Red Devils spoil Chester's home opener

Tyler Winchester scored 15 points to lead three players in double figures, and Sesser-Valier ruined Chester's home opener on Friday with a 62-48 win at Colbert Gymnasium.
Preston Launius (12) and Peyton Rock (12) also reached double digits for the Red Devils.
Chester (5-2, 1-1 BDC West) went more than six minutes without scoring in the first half and managed to hack a 14-point deficit down to three in the third quarter, but the Yellow Jackets couldn't get over the hump.
Chester led 7-6 on a free throw by Keith Kiner with 3:31 left in the first quarter, but didn't score again until a layup by Nick Heffernan with 5:13 left in the second. In that time period, S-V went on an 11-0 run.
"Early in the year, anyways, we seem to struggle if we don't hit any 3-pointers," said Chester coach Brad Norman. "That's kinda what the case was (Friday), Sesser was bigger than us in the post and they kinda manhandled us down there, so that hurt too.
"When you can't score against a team like Sesser, you're going to be in trouble early."
Ian Reith led Chester with 12 points, while Colin Wingerter added 11 and Keith Kiner III contributed nine. The Yellow Jackets trailed 28-19 at halftime and faced a 37-23 deficit when Launius drained a 3-pointer with 4:34 left in the third quarter.
But Chester's outside shots started to fall and the Yellow Jackets climbed within a bucket, 38-35, on a three-point play by Kiner with 2:21 left in the frame as part of a 12-1 run.
"The thing that Sesser was doing that was causing us problems was they were bringing a hard double team every time we'd look post," Norman said. "Our guards aren't seeing across the floor looking for the skip (pass) or the backside lob or anything.
"We're getting so tuned in on the post that's on our side that we're forgetting to see the whole floor."
A 3-pointer by Seth Boles keyed a seven-point run to push S-V's lead back to 10, 45-35, but Chester scored the next five points to trail by five, 45-40, entering the fourth quarter.
The Red Devils (2-4, 1-0), however, opened the final frame by scoring four straight points and Chester never trailed by fewer than eight points the rest of the way.
"I think, overall, we just have to do a better job of handling pressure and we've got to do a better job of establishing down there," Norman said. "Our bigs didn't establish and our guards didn't handle the pressure.
"It was a bad two-way street."
Norman was asked what he thought was the lesson of the game.
"We're not as good as we thought, I think that's probably the overall lesson," he said. "We've got guys, coaches, everybody in the program thinking we're gonna win 30 games this year, that's how ridiculous we are at this point.
"I think (the loss) knocks us down a little bit and we're going to have to earn a conference title now in the long run."
S-V also won the JV contest, 53-42, while the Red Devils and Yellow Jackets frosh teams tied at 37 points apiece to open the night's tripleheader. Jordan Hughes led Chester with 14 points, while Matt Korando added nine in that contest.
Chester hits the road next week with games against Waterloo (Tuesday) and Trico (Friday) before returning home for its final home game before Christmas break on Dec. 19 against Anna-Jonesboro.