02-19-07
BY JACK BULLOCK
SPARTA - The drought is over.

It had been seven seasons since the Chester Yellow Jackets had won a game in a Class A Boy's Basketball Regional.

Using its overall quickness – especially in the backcourt – Chester forced Woodlawn into a more fast-paced contest on the opening night of the Sparta Class A Regional on Monday night and eventually pulled away in the fourth quarter in an 80-71 win.

Chris Kern – Chester's 5-foot-10 junior guard – scored a career-high 33 points and the Yellow Jackets took advantage of some critical mistakes by the Cardinals to reach the semifinals of a regional for the first time since 2000.

“It is a testament to that kid (Kern) he is a tough guard and for people to guard,” added Blair. “When he is knocking down those jump shots and making those lay ups he is tough.”

Coach John Blair's club improved its 2006-07 mark to 9-15 while ending Woodlawn's season at 13-14.

Going deep into his bench Woodlawn mentor Shane Witzel saw his team get into early foul difficulty with three Cardinal players eventually fouling out in a contest that featured 49 total fouls whistled.

Playing nearly even to the Yellow Jackets in all offensive categories – Woodlawn couldn't overcome the foul line discrepancy.

Sending the quicker Chester players to the line 42 times – Woodlawn saw its season come to an end by being outscored 26-to-10 from the stripe.

The Cards got 17 points from sophomore Kyle Boldt and 16 from senior Scott McNeil – playing in his final prep basketball game.

Jase Green chipped in 13 points and the 71 total points would have won most games that Woodlawn played this season.

However Chester was up to the challenge and its overall team quickness neutralized any Woodlawn size advantage.

Six-foot-five junior Ethan Shurtz was held to just seven points while spending most of his evening on the Cardinals bench with foul troubles.

“We never could really slow them down tonight,” said Witzel, who saw his team dip below .500 for a season for the first time since 1993.
“Obviously this wasn't the way that we wanted to finish giving up that many points. Overall we have had a lot of adversity with all of the injuries we had our full line up just seven games this season. But the kids never used that as an excuse.”

Woodlawn had a good start to the game and led at the end of the first quarter.

However the pace of the game was clearly in the favor of Chester as the Yellow Jackets pressed Woodlawn from the outset and eventually wore down Coach Witzel's squad.

McNeil scored eight of his points in that opening stanza – with all of his points coming off of drives to the basket.

He triggered the Cards best early run with a pair of scores in an 8-0 sprint to give Woodlawn an 18-12 lead with just under a minute left.

But Kern matched McNeil with eight points of his own in the first frame and his drive to the basket on a fast break ended the first quarter at 18-14.

Chester scored four times in transition in that opening stanza – an omen for Woodlawn and the night they were going to face.

“We knew that to slow them down defensively that we were going to have to get back in transition, stop their dribble penetration and not foul them,” added Witzel. “We didn't do any of those three things very well tonight. We're disappointed with that. We thought we could zone them and stop that from happening but it never occurred.”

In spite of six early turnovers – Chester trailed by just four points after one quarter was in the books.

Shurtz gave Woodlawn its largest lead of the game in the early going of the second quarter.

Taking a pass from Boldt – Shurtz spun in the lane and converted a short bank shot while being fouled by Kern.

His made free throw staked the Cards to a 21-14 advantage.

However Shurtz quickly picked up his third personal foul and Chester began its parade to the free throw line with Woodlawn eclipsing the bonus level.

Chester hit seven of its next eight free throws – and after missing its first eight attempts from behind the 3-point arc – finally got some points from downtown.

Lance Tindall and Caleb Zang each rung up trifectas in what eventually turned into a 13-2 run.

When Lang cashed in from 20-feet on the left side of the arc with 2:14 to go before intermission – Chester had the lead back at 27-25.

Senior Kyle Ritchey and freshman Casey Hammond produced some points late in the second quarter for Woodlawn.

Hammond had four points on a couple of drives to the basket while Ritchey put in a shot in transition which cut the Cards deficit to 33-31 with :24 before the break.

