Sterling rolls past Morris to reach Class 3A regional championship game

MORRIS – Sterling had its hands full in the first quarter Wednesday night against Morris in the Class 3A Morris Regional.

But the Golden Warriors (15-16) ramped up their defense and pulled away to post a 68-49 win and advance to Friday night’s championship game against Kankakee – a 78-38 winner over Pontiac in the night’s other semifinal.

Senior guard Kaedon Phillips scored a game-high 30 points for Sterling, using his quickness to get ahead of Morris' defense for several fast-break baskets as well as his driving ability to drive the lane and either draw fouls or score. He finished just a point shy of his season high.

“Coach [Ryan] Vazquez told us at halftime that we were a little slow,” Phillips said. “We needed to bring up our energy, and that was a big part of why we were able to pull away in the second half.

“Everyone played well and did their roles.”

After Phillips, Nico Battaglia scored 15 points for the Warriors, while Will Ports had 10 and Maddux Osborn had eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Morris used the hot shooting of senior Jack Wheeler to build up a 16-12 lead late in the first quarter. Wheeler, who finished with a team-high 22, scored 13 points, including three 3-pointers, in the first to help his team get the lead. Sterling, though, got back-to-back baskets by Phillips to end the quarter with the score tied at 16.

The Warriors opened the second with a 12-0 run, getting four points from Ports, a 3-pointer each by Osborn and Bryce Hartman and two points by Phillips to move out to a 28-16 lead.

Morris (10-21) got a putback from Wheeler and a 3-pointer by Brett Bounds (15 points) to pull to within 28-21 and, after a basket by Phillips, Wheeler hit another 3-pointer to make it 30-24.

With nine seconds to play in the first half, Morris was inbounding the ball under Sterling’s basket with a chance to make it even closer. Sterling’s Battaglia stole the inbounds pass and scored a quick layup to put the Warriors ahead 32-24 at halftime.

“I thought we controlled the pace pretty well in the first half,” Morris coach Joe Blumberg said. “And we shot the ball well enough. They got a couple of run-outs there in the second quarter, and that turnover under the basket with nine seconds left took some of the air out of our game.

“They adjusted and took Jack away in the second half. Our guards were driving to try and exploit that, but we didn’t get many good looks. When we had to go man-to-man on defense, [Phillips] is a load. He was able to get into the lane and either finish or kick it out to [Battaglia].”

Morris scored the first four points of the second half to close to within 32-28, but a basket by Phillips and a 3-pointer by Battaglia moved the Warriors ahead 37-28. Battaglia scored seven more points in the quarter and Phillips had five more as the Warriors extended their lead to 54-38 entering the fourth.

“Our defense was able to get some stops and convert those into points in the second half,” Vazquez said. “Morris came out hot, but we weathered that storm and had a next-play mentality. Our seniors really drove that next-play ship for us tonight.

“This was a good team win. Everyone stayed within their role, did what they needed to do and didn’t try to do too much. When you stay together like that, good things tend to happen.”