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Jones, Pickens shine at all-star game
Miller Career senior scores game-high 27; Oakville leaper blocks seven shots in 107-93 St. Louis win
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| Leon Algee photo Oakville senior Keith Pickens is fouled by Ray Gregory of the Chicago All-Stars as he attempts a lay-up during Saturday's 2009 Ramey Basketball All-Star game at Chaifetz Pavilion. | ||
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Missouri State basketball got a glimpse of the future Saturday night and, boy, did it look good.
Missouri State signees Keith Pickens and Jerome Jones were teammates for the first time as part of the St. Louis All-Star team in the 2nd annual Ramey Basketball All-Star game at Chaifetz Pavilion.
Jones scored a game-high 27 points while Pickens had eight points, but the 6-foot-3 Oakville senior dazzled the crowd with 10 rebounds and seven blocked shots in the 107-93 win over the Chicago All-Stars.
Pickens and Jones tossed alley-oops to each other in the final 30 seconds, and both said playing as teammates was a lot of fun.
“We’re going to have a lot of fun playing together next year,” Pickens said. “We played together at the YMCA sometimes just to try to get a connection going. But this was a lot more organized and against way better competition.”
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Against a Chicago team loaded with Division I talent, the Missouri State recruits – along with Minnesota signee Bryant Allen and Texas Southern-bound Will Clark – got a taste of what next year will be like.
“It lets me know what I’m coming into,” Jones said. “I know it’s going to be tough, but I’m just going up there as a freshman. It’ll be like going to high school all over again.”
It was Jones and Maplewood’s Allen that got things going in the first quarter. Allen hit a cutting Jones for an alley-oop early that gave St. Louis and 8-3 lead.
Jones said playing on Terrell Ramey’s AAU team last summer helped him prepare for Saturday’s contest.
“Most of these guys I’ve played with some already, so I know their strengths and weaknesses,” Jones said. “We just played off that.”
Chicago, led by Northern Illinois recruit Malcolm Griffin of Hyde Park and Fenger’s Michael Haynes cut into the lead. Both teams went back and forth and St. Louis held a 26-25 first-quarter lead. Haynes, a 6-7 forward courted by Marquette, Iowa State, DePaul and Bradley, finished with 14 points. Griffin had seven. Jon Mills also scored 14 to lead Chicago.
The second quarter was evenly played, but Chaminade’s Brandon Lockhart knocked down a 3-pointer just before halftime to give St. Louis a 52-47 lead.
Pickens showcased his defensive skills in the third. First he skied to swat a John Taylor shot, then he took away a D’Mitri Riggs dunk from behind. Riggs, a heavily recruited 6-2 guard who is considering Illinois State, Ball State, Loyola, Southern Illinois and Indiana State, thought he had two easy fast-break points. But Pickens raced to the other end and knocked the ball out of Riggs’ hand just before he got to the cylinder.
“I think I showed my athleticism,” Pickens said, “and that I could do it against people who are the same size or bigger than me.”
Allen, who scored the game’s first points, also got the team’s 100th point when he knocked down a free throw with 1:46 remaining in the game. The 5-11 guard finished with five points.
Clark scored just seven points off the bench, but added seven rebounds and a block. Wearing scratches on his arm and a red, swollen lip like badges of honor, the 6-10 Summit senior said he was glad the officials were slow to blow their whistles.
“This was good,” Clark said. “I was playing with people my size, and physical players. I like to play physical; I don’t like to play soft. I got beat up, but it’s all good.
"I think I played well, but I’m just trying to get better and better. People were telling me how much better I got from last year to this year, but I just need to focus on college and get better every day."
Earlier in the day another team of Missouri all-stars led by McCluer North's Bobby Peebles beat an Illinois squad. Peebles, who made national attention with an incredible, no-look buzzer beater to defeat Chaminade earlier in the year, sunk another big shot.
This time is was a 38-footer at the end of the third to cut the Illinois lead to 56-50 and spark the Missouri team. In a high-scoring fourth-quarter, the Missouri team went on a 10-0 run to grab a 77-69 lead. With Durand Sain of East St. Louis and McCluer’s Jerrel Partlow trading 3-pointers, the Missouri team held off its opponents for a 98-90 win.
Gateway Tech’s Troy Edmonds finished with eight points and capped the scoring with an uncontested windmill dunk at the final horn.
“I wanted that windmill real bad,” said Edmonds, who had three dunks and missed a fourth seconds before his final slam. “They let me get it. Sain backed off and let me get it.”
The Missouri girls started the Show-Me sweep with a 61-31 rout of Illinois Saturday afternoon. Because of injuries and no-shows, the Illinois squad played with just six players. Illinois was led by Cierra Johnson of O’Fallon with nine points. Hazelwood Central’s Kasei Evans scored a game-high 11 points for Missouri.
Rashonda Willis of Miller Career Academy had two points and three rebounds to go with an assist and steal. She said she had a blast playing in the game.
“It was amazing,” Willis said. “We got to know other players from different schools. I loved this game. That was so much fun.”
Ramey admitted that he was surprised with the Missouri sweep, but added that the wins prove that St. Louis is joining the ranks as an elite basketball city.
“We’re trying to bridge the gap between us and bigger cities,” Ramey said. “Everybody knows how good Chicago is. They think St. Louis is a second-tier city. The more and more we get to showcase the nation that we can compete on levels like with the best players from Chicago, it helps our kids in the long run.”
Players like Jones and Pickens didn’t need the extra exposure, but playing together helped a budding friendship bloom.
“We’ve got good chemistry already,” Jones said. “We get along with each other, and I think we’re going to be really good.”
That’s something Cuonzo Martin is counting on.
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