CGS 7th graders win first game of season vs. Dupo
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The CGS 7th Grade Lady Jr. Jackets are a very young, inexperienced squad this year and have struggled quite a bit so far in the 2008-09 season. 7th Grade Coach, Jennifer Stumpe, has been somewhat frustrated at times, but does realize the youth and inexperience sometimes does make for a trying season.
Stumpe is proud of her girls, however, due to the fact that they do work hard and give her a great effort. That effort paid off recently as the 7th Grade Team got their first win of the year against Dupo Tuesday, December 2 in front of a home crowd.
After losing their first two games of the season to Murphysboro, 25-7 and Pinckneyville, 30-21, the 7th Graders began to gain a bit of confidence and much-needed experience.
Monday, November 24 CGS hosted a very good and talented Nashville team. The result was another loss but the 7th Graders held Nashville to only 26 points and scored 16 of their own. The loss dropped the 7th Graders to 0-3 overall and 0-3 in the conference.
Against Nashville Aziah McBurney was the high scorer with 10 points followed by Alexandria Fedderke who had four and Sarah Bindel who scored two. In that game Bindel led in rebounding with six boards and she grabbed a steal.
The next game was against Trico Tuesday, November 25 at home. Both teams were scoreless after one quarter of play and Trico managed to lead 8-2 at the half. The third quarter killed the Jr. Jackets as Trico outscored CGS, 13-5 to lead 21-7 going into the final period.
In the fourth quarter both teams scored four points and Trico won the game by 14 points, 25-11. With the loss CGS dropped to 0-4 overall and 0-4 in the conference.
Aziah McBurney led the Jr. Jackets again with six points. Alexandria Fedderke scored five for CGS. Sarah Bindel again led the Jackets in rebounding with nine rebounds followed by Amanda Easton (6) and Aziah McBurney (6).
In the fifth game of the season Monday, December 5, Sparta was the opponent and the contest was held at Chester once again.
Chester trailed by only one point, 5-4 at the end of the first quarter. This time it was the second quarter that doomed the 7th Graders as Sparta outscored them 12-2 to lead 17-6 at the half.
After the half, Chester kept it respectable and scored another two points. Sparta, however, scored another six points to lead 23-8 going into the final period. In the fourth quarter the scoring was even with both teams scoring four points apiece. The final score was Sparta 27 - Chester 12.
With the loss the Chester 7th Graders fell to 0-5 overall and 0-5 on the season. Sarah Bindel led the jackets this game with eight points and 16 rebounds. Lindsey McCormick recorded two points and two rebounds while McKenzie Rucker scored two points and grabbed two rebounds. Allison Easton had 12 rebounds and Aziah McBurney grabbed seven boards.
The next night Chester hosted Dupo in what would be the final home game of the 2008 season prior to the Christmas break. CGS got scoring from four players to beat Dupo, 12-6 in their first win of the 2008-09 season.
Sarah Bindel and Alexandria Fedderke paced the Jr. Jackets with four points apiece while both Amanda Easton and McKenzie Rucker scored a basket apiece giving the Lady Jr. Jackets another four points.
Rachel Clendenin led the Jackets in rebounding with four boards. Sarah Bindel had two as did Amanda Easton and Maddie Conner. With the win the 7th Graders improved to 1-5 overall and since Dupo was a non-conference game the Jackets remained winless at 0-5 in the conference.
The Lady Jr. Jackets only had one game scheduled the week of December 8-13. Monday, December 8 the Jackets began a two-game road swing with an away game at Pinckneyville.
In their second game of the 2008-09 season Chester hosted Pinckneyville and lost by only nine points, 30-21. At Pinckneyville, the Jr. Jackets lost again, but this time they scored one less point and they allowed the Kittens to score four more points losing, 34-20.
Aziah McBurney was the scoring leader for CGS with nine points. She also had four rebounds. Sarah Bindel scored three points and led the team in rebounding with seven rebounds.
Four players scored two points apiece for Chester's final eight points including Maddie Conner, Amanda Easton, Katie Brunkhorst and McKenzie Rucker. Easton grabbed seven rebounds, Rucker had three rebounds and Rachel Clendenin grabbed four boards. With the loss the CGS 7th Grade Team fell to 1-6 overall and 0-6 in the conference.
The Jackets were supposed to lay Monday, December 15 at Trico and Tuesday, December 16 at home hosting DuQuoin, but both games were cancelled due to foul weather. CGS will hopefully make up those two games due to the fact that they are conference games.
In the mean time, Coach Stumpe is proud of how her 7th Graders are improving and gaining confidence each game. Hopefully 2009 will bring more wins for the 7th Graders and all players will continue to improve as the season proceeds.