Yellow Jackets Basketball Team Is Conference Champ
Beat Sesser To Finish 12-0
Chester won the BDC title with a 12-0 record.
February 17, 2019
On a night filled with many activities, the Yellow Jacket basketball team brought home the first conference championship in program history, beating Sesser-Valier 79-38.
The Yellow Jackets came out strong, leading 16-4 after the first quarter. The Jackets outscored the Red Devils in the second quarter as well to take a 13-point lead into the half. After the half, the Yellow Jackets never looked back, taking a commanding 18-point lead into the fourth quarter to lead 56-38. The Yellow Jackets closed the game out for the final score of 79-38. After the game was over and the court was cleared, the Yellow Jackets basketball team was presented with its conference trophy.
Colin Wingerter led the team in scoring with 20 on the night, followed by Keith Kiner III with 19.
I was also able to catch up with senior guard Jakob Cushman after the game and ask him a couple questions. When asked how important it was for the team to win the conference championship game at home on senior night, Jake responded, “Extremely important. This was our last regular season game, conference game, and senior night. I felt like if we didn’t go out there and leave with the W we would always have that loss hanging over our heads.”
Asked how the players were able to feed off the energy from the crowd, he responded, “To be honest, once the game starts, I feel like we tune out the crowd most of the time. We try to tune in on the game more than anything and let the crowd do their thing to mess up the focus of the other team and get in their heads.”
With regionals starting next week, Cushman was asked if there was any pressure on the team with it being at home?
“Yeah, for sure,” Cushman said. “Regionals are pressure enough, but adding the huge home crowd with all your friends and family definitely ramps up the pressure.”
Chester was a perfect 12-0 in conference, closing out the regular season with a game that had been rescheduled from Friday due to weather.
Sesser could have grabbed a share of the title in the win, but the Yellow Jackets’ emphatic message was “Not In Our House.”
A number of special events were held Saturday.
Kyle Landon was honored for his track exploits that included three IHSA state titles, NCAA All-American honors and silver medalist honors at the U.S. Olympics track and field trials.
Kyle Landon, 3-time IHSA state champion, NCAA track All-American and silver medalist at the U.S. Olympic Trials, was honored.
Destiny Williams and Keith Kiner were both honored for scoring 1,000 career points.
