After hosting a 1A boys basketball regional last season, Chester will once again be a regional host, this time however it will be in 2A.
Pinckneyville is the top seed in the regional and considered by many as the heavy favorite to add another regional plaque to its impressive collection.
The Panthers put together another 20-plus win season this year, but they had to deal with some adversity while doing so. Pinckneyville had a couple of starters miss several games after violating team rules and being suspended, combine that with some injuries and the Panthers had their hands full for most of the season.
Pinckneyville overcame the adversity and is the clear choice to win the Chester Regional. The team has a good mix of guards in Drew Dudek, Jake Bathon and Landon Chandler and a number of post players, including Shay Kellerman, Kyle Lamb and Nathan Morton.
Coach Bob Waggoner has kept his players focused for the postseason and should have a full roster available to him for the regional.
The Panthers are 4-0 against teams in the Chester Regional after going 2-0 against Chester and 2-0 against Sparta.
Pinckneyville lost to Du Quoin in the regional final last season. The Panthers will take on Chester in the opening round.
Sparta grabbed the two seed in the regional with over 16 wins on the season. The Bulldogs are led by seniors Maurice Austin and Dartanus White and when those two are on, they are hard to stop. Sparta also gets good minutes from Blake Shelton, David Sams, London Oliver, Austin Peck and Jordan Thompson. Sparta does not have much size and with 6’4’’ Wes Kiner breaking his wrist against Chester, the Bulldogs will be even smaller come post season time.
Sparta is 4-2 against regional opponents going 2-0 against Chester, 2-0 against Red Bud and 0-2 over Pinckneyville.
Coach Rich Williams has gotten the Sparta players to play extremely hard this season and has won many games this season because of the defensive effort. He will need that to continue to pull off a major upset for the Bulldogs’ first regional title in many years.
The Bulldogs lost to Du Quoin in the regional semifinals last season.
Sparta will face Red Bud in the opening round this year.
The Red Bud Musketeers are the three seed in the regional and the team lives and dies by the three-point shot. The squad does not have much height, but it has the personnel to put five three-point shooters on the court at the same time to spread out the defense.
Juniors Adam Kunkel and Jake Hoffman have been the leading scorers as each player has the ability to knock down the perimeter shot or take it strong to the basket.
Seniors Kory Liefer and Stefan Gregson give the Musketeers some scoring balance and more deep shot threats.
Red Bud has not had quite the season many expected, but this team is as dangerous as any in the regional.
Coach Dave Gillingham is good and drawing up defensive schemes to confuse other teams and he will need to do that and more for the Musketeers to get to the championship game and bring home a regional plaque.
Red Bud lost to Pinckneyville in the regional semifinals last season.
Chester is the four seed in the regional and will need to play at its highest level just to be competitive.
Under new coach Robert Bell, the Yellow Jackets have shown a lot of improvement over the season, but matched up against Pinckneyville in the opening round is a major obstacle.
The team is led by junior guard Zach Lochhead whop is a good outside shooter, can create for his teammates and has learned how to take the ball to the hoop.
MJ Hamilton, Aaron Grah and Justin Woodward provide Chester with some depth, but not much size and that will be a problem against Pinckneyville.
The Yellow Jackets fell to Trico in the opening round of the 1A regional last year.
Pinckneyville should have little trouble with Chester in the semifinals even though the Jackets will have the home-court advantage, while the best game of the regional could come Tuesday night as Sparta takes on Red Bud for the third time this season.
If Sparta is without Kiner, that would even the inside play a little, while Red Bud would hold a huge edge in three-point shooting. Sparta’s tough and physical defense could be the difference or Red Bud could just shoot themselves to the championship game.
Either Sparta or Red Bud will have a hard time defeating Pinckneyville. Sparta has played well against the Panthers this season, and no one knows Pinckneyville better than Williams. It would be a huge upset, but don’t overlook the Dawgs this season.
If Red Bud survives the semifinal round, the Musketeers will have a hard time controlling Pinckneyville inside and keeping them off the offensive glass. Red Bud would have a shooters’ chance to win, but the odds would be against them.