But as he had done throughout the first half – Kern split the Woodlawn defense for a floating shot in the lane just before the second quarter horn sending the Jackets to the half leading 35-31.

The Cardinals committed five turnovers in the second quarter (nine total in the first half) while they were outrebounded 11-4 in that second period.

Boldt scored a pair of baskets early in the second half but Kern picked up the scoring pace for Chester.

Kern scored 12 third quarter points – including six consecutive points to give the Jackets some comfort room.

Four of the baskets by Kern were drives to the basket – twice he scored on fast break opportunities.

Sophomore Jase Green scored seven points in the quarter for Woodlawn and teammate Ritchey converted a three-point play after taking a no-look pass from McNeil and scoring while being fouled by Clint Bert.

The made Ritchey free throw cut the Chester lead to just 48-47.

Nevertheless – Chester finished up the third quarter with six straight points and a 54-47 lead heading into the final stanza.

Kern scored two of the baskets and closed out the frame with yet another drive for points.

Six-foot-two senior and team leader Dylan Clark also scored in the 6-0 run.

Woodlawn's last stab at victory came in a 7-0 run midway into the fourth quarter - highlighted by a pair of scores from McNeil.

His drive to the basket and 3-pointer from the right wing gave the Cardinals its final advantage of the evening at 61-60 with 3:31 to go.

However a backbreaking score on the next trip up the floor by Chester signaled the beginning of the end for the Cardinals postseason.

Clark converted a tough drive in the lane while being fouled by Boldt.

His converted three-point play began a 8-0 run to give the Yellow Jackets the lead for good.

Matt Kahre and Miles Tindall each got into the scoring act with shots in the lane for Coach Blair's club and when Tindall scored with 2:24 to go – Chester led 68-61.

Woodlawn didn't lay down with both McNeil and Hammond hitting late 3-point shots.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals – the parade to the foul line by Chester produced an 8-for-14 effort in the last 1:08 as the Yellow Jackets advanced to a Wednesday night matchup with top-ranked and undefeated Nashville.

Chester was 26-of-56 from the floor overall and just 2-of-12 from behind the arc.

The Jackets held a 35-30 rebounding edge and the two clubs each committed 14 turnovers.

“We accomplished a few things this season with a couple of conference wins and not finishing in the cellar in the conference but this is a big win for us,” said Blair, who took over a program two seasons ago that hadn't won a conference game in anyone's recent memory.
“We have a lot of kids that don't want to quit and we know that we have a long ways to go and hopefully we can continue what we have going.”

Woodlawn finished with a 29-of-60 shooting performance and were 3-of-9 from deep.

Shurtz, Hammond and Ritchey each added seven points for the Cardinals.

Clark added 10 points for Chester and teammate Kahre chipped in nine.

But the difference in the free throw attempts and its failure to stop the quicker Yellow Jackets closed the Woodlawn season.

“We wanted them to have to make tough shots tonight,” added Witzel. “Once the pace of the game picked up we started to reach and hack and play the way they (Chester) were playing and that is not our game.”

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Woodlawn	18	13	16	24	-	71
Chester	14	21	19	26	-	80

Woodlawn (71) – McNeil 5 2 0-3 16, Hart 1 0 2-2 4, Shurtz 3 0 1-4 7, Boldt 6 0 5-5 17, Green 6 0 1-1 7, Hammond 2 1 0-0 7, Simmons 0 0 0-0 0, Gaither 0 0 0-1 0, Dunbar 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-26, 3FG-3, FT-10-17, PF-29.
Chester (80) – Kahre 4 0 1-3 9, S. Kern 1 0 2-2 4, Zang 0 1 3-6 6, L. Tindall 1 1 3-4 8, C. Kern 13 0 7-11 33, Clark 2 0 6-9 10, Buatte 0 0 0-0 0, M. Tindall 2 0 2-4 6, Bert 1 0 2-3 4
2FG-24, 3FG-2, FT-26-42, PF-20.
Fouled Out – Boldt, Shurtz, Green - Woodlawn.
Technical Fouls – Illegal Substitution - Woodlawn.