Sterling turns up pressure to top La Salle-Peru

STERLING – The speed, quickness and athleticism of the Sterling lineup was on full display Tuesday night at Musgrove Fieldhouse as the Golden Warriors cranked up the pressure on La Salle-Peru.

Sterling nabbed 25 steals and forced 39 turnovers, defeating their former longtime NCIC rivals 59-21.

“Just putting that pressure on them, we knew great defense would lead to good offense,” Sterling senior Delali Amankwa said.

[ Photos from LaSalle-Peru at Sterling girls basketball ]

Leading 18-13, Amankwa fed Alivia Gibson for an open 3-pointer with 3:31 left in the second quarter. That sparked a 12-0 run to end the first half, then the Warriors (5-1) scored 17 of the first 21 points in the third period to push their 30-13 halftime lead to a 47-17 margin with 2:29 left in the third.

“We just played a lot more confident, just trusting each other on the fast break and just running in transition well,” senior center Madison Austin said. “Defense is one of our biggest areas where we’re trying to get better, because we know that’s what we need to win games. Our guards are really good at pressuring the ball and getting tips and steals, and then we know my job is under the hoop if anybody gets past them.”

“I think our defense got more aggressive, we just started playing more disciplined defense,” Amankwa said. “I think at first we started a little bit sloppy, then we picked it up during that run – and that turned into offense.”

Sterling scored 21 points off those 39 Cavalier turnovers; L-P (3-3) attempted just 28 shots in the game, making nine of them. The Warriors, meanwhile, made 25 of their 53 shots, with many coming on point-blank layups either in transition or through their half-court offense.

“We were down by five with 3 1/2 minutes left in the first half, and then they went on a 41-8 run to end the game,” L-P coach Adam Spencer said. “Their guard play, there was a lot of pressure tonight. They were picking up full court and they’ve got a 6-3 girl standing behind them, so you can play all the way up.

“I was pretty impressed with how they played. I don’t think we looked like we practiced running any offense. We’d pick the ball up at half court because if they can smell what you had for lunch – they’re up that tight – our girls don’t like it. You’ve got to just keep going, have somebody step out and get open, move the ball. We just didn’t do that tonight.”

Sterling scored the first eight points of the game, then the Cavaliers got within five thanks to 3-pointers by Elli Sines and Phoebe Shetterly and a putback by Kelsey Frederick.

But the Warriors answered with Gibson’s 3 and her layup on a baseline drive, then a 3 by Jae James and a baseline drive-and-dish play from Gibson to Jae James. Joslynn James then threw a baseball pass to Austin in the final second of the first half to make it a 17-point lead at the break.

“They pushed the ball hard up the rails, right up the sidelines,” Spencer said. “They really get the ball up the court and look for the open shot.”

Sterling missed its first nine 3-point shots, but kept getting those open looks after pounding the ball down low to Austin early on. When Gibson and Jae James hit their 3s in the surge to end the second quarter, it loosened everybody up and injected some confidence into the offense.

“It kind of was a pressure reliever, and we all thought, ‘OK, the shots are going to start falling now,’” Amankwa said.

“We just want to get the ball inside early to open up our shooters,” Austin said. “We know that when the defense starts looking in at me a lot, we’re really confident in our shooters to make the shots.”

Austin led the Warriors with 18 points, seven rebounds and two blocks and Amankwa added 10 points, five steals and three assists. Taah Liberty and Nia Harris each had four points, three rebounds and five steals, Gibson and Jae James each had seven points, three assists and three steals and Joslynn James scored all nine of her points in the second half to go with three assists and four steals.

Sines scored seven points and Frederick had six points and five rebounds for La Salle-Peru, which was coming in off a 56-16 win over Rock Falls on Saturday at Tabor Gym.

“The difference in the 5-minute drive between here and Rock Falls is 80 points, right? We won by 40 on Saturday, then we drove back here today and lose by 40,” Spencer said with a rueful smile. “It seems like we’ve either won by 25 or lost by 25 in every game this season. We’re 3-3 and our point differential is zero; it’s kind of nuts.

“It’s a young season, and we don’t have a lot of experience back. We’ve got 10 girls on the roster, and Elli Sines and Kelsey Frederick were the only ones who played at all for us last year, so we’re dealing with a lot of turnover and still learning was we go.”