Belleville East wins Chick-fil-A Classic in cross town matchup against Belleville West

In the annual Chick-fil-A Classic championship game Saturday night, Belleville East’s clutch free throws paved the way to a 57-52 title game victory against cross-town rival Belleville West

The Lancers — who again hosted the tournament — carried the lead most of the second half to claim the tourney championship. Belleville East, which won the tournament for the first time in 10 years, improved to 20-3 overall.

“I felt like the last game we played them (a 66-57 East win), they out-toughed us, but I don’t think they out-toughed us tonight,” Lancers coach Jeff Creek said. “I told the kids it means a lot and I’m glad we got the job done.”

Belleville East star guard Jordan Pickett led the team with 32 points, 24 of which came in the second half.

“Coach Creek said we haven’t won this tournament in over 10 years so it means a lot to bring this back here,” Pickett said. “I feel like our school deserved it and we needed that 20th win — it had to happen.”

Belleville West dropped its first game in the last five and fell to 10-11. Coach Alex Schobert knew the minor mistakes would be tough to bounce back from while matching up against the Lancers.

“Too many empty possessions on offense and against a really good team, you can’t have that,” Schobert said. “I think we’re progressing in the right direction.”

Daylen Byrd led Belleville West with 20 points.

Belleville West’s Quincy Cotton got the crowd going in the first quarter with three straight blocks, leading to a 6-2 advantage. The Lancers offense, however, started finishing and ended the quarter on an 8-4 run to tie the game.

In the second quarter, Belleville East led for the first time at 15-13 after Pickett’s deep trey. In response, multiple Maroons carried the load offensively as they ended the quarter on a 10-8 run, keeping the score tied at 23 heading into halftime.

The Lancers went up 30-25 with five minutes left in the third quarter after a layup from forward Antwine Wilson. Byrd responded with consecutive buckets to cut the deficit to three points at the end of the quarter.

Byrd later knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the score at 38-38 with 6:12 left in the fourth quarter. Pickett, however, scored 15 of the Lancers’ last 19 points while the team made several key free throws to finish off Belleville West in clutch-time.

Next up

The Lancers host Granite City at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26. Collinsville visits Belleville West at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27.

This story was originally published January 21, 2023 at 11:32 PM.