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Thomasville’s Dominique Pickett found himself smack dab in the middle of a pressure-packed championship game with Jordan-Matthews,the team that ended the Bulldogs’ long winning streak in the Yadkin Valley Conference. The big stage brought out the best in the THS junior as Pickett exploded for a career-high 31 points, leading the Bulldogs to a 83-74 triumph and the YVC title.
“This feels great,” Pickett said. “Coach told me to keep shooting the ball, so I had to listen to him. He told me that if I stayed into the shot I’d start making it.”
In what has become one of the better high school rivalries in the state, Thomasville again found itself in a dog-fight with the Jets. J-M split the regular season with the Dogs and came to Denton with every intention of bringing a conference title back to Siler City. Justin and Kasey Glover wreaked havoc on Thomasville for a third time, combining for 53 points, but the star of stars was Pickett.
“He shot the ball extremely well,” said THS coach Woody Huneycutt of Pickett. “He started playing a total game and that’s what we want out of him. He’s always been a shooter but lately he has been doing the other things. He played the total game for us tonight. We needed that.”
Neither team found much separation after two quarters as the Bulldogs trailed by two at halftime, 41-39. Once the third quarter started, Pickett turned South Davidson’s gym into his own personal playground. Pickett wasn’t only unconscious from 3-point land, he slipped into a deep coma. In a span of two minutes, Pickett poured in 13 points, including three straight 3s, helping Thomasville assume control of the game. By the time Pickett stuck in his sixth basket of the quarter and Jet’s coach P.J. Lowman called timeout, the Bulldogs had polished off a 22-9 run that provided THS with a comfortable margin the rest of the way.
“It meant a lot to the guys,” Huneycutt said. “We played a lot smarter in the second half. They had 16 points from the foul line in the first half. It was a whole lot different in the second half. That’s a big difference. You can’t put good teams on the foul line, especially if they have good shooters. We have to be smarter than that and we were in the second half.”
Pickett didn’t just have a career-night in a meaningless game in December. Once senior point guard Donald Simms collected his third foul of the first quarter, the door swung wide open for someone from Thomasville to pick up the slack. Pickett not only walked through the door, he kicked it off its hinges, scoring 12 points in the opening half as J-M bottled up the Bulldogs’ E.J. Abrams-Ward with a 2-3 zone. Despite the rise of Pickett through two quarters, THS still trailed at the break because the Dogs failed to contain the Glovers. With Justin Glover draining 3s and Kasey Glover attacking the rim, a Bulldog victory was very much in doubt.
Until Pickett took over that is.
“Donald got into foul trouble but Najee [Brown] came in and did a good job for us,” said Huneycutt. “The other guards stepped up and played well for us.”
Emotions started running high in the closing minutes with a war of words breaking out between the rivals. Pickett and J-M’s Derek Brown had to be separated as the two exchanged verbal jabs. Pickett told Brown to look at the scoreboard, and Brown responded “What about football?”, referring to the Jets upset victory over THS in the second round of last year’s playoffs.
“They started playing dirty so we had to defend ourselves,” Pickett said. “Since they beat us at home we had to come defend it.”
Staff Writer Eliot Duke can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 233, or at eliotduke@hotmail.com.