slip.

"Whereas in this game, and the earlier game against Red Bud, when they made that second spurt, we were able to counter that."

Chester took a nine-point, 36-27, advantage into the fourth quarter, but a pair of layups by A.J. Smith 43 seconds apart trimmed the Yellow Jackets' lead to 39-34 with 5:10 remaining.

This time, Chester made its free throws down the stretch to pull out the victory.

"Adversity is huge and that builds character," Norman said. "We could have stayed in the tournament over at Sesser, not saying anything bad about Sesser, but Sesser has a bunch of smaller, (Class) 1A teams that are not teams we're going to see.

"It's a little bit different basketball. We like to challenge our conditioning and challenge our boys with four games in a two-day tournament."

Now 8-6 overall, Chester has this week off before starting the 2015 portion of its schedule Jan. 6 at Zeigler-Royalton. That contest is the only contest the Yellow Jackets will have prior to the Chester Invitational Tournament Jan. 12-17.

"I like (the tournament)," Norman said. "I think we got better. We could have very easily folded and ended up 0-4 after (Saturday) and we didn't. We came back and battled and that's what we've got to do every time we have a tough loss."

Chester 51, Red Bud 37: Savion Smith led three Yellow Jackets in double figures as Chester shook off a 20-15 halftime deficit to keep the Musketeers winless in the tournament.

Jordan Berner had 12 points and Hunter Howie had 11 for Chester, which outscored Red Bud 21-6 in the third quarter to gain control of the game. Jake Richards scored a game-high 16 points for Red Bud in the loss.

The Musketeers went on to lose to Roxana in the 11th place game on Saturday.

Friday's Games:

Benton 48, Chester 38: Derek Oxford had 20 points, while Trey McDaniel and Tyler Owens each added 10 as Benton pulled away from Chester in the second half.

Jordan Berner led the Yellow Jackets with 11 points, while Jason Schwartz added 10.

Gibault Catholic 43, Chester 42: Brian Deterding had 15 points and Trevor Davis added 11, as Gibault Catholic got a buzzer-beater to defeat Chester in the first game of the tournament for both teams.

Jason Schwartz had a game-high 16 points for the Yellow Jackets, while Savion Smith had 10 points and nine rebounds. Chester had a 24-22 lead at halftime.

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