Another big night for Pickett as he carries Belleville East past Belleville West

University of Illinois basketball coach John Groce did not leave the Belleville East gym empty-handed Tuesday night.

Groce had a Chick-fil-A sandwich for the road and also got to watch Belleville East junior Javon Pickett, who already has an Illini scholarship offer, drop 32 points on Southwestern Conference and city rival Belleville West in a 72-60 victory.

“It’s always good when you beat your rival,” Groce told Belleville East coach Abel Schrader before making the trek back to Champaign.

Pickett displayed no nervousness with Groce in the house, scoring the first 10 points for Belleville East on the way to a 32-point outing.

“He told me he was coming and he called my parents and told them,” said Pickett, who already has nights of 42, 41 and 32 points only eight games into the season. “He just said that he just wanted to come out and see me in person because the first time he came and watched me in AAU, that was a bad game. I was real nervous (then), but this game I thought I proved myself.

“I just wanted to go out there and play and show him what I can do. He knows what I can do.”

KEY PERFORMER

Schrader doesn’t expect 40 points a night from Pickett, but realizes what the talented 6-foot-4 junior has in his arsenal. Pickett had three 3-pointers and a dunk Tuesday and also was 7-for-7 at the foul line.

“We just want consistency from him, taking good shots,” Schrader said. “When he takes good shots he’s going to make quite a few of them.”

The big difference from last season?

“He’s matured,” Schrader said. “Believe it or not, he’s stronger than what he was last year. He’s growing a little bit, he’s more physical than he was last year and he had a really good summer that helped his confidence. The kid can score in many facets.”

While Pickett’s scoring overshadowed his teammates, it took a total team effort to defeat the Maroons (1-5 overall, 0-3 in the SWC).

The ball-hawking Lancers forced West into 14 turnovers in the first half and 22 on the night.

“Defensively we pressured the guards a bit,” said Schrader, a longtime West assistant. “We tried to keep it out of the two big kids’ hands and I think for the most part they didn’t kill us. They’re both bigger than us, but I thought we did a good job of handling that through the course of the game.

“I thought we had a pretty good team game tonight.”

Belleville East (5-3, 1-2) got 14 points and four 3-pointers from Drew Millas and 11 points from Rico Sylvester.

West got 17 points and four 3-pointers from senior Andy Behrmann while freshman E.J. Liddell continued his impressive start with 16 points. Junior center Tyler Dancy added 10 points.

KEY SEQUENCE

The Maroons kept trying to climb out of holes all night. They battled back from a 12-point deficit in the second quarter and cut the Lancers’ lead to 30-25 at halftime, then fell behind behind by 11 in the third quarter and sliced the margin to four points on back-to-back 3-pointers by Andy Behrmann and Jack Lanxon.

East responded with a 9-2 run to close out the third quarter and pulled away late for the win.

“I thought East’s defensive pressure was about as good as I’ve seen it all season,” West coach Joe Muniz said. “They guarded us really well and our kids didn’t really react too well to it. I think our inexperience kind of showed tonight, but we’ve got the ability to go back to work and keep getting better.”

Pickett stays in touch with former East star Malcolm Hill, a starter for the Illini. How does the East junior explain this incredibly hot start to the season?

“I’m just feeling good,” Pickett said. “Before pregame, I’ll listen to my music and that’s giving me good hype. Then coach keeps on telling I’ve got to be focused and that’s helping me out a lot. I just want to go out there and get a win for our team because last year we had a bumpy record.”

So far it’s been mostly smooth sailing for Pickett.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 10:43 PM with the headline "Another big night for Pickett as he carries Belleville East past Belleville West."