Balanced East St. Louis ‘runs’ past Belleville East

On a night of long scoring runs, it was the East St. Louis Flyers who had the final — and deciding — one on Friday at East St. Louis High School

Senior Marquise Chairs canned his fourth and final 3-point basket to start a 12-3 East St. Louis scoring run to begin the fourth quarter and the Flyers held off Belleville East junior Javon Pickett and the L tancers for a wild 74-68 Southwestern Conference win.

With East St. Louis holding just a 51-50 lead after three quarters, Chairs came off a screen and hit a 22-foot jumper to ignite the large crowd and the Flyers as East St. Louis scored 12 of the first 15 points to seemingly take a commanding 63-53 lead with just over three minutes left in the game.

But Belleville East (4-3, 0-2) rallied behind the brilliance of the 6-foot-4 Pickett. One of the top players in the area, Pickett scored 13 of his 40 points in the final period and cut the Flyers lead to four points with just under a minute left.

But a jumper by senior Karon Randolph and four free throws by Chairs sealed first year coach Phillip Gilbert’s first victory on the home court.

“You better believe if feels good to get the first one at home. I’m proud of my team for the way they battled and hustled all night. We didn’t play great and we have a lot to work on, but I was very proud of the effort tonight,’’ Gilbert said. “The big guy (Pickett) dropped 40 on us but we were able to get solid play from several guys.

“We had five players in double figures. I’m thrilled with that.

The story of the game was long scoring streaks by both tems. Tied at 35 at halftime, East St. Louis scored the first 14 points of the third quarter to take a 49-35 lead.

But Belleville East countered with a 15-2 run over the final 2 minutes 41 seconds of the period as Rico Sylvester and Drew Millas scored four points each.

Key sequence

East St. Louis (3-4, 2-1) was on its heals starting the fourth quarter but when Chairs hit a 3-point shot, it gave his team a much needed jolt of confidence.

“It was a big shot by Marquise,’’ Gilbert said. “Why all the scoring runs tonight? I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that both teams like to get up and down the court.

“I think our halfcourt trap to start the second half also helped us. I think we made them (Belleville East) play faster then they really wanted too.’’

Following the basket by Chairs, senior Patrick Baxter scored on a baseline jumper and tallied on an offensive rebound. When Randolph hit his 3-point shot, the Flyers had a 61-53 lead.

Key performances

The 40 point effort by Pickett was his second huge scoring night of the season. Pickett also scored 41 points in the Lancers season opening win over Springfield at the Centralia Tournament.

Chairs paced East St. Louis with 19 points, while Randolph, Baxter, Kenny Roberson and Arthur Carter added 10 points each.

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 10:50 PM with the headline "Balanced East St. Louis ‘runs’ past Belleville East."