Belleville East parlays Brown’s output, turnovers into win against Belleville West

Ethyn Brown made sure his first “Battle of Belleville” was a memorable one.

After spending his first two high school seasons at Althoff, Brown transferred to Belleville East for his junior campaign.

On Friday, the 6-foot-1 senior tallied 10 of his 12 points during a big third quarter for the Lancers as they wiped out a Belleville West halftime lead and sent themselves on the way to a 55-46 Southwestern Conference win at East High School.

“It was just so very exciting, a lot of energy,” said Brown. “We’ve been working hard to cooperate better as a team. I thought we did that real well.”

Brown drained four of his five shots during that third quarter. The Lancers came out of halftime trailing 21-16 but would enter the final quarter with a 36-33 edge.

“I just started feeling it there,” said Brown of his scoring burst. “Open looks and knocking shots down.”

East (5-3 overall, 1-2 in the SWC) maintained the lead the remainder of the night, as it halted a six-game losing streak against the Maroons.

Third-year Lancers coach Jeff Creek thought defense was the difference for his team.

“We were down five, maybe six points, and I thought that’s when the kids really locked down,” Creek said. “Ethyn had a couple of steals. Ryan Stevenson played hard.

“We played good team defense. We played consistent team defense and that helped us gain the lead.”

Turnovers aid East’s victory

Turnovers may have been the biggest undoing for West (3-3, 1-1). The Maroons committed five in the third period and then gave the ball away on five of their first six possessions of the final quarter.

When sophomore forward Braxton Stacker followed up that fifth miscue with a strong one-handed jam, the Lancers led 43-35 with 4 minutes, 12 seconds remaining.

“I was looking to turn the energy up with that play,” said Stacker, who finished with a team-high 14 points and seven rebounds. “Whenever I can grab a rebound or get up and finish in a big way, I try to do it the best I can.”

The Maroons finished with 23 turnovers.

“We did not execute very well, we’re not very strong with the ball,” said first-year West coach Alex Schobert. “And give credit to Belleville East. They got after us defensively, really pressured us. We emphasized in the game plan being strong with the ball. We just failed to execute when they made that run. We were not able to answer.”

Maroons try to rally, but Lancers have the answer

West would draw within six points on four occasions in the final 3:35, but each time the Lancers scored the game’s next points.

Stevenson finished with 11 points for East.

“We got some good efforts from a lot of kids,” said Creek. “Eric Wade and Ryan Stevenson were really battling on the boards. Braxton Stacker came in and gave us some great minutes in the first half.

“It was just a true-team effort.”

West’s Keli’I Price paced all scorers with 16 points. Tommie Williams finished with nine for the Maroons.

“We just do not have a lot of varsity experience collectively,” said Schobert. “I thought the effort and intensity were there. And we played hard like we have all season on the defensive end.

“We just had too many little mistakes.”

Next up

The Maroons return to the court quickly, as they face Lincoln at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at the Scott Credit Union Shootout at Edwardsville High School. West then hosts East St. Louis at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20. The Lancers, meanwhile, suit up again at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20, at O’Fallon.

This story was originally published December 14, 2019 at 2:00 AM.