Tobias Ray shifts from facilitator to scorer, sinks five 3-pointers, scores 24 points and Bradly Basila carries scoring load in fourth period as Chesterton wins seventh sectional title with 59-50 win over Valparaiso

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

A turned-up Valparaiso basketball team was determined not to let Chesterton senior Logan Pokorney dominate the way he did in the regular season game, so Trojans junior Tobias Ray quickly knew what that meant: time to dust off his lethal 3-point shot and let it rip.
More than up to the challenge, Ray was hotter than an August day in Death Valley, California.
He nailed five 3-point shots, scored 21 of his 24 points in the first three quarters, and in the fourth, Pokorney and sophomore Bradly Basila ensured the Trojans wouldn’t lose their lead. Pokorney repeatedly fed Basila, who scored 12 of his 19 points in the final period of sectional host Chesterton’s 59-50 win Saturday night.
Winning the school’s seventh sectional title and fourth in Coach Marc Urban’s 10 seasons, the Trojans advanced to a regional game vs. Crown Point this coming Saturday at Michigan City, a 7 p.m. tipoff.
In a showcase of the versatility of Chesterton’s guards, Pokorney, the Trojans’ leading scorer, became a facilitator, and Ray, the team’s leading assist man, became a scorer.
Chesterton’s third win in five days over a DAC opponent pushed the Trojans’ winning streak to seven games and gave them their first sectional title since Pokorney’s freshman season in 2023.
Ray, son of Tim Ray, an assistant coach to Urban, had witnessed older players celebrate from his seat behind the bench three times. Now, it was his turn to climb the ladder. Gentle on the net with such a soft touch all game, he tore into it afterward with a pair of scissors.
A third-generation Chesterton basketball star, the historical significance of the moment was not lost on the player who answers to the nickname TJ.
“It means so much to me,” Ray said of his first sectional title. “Ever since I was little, I’ve been watching all of Coach Urban’s other teams win and you always want to be in that position. Last year, we wished we had the opportunity to win, but this year we needed to win. It’s special for me, coming from a basketball family, but also just knowing Urban for so long.”
Ray elaborated on the difference between hoping to win last season and needing to this time.
“We all talked about needing to get Chesterton back on the map and we just thought this year was our year,” said Ray, who protected the ball well in the face of relentless pressure in a semifinal win over Merrillville. “We knew we had enough good pieces to win.”
The son of longtime high school basketball coach himself, Urban could relate to what his point guard was feeling.
“It was really fun to see him play so well,” Urban said. “I know what it was like growing up, sitting behind the bench, waiting for my opportunity. And you could go down the line of everybody individually on the team, how much this means to them.”
Since scoring 20 points in the season-opening, eye-opening 73-55 win over South Bend St. Joseph, Ray had not led the team in scoring until the sectional title game, a fact rendered completely irrelevant by the Trojans’ record (22-4) and ranking in the state 4A poll, No. 16.
“TJ, for me, is smarter than everybody because his passes make everybody better,” Basila said. “He can not score in a game and help everybody make a play and we win. He’s a big piece of the team.”
At the same time, Ray has such a soft touch and such deep range that bypassing open shots would be detrimental to the team, and he had more of those than usual vs. Valpo (14-12).
“As the season’s been going on, I kind of went away from worrying about scoring and just worried about winning,” Ray said. “Tonight, they took away Logan for most of the game and my shots were open for me, and I have to capitalize on those opportunities.”
Ray hit a trio of 3-pointers in the first quarter to lead the Trojans to an 18-13 advantage. He had 14 points by halftime, but the momentum was swinging the way of the Vikings, who trailed 27-26.
The Trojans gained some breathing room when they opened a 38-32 lead in the third quarter after a Basila short bank, a Ray steal and a layup, a Ray 3-pointer, another Basila bucket, and a Ray drive for a score. Chesterton then stole the ball getting a roar out of a crowd that quickly turned silent when one of those moments in a sporting event where the venue grows silent everyone tables their loyalties and pours all their hopes into the well being of one athlete on the ground.
Medical professionals and coaches surrounded Valparaiso junior Nas White, who had hit his head hard on the floor after a collision with a Chesterton player. White remained there for more than 20 minutes until an ambulance arrived and he was taken off the court on a stretcher and transported to the hospital.
At that point, the players from both sides were instructed to have a short warmup session as layup lines formed with a 1:05 remaining in a third quarter that ended with Vikings sophomore guard JJ Jankowski beating the buzzer with a bucket on a drive to the hoop, a sign of things to come from Jankowski. He opened the fourth quarter with another relentless drive and score and suddenly the team that had lost to Chesterton by 42 points in the regular season was within two points.
As Jankowski kept the Vikings in the game with drives and free throws, Basila kept Chesterton in the lead with free throws, dunks, and short banks on feeds from Pokorney, some of them delivered when Pokorney played in the middle of the Valpo zone.
“They were face-guarding me most of the game,” Pokorney said. “Then they kind of loosened up off me, so I was able to draw a guy in, mostly Bradly’s guy, and dump it off to him when I got in the middle.”
Basila showed good stamina, his athleticism popping more loudly as the race reached its final furlong. His one-hand rip for an offensive rebound should go on his highlight video, as should his block off the backboard at the other end.
During interviews, Basila’s favorite quote is “I’m always learning,” and the blocked shot led to another valuable lesson for the friendly force. He learned how little tolerance there is in high school basketball for taunting an opponent.
In honor of the most famous basketball player/philanthropist from his hometown of Kinsasha, the late Dikembe Mutombo, Basila directed a wagging index finger toward the player whose shot he had blocked. That drew a technical foul with the Trojans leading by 10 points with 28 seconds remaining.
Urban didn’t see the Mutombo impersonation, other than the block, and turned to ask Ray, the assistant coach, not the teenager, what the source of the T was and was informed, replete with a wagging finger.
That led Urban to repeatedly ask his center, both from long distance and up close after removing him from the game, “What are you doing? What are you doing?”
It came a little too late for a Valpo team that came to play and to erase the memory of the embarrassing loss in conference play. The Vikings were out of time.
Basila’s coach didn’t let one lapse in judgment define his game.
“He had some huge, huge rebounds, had some huge finishes and that was really, really critical,” Urban said.
So was Pokorney’s poise and decision making in the waning moments of the sectional tournament.
“This means everything to me, especially after how we lost (in the title game) my sophomore year,” he said, referencing a 68-36 loss to Crown Point at Chesterton.
The Trojans didn’t fare a great deal better against Crown Point this season, losing a road game 84-62 on Jan. 26.
As Valparaiso showed in drawing within two points in the fourth quarter Saturday, the final scoreboard in a previous game doesn’t mean anything when 32 minutes remain and the score is 0-0 in March.
Unlike in earlier rounds of the sectional, the players and coaches allowed themselves to enjoy their accomplishment and reflect on the factors that led to it.
The end of the first playoff tournament with a week until the next game provides sectional winners with a nice break of the tension with a celebration, on the court with students, up the ladder with scissors, and in the locker room with each other. Then came a day of rest on Sunday, before hitting the practice floor Monday with all eyes on the next opponent.