O’Fallon takes regional championship with last second layup over Belleville East
O’Fallon stepped up in crunch-time to take down Belleville East 52-50 Friday night in the IHSA Class 4A O’Fallon Regional championship game.
The Panthers improved to 24-7 overall while winning their third straight game against the Lancers this season, who won the first match-up between the two teams.
“What a special week here ... beating quality teams both boys and girls,” O’Fallon coach Brian Muniz said. “We had four good wins this week.”
O’Fallon advances to the Moline Sectional and will face Quincy at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28. The location is TBD. The sectional championship is then set for 7 p.m. Friday, March 3, at Moline High School.
As far as facing Quincy, Muniz said, “That’s a team we haven’t played yet, we’ll have to do our best to prepare for them.”
As Friday night’s game came down to the final crescendo, senior Isaiah Camper made the game-winning tip-in shot with 2.8 seconds left, sending the Panthers to the regional title.
“It means everything,” he said. “There hasn’t been regional championship on the banner in years ... it’s my senior year so it means a lot.
O’Fallon guard Jaeden Rush was second in scoring for the team with 11 points. Meanwhile, forward Jalen Smith led the team with 16 points.
“We had to get it done, we didn’t want to go home,” Smith said. “We got it in girls and boys — it’s a big deal for the city.”
Belleville East season ends a terrific season at 26-7 and now will lose seven rotational players for 2023-24.
“We let them jump a couple passes and get layups in the open court, but the kids fought back ... just didn’t do things right in the end,” Belleville East coach Jeff Creek said. “This team grew as men, they hold themselves accountable and work hard — it was good year in that.”
Jordan Pickett led Belleville East with 29 points and Antwine Wilson added 13 points.
In the first quarter, O’Fallon raced to a 9-5 lead with Rush carrying the load with five points while Wilson scored all five points for the Lancers. Smith hit a turnaround jumper with 6 seconds left before Pickett drove down the court to hit a buzzer-beating trey ball to tie the game at 13 apiece, heading into the second quarter.
Pickett gave Belleville East its first lead after drilling a 3-pointer to start the second quarter. However, Rini Harris and Smith scored consecutive layups for a 17-16 margin. The Lancers went on a 9-4 run to end the half led by Pickett with seven points along with his second-straight buzzer-beating 3-pointer for a 25-21 halftime advantage.
In the third quarter, both teams traded blows through the first three minutes. Belleville East’s offense made some moves and Pickett took it to the rack for a quarter-ending layup as the Lancers went up 40-36.
O’Fallon uses late surge to prevail
Belleville East got their biggest lead of the game at six points with four minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Panthers, though, responded with a 12-1 run to take a 48-45 lead after big fast break dunks by Harris and Smith.
Pickett knocked down a trey ball and Jackson Muse hit two clutch free throws after getting a steal to tie the game at 50-50 with 35 seconds left. After a missed shot by Harris, Camper delivered the game-winning tip-in bucket with 2.8 seconds left to seal the game for the Panthers.
