Sterling rolls past Geneseo, into first place

STERLING – It was a big night for the Sterling girls basketball team Thursday.

As the Associated Press Class 3A No. 6-ranked Golden Warriors were scoring their most points this millennium in an 84-28 win over Geneseo, Quincy hit a late 3-pointer to beat Galesburg and put Sterling atop the Western Big 6 standings all by itself.

Four Warriors scored in double-figures, and 10 different players scored as they had their most points since an 87-29 win over Hall in 1999, and the most points ever against the Maple Leafs, well ahead of the 69 they scored in a 1978 win.

“Just our intensity at the start, we got into our groove right away and took it from there,” Jae James said. “Just being able to share the ball with other, that’s what we love the most. I don’t even think we realized how much we were up by. We weren’t looking at the scoreboard, we just all kept playing our hardest.”

[ Photos from Sterling vs. Geneseo girls basketball ]

After the postgame handshake line, word filtered throughout the Sterling sideline that Quincy had just beaten Galesburg 55-54 on a Myley Longcar 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds left. Suddenly, the Warriors have become the hunted instead of the hunter, with a one game-lead in the conference title race with four games left.

Showing no rust despite not playing since last Thursday, Sterling (22-5, 9-1 WB6) took control with a 20-0 run that stretched from Madison Austin’s buzzer-beater in the post to end the first quarter until the final 38 seconds of the second period. Austin had eight points in the surge, Jossy James hit a pair of 3s, and Jae James had a putback and a 3 of her own.

“We had a week off, with just practices, and we focused on our offense every day. It was just ball movement, hard cuts, good passes, being smart, and just playing our own game,” Austin said. “So that’s what we did tonight.”

The Warriors assisted on 22 of their 35 baskets – including 13 of their 18 after halftime – and shot 52% (35-for-67) from the field while turning the ball over just nine times.

But they were just as dominant on defense, forcing 30 turnovers and turning 17 steals into a 16-0 edge in fast-break points. Sterling set the tone in the second quarter, as they forced 10 turnovers while Geneseo attempted just four shots from the field. For the first half, the Leafs (5-18, 2-9 WB6) attempted 17 shots and committed 17 turnovers.

“Just causing chaos, that’s what we’ve been working on in practice,” Jossy James said. “We were very excited to get back out here. We’ve been playing against our same jerseys for a week straight, and we were ready to go out and get somebody else.”

Leading 52-22 with 4:30 left in the third quarter, the Warriors went on a 22-2 run to close that period and open the fourth to stretch the lead to 50.

Austin led Sterling with 25 points (10-for-13 FGs) and seven rebounds, and Jossy James added 18 points, two assists and three steals. Amankwa stuffed the stat sheet with 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals, and Jae James had 10 points, four rebounds and five assists. Anessa Johnson chipped in seven points, and Macie Lofgran had four points and three rebounds.

“We had a nice five days of rest and just practice, so we were all ready to play. We were energized, we were excited to play, so we came out fast and hard,” Amankwa said. “We definitely shared the love. We had four of our players in double figures and didn’t realize how much we were really winning by until the end.”

Payton Snider led the Leafs with nine points, four rebounds and two assists, while Addison Snodgrass added seven points and seven rebounds. Kendyl Wassnehove also scored seven points, and Lily Taylor grabbed five rebounds.

“That’s a great team, coached by a great coach, and I have a ton of respect for this program and that coach, and they played really well. They’re cohesive and they’re playing together and they had a heck of a game tonight. They hit a lot of shots, and they forced us into a lot of things we don’t want to do,” Geneseo coach Scott Hardison said. “I’m not taking anything away from them, but we are not 50 points worse than them. We did not show up tonight, and you’ve got to put that on the coach; I’ll take that.

“To beat this team, we would’ve had to have been perfect tonight. But I want us to come out and compete, and I feel like we didn’t do that tonight. I thought we played for a quarter, and then something happened, a switch went off. Tip a hat to them.”