As Keith Pickens walked off the hardwood at Mizzou Arena Saturday morning, the senior etched his mark as one of the greatest players in the history of the Oakville Senior High School boys’ basketball program.

“Keith is one of the shining lights of the Oakville basketball program,” head coach Nick Traxler said. “He’s really become an example as to what someone can do with themselves.”

Pickens was a key element in the Tigers’ run to the Class 5 Final Four, where Oakville fell 73-63 to Grandview of Kansas City in the state semifinal.

Against Grandview, Pickens was a one-man wrecking machine, scoring 23 points and pulling down seven rebounds.

The senior guard finished the season averaging 15.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. He led the Tigers with 485 points, 97 free throws, 297 rebounds and 114 blocked shots.

“I think that Keith’s progression as a player came from his maturity as a young man,” Traxler said. “Last year, McCluer North’s guards were much stronger than Keith was and that really burned at him.”

That Class 5 sectional against McCluer North was a learning experience for Pick-ens as the Stars held him to just 10 points and four rebounds.

It was then that Pickens dedicated himself as well as his teammates to the weight room during the off-season as they met several times a week and began to build their winning team chemistry.

“After the McCluer North game, it showed me a lot of my weaknesses,” Pickens recalled. “During the off-season workouts, we got along together and really built some team chemistry. It really paid off this season.”

Besides getting everyone together in the weight room for off-season workouts, Traxler noted that Pickens essentially walked the walk as one of Oakville’s leading scorers again this season.

“It takes a lot for a guy to make sure that everyone gets together in the off-season,” Traxler said. “But then you have to go out there and walk the walk and he did just that. Keith was the heart and soul of this basketball team and the boys looked to him both on and off the court.”

Pickens is slated to attend Missouri State this fall, where he plans to continue his success with the Bears basketball program.

Now that his basketball career at Oakville has written its final chapter, Pickens hopes that this year’s trip to the Final Four will bring some much-deserved respect to the Tigers from the metropolitan area.

“All season long, we kept pushing to be one of the elite teams in the area and we accomplished that by making it to the Final Four,” Pickens said.

“We wanted to win one game up there, but we made history at Oakville and that felt good. Teams will now have to respect Oakville when they have to play them.”