Smith steps off bench to lead East over O’Fallon

The O’Fallon Panthers did what they had to do to stop Belleville East and top scorer Javon Pickett.

But Panther turnovers early in the second quarter and a career performance by Pickett’s understudy lifted the Lancers to a 54-37 Southwestern Conference win Friday night.

Sophomore Malachi Smith scored 14 points off the bench to help give East the victory as it heads into a nine-day holiday break. Pickett entered the game averaging 24.4 points per game, but was held to just six against the Panthers.

Smith was the first man off the bench for the Lancers when their leading scorer got into early foul trouble. In all, the East bench contributed 23 points.

“I’m just a sophomore so I have to work really hard at practice every day,” Smith said. “I try to approach it like I’m not a sophomore and try to play like an 18-year-old. Javon is a key player to our team. Whenever he’s not on, we have to step up. It’s good for us to up for him because he’s carried us so many times.

East dropped conference games earlier to Edwardsville and East St. Louis. Head coach Abel Schrader said Friday’s win, coupled with a victory over Belleville West Tuesday, put the Lancers back on track.

“We felt like this was an important week — we needed to get these two games,” Schrader said. “We’re even in the league and 6-3 right now going into the holiday tournament. We have a nine-day break now and it’s important now that we can go into it feeling good about ourselves.”

O’Fallon fell to 1-8 overall and 0-4 in conference play.

“We’ve got plenty of things to work on,” said O’Fallon head coach Rick Gibson. “Usually if things are going well, you don’t want that time off, but if you need to work on some things we need this time.”

Key Moments

O’Fallon quickly opened a 15-5 lead on three-point baskets by Jalen Hodge and Tabari Dunlap, but East responded with a 12-3 run between the first and second quarters.

The Panthers got back on top by five, but Smith took advantage of an O’Fallon turnover and hit a 3-pointer just ahead of the buzzer at halftime.

O’Fallon still had the lead, 22-20, but East seized the momentum. The Lancers scored the first eight points of the second half to take its first lead of the game.

“I thought we did exactly what we wanted to defensively in the first half and were right there at the half, but we had some turnovers early coming out. I told the kids there’s no defense for turnovers. Everyone led to a run-out for them. You can’t get into what you want to defensively when you do that.”

Dunlap stopped East’s scoring run with a 3-pointer to make it 28-25, but the Lancers closed the quarter with an 11-2 run to take control.

“The difference in the game was early in the second half, they turned the ball over and we were able to turn them into points,” Schrader said. “That was huge because it swung the momentum early.

“A lot of guys stepped up and contributed something. Javon was doubled, but in the second half we found the open guy.”

Key Performances

Isaiah King scored seven of his 11 points in the second half. Junior Rico Sylvester also had a big second half, scoring seven of his 10 total points.

Dunlap and Chance Armstrong each had 12 for O’Fallon. Dunlap scored all of his from beyond the arc.

What’s Next

Belleville East will open play at the Collinsville Holiday Tournament Dec. 28 with a 10:30 a.m. game with Decatur-MacArthur. O’Fallon will play Marist at the Centralia Tournament, Dec. 28 at 9:15 p.m.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 10:44 PM with the headline "Smith steps off bench to lead East over O’Fallon."