Murphysboro eliminates Yellow Jackets
<span style="font-weight: 400;">MURPHYSBORO -- The Chester Yellow Jackets almost pulled it off.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Playing without 6-foot-4 freshman Ian Reith due to what coach Aaron Halstead said was academic ineligibility, Chester hacked a 13-point deficit down to a single possession, but couldn't quite get over the hump in a 43-38 loss to Murphysboro in the Red Devils' own basketball tournament on Thursday.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">"He's a big athletic kid," Halstead said of Reith, who had 15 points in Chester's opening-round win over Du Quoin on Feb. 25. "It's hard to replace that athleticism and skill and he's one of the few kids on the team that has the drive to go get the ball, go get rebounds instead of waiting for the ball to come to him.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">"We got out-rebounded big (against Murphysboro)."</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Colin Wingerter led Chester with 19 points in the loss, while Ethan Rayburn added eight. Murphysboro moved on to face Breese Central in Saturday morning's semifinals, while the Yellow Jackets' season came to an end.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">To read more details on the game, see the March 10 print edition of the Herald Tribune.</span>