Story by Ed Townsend
CHESTER – Febraury 1, 2013 — A tight defense, strong rebounding and inside control coupled with too many Tri-Valley turnovers propelled Chester past the Lady Bears 58-47 Tuesday night in Chester.
It was the second this season Tri-Valley has lost to Chester, which clinched at least a share of the OCIAA Division V title with the latest victory.
The first quarter of play started with a slow scoring pace and at the 5:55 mark the score was still tied at 2-2.
Chester finally went ahead 4-2 at the 4:44 mark and increased its lead to 8-2 at 3:48. That lead was pushed to 10-2 as the clock clicked down to 2:54.
Tri-Valley finally got on the board to make the score 10-4 but a three-pointer by Chester’s Ashley Georges pushed the lead to 13-4 with under two minutes to play in the first quarter.
The Bears came storming back after the Georges’ trey and posted six unanswered points to close the gap to 13-10 at the end of the first quarter.
Forcing Tri-Valley into several turnovers, Chester took command of the game in the second quarter, outscoring Tri-Valley 14-3 to take a 14-point halftime lead.
Tri-Valley (9-4, 3-2 league) actually outscored Chester by two points in the second half as Katlynn Greffrath hit three three-pointers. But Chester (9-3, 6-0 league) kept pace with the Lady Bears’ scoring to preserve the victory and its undefeated league record.
Greffrath led Tri-Valley with 20 points followed by Caroline Martin with 9. Simore Ayers had 22 points and 12 rebounds for Chester.