Chesterton draws host Valparaiso in first-round sectional game scheduled for Feb. 3

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The Chesterton girls basketball team gets an eighth and final opportunity to defeat bona fide Miss Basketball candidate and Butler University signee Lillian Barnes, who is 7-0 against the Trojans and has led the Vikings past their biggest rival in the sectional finals in each of the past three seasons.
If Barnes, a big point guard averaging 20.6 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.4 assists, ends Chesterton’s season again, it won’t be in the sectional final.
Chesterton drew host Valparaiso in a first-round game sectional game scheduled for Feb. 3.
Second-year Chesterton coach, who had the first seat on the Valpo bench in the first two years that Barnes eliminated the Trojans, has been around too long to feel lucky or unlucky based on a random draw.
“There is no perfect draw ever, no perfect path,” said Wilson, who ranks ninth among active Indiana girls high school basketball coaches with 432 wins. “I’ve learned that. You have to beat the best team anyway unless there is some crazy upset somewhere.”
Chesterton is the first one with an opportunity to pull off a crazy upset against a Valparaiso team that is 17-2 overall and undefeated champions in the DAC.
The winner of the game will be favored to win the five-school sectional and will face Hobart in the semifinal round. Portage and Merrillville square off in the other semifinal. Chesterton is 3-1 vs. the sectional field, the lone loss coming at Valparaiso, 59-32, on Dec. 19.