Sherrard rallies late to stun Sterling

STERLING – Quick starts to both halves by Sterling weren’t enough to counteract strong finishes by Sherrard.

The Tigers rallied from an 11-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter to run their winning streak to six straight with a 46-42 victory over the Golden Warriors on Monday night at Musgrove Fieldhouse.

“Kudos to them, they’re a well-coached team, and they’re a nice team with some nice players who did some nice things down the stretch to win that ballgame,” Sterling coach Ryan Vasquez said. “They just did more than what we did in crunch time, and unfortunately we took the bad side of it here tonight.”

[ Photos from Sterling vs. Sherrard boys basketball ]

Sterling (3-5) led for 26 minutes, 43 seconds, and the game was tied for another 4:08. But even though Sherrard (8-1) led for a total of 1:09, the key was that it included the final 41 seconds.

The Tigers outscored the Warriors 12-4 in the second quarter and 15-4 in the fourth, with Carter Brown making two huge steals in the final 45 seconds to seal the come-from-behind win.

“Our coach preaches to us to not be affected by runs or deficits, and we’re out there just working hard,” Brown said. “They put pressure on us for most of the game, and we decided to turn the tables and pick it up on them. I was able to get a few steals there at the end, and then we hit some free throws – we shot a lot of conditioning free throws with tired legs the other day, so we were made for those moments tonight.”

A basket by Brown and a 3-pointer by James Blackwell got Sherrard within 38-36 just a minute into the fourth quarter, then a few minutes later, Blackwell hit a pull-up jumper in the lane before Brown went 3 for 4 from the free-throw line on the next two possessions to give Sherrard a 41-40 lead – its first lead since 2-0.

“Really, nothing changed, we just had to be us and go out there and just work our butt off [in the fourth quarter],” Brown said. “We knew we had to start playing defense hard on them, we couldn’t just let them bring it to us. On offense, we wanted to attack the hoop, drive hard to the rim for layups. Basically, we just wanted to stay aggressive.”

The Warriors answered with a pretty drive-and-dish play from Kaedon Phillips to Will Ports for a 42-41 lead with 3:05 to play, then forced Sherrard to come up empty on a few possessions over the next minute-and-a-half.

But Sterling couldn’t build on the lead, as a couple of shots rimmed out – including a 3-pointer that would’ve stretched the margin to four points.

“We had a few shots there to stretch the lead late, but we didn’t hit them,” Vasquez said. “The ball’s got to go through the hoop, but the biggest thing is we’ve got to get stops when we need stops, and we didn’t get those down the stretch – and they did.”

The Warriors tried to run out the clock, but were forced to call a timeout with 45.8 seconds to play. Brown intercepted the sideline inbounds pass and went the other way, bouncing a pass to Blackwell for a layup and a 43-42 Sherrard lead.

Brown then picked the pocket of a Sterling ballhandler on the next possession, and Rylan Carton split a pair of free throws with 20.7 seconds left for a 44-42 lead. Carton hit two more free throws with 3.8 seconds remaining to seal it.

“What Carter Brown did there at the end, that’s not the first time we’ve seen that,” Sherrard coach Alex Johnson said. “He’s just a terrific player for us, and he’s a kid that you know you can count on down the stretch. He’s going to come up big, he’s going to be ready to make plays, and he’s not going to back down from anything. He made those two or three really big plays for us, and that really was the difference in the game.”

Carton had 18 points, eight rebounds and two blocks for the Tigers, and Blackwell added a double-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Brown scored 13 points – including a pair of 3s early in the third quarter to keep Sherrard within shouting distance – to go with three rebounds, three steals, two assists and a block.

Ports and Phillips led Sterling with 12 points apiece; Ports also grabbed seven rebounds, and Phillips had five steals and three assists. Nico Battaglia chipped in 10 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals, and Maddux Osborn added eight points, five rebounds and three assists as Sterling dropped its fourth straight game.