Sterling’s Madison Austin hits game winner at Alleman

ROCK ISLAND — With the game on the line, Sterling senior Madison Austin delivered.

The Illinois State recruit’s buzzer-beater lifted the first-place Golden Warriors to a 37-35 Western Big 6 Conference road win at Alleman on Thursday night.

Taking an inbounds pass at the baseline from Jae James with 1.6 seconds left, the 6-foot-3 Austin simply pivoted outside to hit a right-handed floater as time expired.

Sterling (21-5, 8-1 Big 6), ranked No. 7 in the latest Associated Press Class 3A poll, remains tied with Galesburg for the Big 6 lead after the Silver Streaks beat Moline 52-33.

With Sterling’s offense only making three field goals in the middle two quarters, the Golden Warriors grinded their way to get in position to win.

Austin made sure it got done in regulation.

“My teammates just trusted me and gave it to me,” she said. “Them having confidence in me to make that was all I needed.”

“The play’s got a couple options to it, and finding Maddie wide open was a great opportunity,” Sterling coach Taylor Jackson said. “I think Jae did a great job of recognizing she had an advantage, and she finished. That’s what you expect a senior to do at this point in the season.”

Austin scored six of her nine points in the first quarter as Sterling built a 15-7 lead after eight minutes. But the Pioneers (17-7, 6-3) had an answer, denying Austin inside with multiple defenders as the Warriors struggled to hit jump shots until late in the game.

Sterling outscored Alleman 14-6 in the fourth quarter, hitting 5 of 6 free throws. Alleman was 1 of 4 at the line in the final frame.

“We didn’t give up,” Jackson said. “We fought back with our defense and we were able to get in position to make a shot at the end of the game.

“The rest of it wasn’t pretty, the rest of it we have fix, but we got the job done today and I’m just really excited for our kids.”

Jae James led Sterling with 15 points and Jossy James added 11. Alivia Gibson (two points) was the only other Warrior to score as Sterling overcame a 3 of 24 (12.5 %) showing from deep and 14 of 49 (28.6 %) from the field.

Megan Hulke led Alleman with 12 points, Adalynn Voss had 11 and Carson Wendt had nine. The Pioneers were 6 of 9 from deep and 10 of 25 from the field but just 9 of 16 at the line.

Alleman trailed just 21-20 at halftime and used a 9-2 advantage in the third quarter to take control up 29-23.

The Pioneers clung to a 34-33 lead with just a couple minutes left, but a Jossy James bucket gave Sterling a 35-34 lead with 33 seconds left. Alleman’s Hulke made 1 of 2 free throws on its next possession to tie the game with 19 seconds left.

Sterling missed a 3-pointer, but senior Delali Amankwa grabbed an offensive rebound and Sterling took a quick timeout to set up the game-winning play.

Jackson said she didn’t mind the team’s shots, they just weren’t going through the net.

“They were shooting in rhythm and shooting after good ball rotations, but they just did not fall tonight,” she said. “We’re very thankful we have a week to get some shots up before we get Geneseo next Thursday.”

Sterling has five conference games left with dates against Quincy and United Township before a road trip to Moline and a home game versus Rock Island to finish Big 6 play.

Sterling girls basketball has not won a Big 6 title since joining the conference in 2019. That goal is still very attainable.

“It’s really exciting, but we know that it’s not going to be easy,” Austin said. “Our conference is very hard, so we’ve just got to play as hard as we can every game.”