Fast and furious Sterling beats La Salle-Peru with transition attack

STERLING — Taking an outlet pass after a pair of Bryce Hartman blocks, Sterling senior point guard Kaedon Phillips ignited the home crowd with a one-handed slam dunk in transition Tuesday night.

If you turned your head, you probably missed it.

It was that kind of night as the Golden Warriors used a fast and furious offensive attack to beat La Salle-Peru 70-58 for their sixth win in eight games.

Phillips' dunk highlighted a 24-14 third-quarter advantage by the Golden Warriors (9-7) as they avenged last year’s 12-point loss to the Cavaliers in the regional finals.

Phillips scored a game-high 22 points, and Nico Battaglia (5 of 8 3-pointers) scored 20 more for Sterling. Maddux Osborn also hit 2 of 4 triples and had 12 points.

“We really wanted to come here and get the win tonight,” Battaglia said, ”and it felt good to get some revenge, too."

Phillips was 6 of 6 at the line in the fourth quarter, and Sterling was 13 of 17 as a team. L-P made things interesting late, but Sterling’s advantage in the second and third quarters held.

“Just coming out with high energy and running in transition really helped,” Phillips said.

Sterling was able to pull away in the middle quarters after trailing by as many as eight in the first quarter. L-P led 20-16 after one before going without a field goal in the second quarter. Sterling’s 13-4 swing built a 29-24 halftime lead before the Warriors' big third quarter.

“Our transition defense wasn’t very good,” L-P coach John Senica said. “We didn’t pick the guys up on the 3-point line. We didn’t pick up [Battaglia], and we didn’t pick up [Osborn]. We didn’t pick up guys in transition, and that’s what killed us.”

Phillips created another fast-break bucket later in the game, following up his own block with another dunk. Sterling passed the ball well and finished with only five turnovers for the game. L-P had nine giveaways.

“We got a lot better in practice moving the ball and just trusting each other better,” Phillips said. “We got up and forced a lot a lot of turnovers. We won the turnover battle, so that helped us get a win.”

The Warriors' offense has continued to improve and scored a season-high in Saturday’s 91-74 win over Rochelle. It was the program’s 1,500th win, as Phillips also scored a career-high 31 points.

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Sterling’s Maddux Osborn makes a pass against Lasalle-Peru’s Marion Persich Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, at Sterling High School. (Alex T. Paschal)

Hartman chipped in eight points, and Will Ports had six as Sterling’s starters scored all but two points. Sterling finished 24 of 47 (51.1 %) from the field, while L-P was 19 of 64 (29.7 %).

“They’ve got a very good team and showed how they can shoot and get to the rim,” Senica said. “They’re well-balanced. ... They hit shots when they needed to.”

Mikey Hartman led L-P with 19 points, Erick Sotelo and Nick Olivero each scored 12, and Marion Persich scored 10 for the Cavs. L-P has lost six of its last seven games.

L-P cut the deficit to 59-52 with under four minutes to play, but the Cavs went scoreless the final 83 seconds as Sterling closed it out with the ball in Phillips' hands. He finished the game 10 of 11 at the line.

“It’s phenomenal,” Osborn said of Phillips' ability to help close out games. “Just trusting Kaedon at the top of the key knowing he’s going to get downhill either drawing a foul or finishing at the rim, it’s just great knowing we don’t have to worry.”