Girls basketball: Sterling’s second-half surge sinks Rock Falls

STERLING – After a tight second quarter, Sterling turned up the pressure in the third to pull away from Rock Falls in the latest edition of the Rock River Rivalry.

The Golden Warriors used a relentless defense and scored the first 14 points of the second half to build a big lead in a 58-38 victory over the Rockets in the Day 1 finale of the 24th annual Sterling Shootout on Saturday evening at Musgrove Fieldhouse.

“The first half, I think we definitely came out really slow, and after our halftime talk, we just felt like, ‘Yeah, we’re not playing our game, let’s pick it up.’ We really just got out and ran, and played hard and fast and got transition buckets,” Sterling junior guard Delali Amankwa said. “Defensive pressure definitely opens up transition looks, 100%. We have a lot of fast guards and we’re able to get out and run, so that’s always big for us.”

Sterling (7-6) led 8-2 midway through the first quarter, but Rock Falls (4-10) scored the next six points to tie it. The Warriors then rebuilt the lead to 17-10 early in the second, only to see the Rockets rally again and get within 19-18 and 21-20 in the final minute-and-a-half of the quarter.

But Taah Liberty nailed a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left in the first half to push the lead to 24-20, and Sterling surged to start the third quarter thanks to a combination of pressure defense turning into transition baskets and consistent half-court offensive sets.

“That 3 was definitely a good one to end the half on, but even with that, I think we still knew the game was closer than it should’ve been, and we needed to just go out and take care of business,” Amankwa said. “We just came out like the true team we are in the second half.”

The Warriors scored 14 points off 19 Rock Falls turnovers through the first three quarters, and when the Rockets did get the ball into the frontcourt, they struggled to get open against the Sterling guards’ aggressive defense.

The 14-0 run took just over three minutes, and turned a four-point cushion into a 38-20 lead with 4:43 left in the third quarter.

“It was only two minutes, I think, and they put us down by 12, and then after three minutes, it was 18. That’s huge coming out of halftime; you never want that to happen, because it sets the tone for the second half and kind of rolls over into the fourth quarter,” Rock Falls senior forward Claire Bickett said. “Their press picked up a little bit, and we just struggled getting the ball down the floor. They kind of sped us up – they have some very quick, very aggressive guards – and they got us a little unorganized. We just gave them a few too many opportunities in the end, and we didn’t get enough.”

Bickett’s basket ended Sterling’s run, but the Warriors stretched the run to 20-2 after baskets by Amankwa, Olivia Melcher and Madison Austin. Peyton Smit’s basket for Rock Falls made the score 44-24 heading into the fourth quarter.

Joslynn James, Melcher, Amankwa and Natalie Eddinger all scored for Sterling in the first five minutes of the fourth. The Rockets kept pace with buckets from Denali Stonitsch and Bickett, as well as some free throws, but couldn’t close the gap.

“We knew we had to step it up after the first half. We just communicated a lot better and got the ball moving a lot faster in order to get the ball across the court and into the post,” Austin said. “It takes a lot of pressure off me [inside] when our guards do their job on both ends of the court. We just knew what we had to do and how it should be done, and that’s what we did.”

Austin led Sterling with 16 points and five rebounds, and Amankwa added 12 points, nine assists and three steals. Melcher scored 11 points, Joslynn James finished with eight points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals, and Maggie Rowzee chipped in four points and two steals. Liberty added three steals and two assists to her half-ending 3-pointer.

Bickett had game highs of 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Taylor Reyna added seven points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals for Rock Falls. Stonitsch and Smit each scored four points, and Stonitsch dished three assists. Nicolette Udell chipped in three points and four rebounds.

With several new starters this year, the Rockets are looking to build on the strong stretches during games early in the season, like when they ran the offense more consistently in the second and fourth quarters against Sterling.

“I feel like we just relaxed. We’re so hectic whenever we play, and we always get so frantic whenever we get the ball, so I just feel like being able to control what we’re doing and control our pace, just having more of a relaxed and patient tone while we’re running our offense is what’s really going to get us through the games,” Reyna said. “We have a very inexperienced team, and I feel like just getting the basics down is what we’re trying to do right now. Practice and learning from games like this are the best thing for us.”