COLLINSVILLE — Belleville East senior Malcolm Hill had two options Friday as time was winding down in overtime.
Hill took the best one, popping a 3-pointer from the left wing with nine seconds to play to lift the Lancers to a 52-51 victory over Collinsville in a Southwestern Conference game.
"Yeah, it's a big shot, but we shouldn't have got in that situation in the first place," said Hill, who finished with a game-high 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting. "We wanted to pick it up at the end of the game. We should have been doing that the whole game.
"This is frustrating. We're using all this energy and we have a game (Saturday). We have to bounce back to play DeSmet."
It was the Lancers' second win over Collinsville in less than a week. They also defeated the Kahoks 52-33 in the third-place game of the Collinsville-Schnucks Holiday Classic last Saturday.
If East (13-1 overall, 6-0 SWC) believed the rematch would be another one-sided affair, the Kahoks quickly sent a contrary message, as they led for much of the game.
Collinsville (6-8, 1-5) went ahead 50-49 when senior Chris Mathes converted a three-point play with 2:47 to play in overtime.
The gap grew to 51-49 when junior Tanner Houck made one of two free throws with 40 seconds left. Houck missed the second attempt, which was rebounded by sophomore Emondre Rickman.
But Rickman was called for traveling, and the Lancers gained possession of the ball with 37.3 seconds to play.
East called timeout with 15.7 seconds remaining. Hill, being guarded by Mathes, found space and made the go-ahead 3.
Collinsville hurried down the floor, and senior Briley Kellison fired a 3-pointer from the right side that was well short and rebounded by Lancers senior James Cotton.
Kellison collapsed to the floor after the shot, and the Kahoks pleaded for a foul on Hill. But the officials walked off the floor.
"We thought we had (a win)," Collinsville coach Darin Lee said. "They won. I think they were fortunate. I think that was one our kids deserved to win. We're battling just to have a winning season.
"It's a big game for us. We thought we had a chance. We found some things we could do better from the last game on the video. We thought we could execute a little better offensively, and we did that. And defensively, we couldn't have done a whole lot better."
Junior Darreon Reddick added 15 points for East. Senior Falando Wilkinson led Collinsville with 19 and Mathes had 18.
Mathes was the chaser against Hill throughout the game as Collinsville again employed a box-and-one defense in an attempt to slow the 6-foot-7 Illinois recruit.
Hill had just two points after one quarter and nine points at halftime, but made five of his final seven shots of the game, most of them in clutch situations.
None was bigger, however, than the 3-pointer in overtime.
"Collinsville played very well," Lancers coach Abel Schrader said. "The box-and-one the entire night frustrated us. We didn't do a very good job of moving without the basketball.
"On the last play, Malcolm made a big shot. ... (But) our guys have got to come with better effort and better focus and be ready to play. They should have beat us tonight. I don't think there's any question. We were fortunate that Malcolm made a big shot."
The Kahoks had three fouls to give, but Lee opted to play out the game.
"It's a tough thing to tell kids to foul there, because as soon as you tell them, they foul on a shot," Lee said. "We would have liked to foul them and have them take it out of bounds."
Collinsville led 13-12 after one quarter and 26-21 at halftime. Mathes' three free throws put the Kahoks ahead 32-25 with 6:45 to play in the third quarter, but East answered with a 9-0 run that produced a 34-32 lead.
Hill had five points in the push, Reddick had a layup and senior Khalil Smith-Traylor hit a 5-footer for the go-ahead basket.
The Lancers led 47-44 late in the fourth quarter when Kellison popped a 3 from the left corner to tie the game with 39 seconds to play. It was Kellison's first basket in nine attempts from the floor.
East had a chance to win the game in regulation, but Mathes came up with a steal near midcourt with one second left.
Sophomore center Sean Davis was ill and did not play for Collinsville. That prompted Lee to go deeper in his bench, resulting in more playing time for 6-4 junior Matt Chambers.
Contact reporter David Wilhelm at dwilhelm@bnd.com or 239-2665.
