Sterling girls bowling advances to sectional: Friday’s Sauk Valley roundup

Girls bowling

Sterling, Oregon’s Bailey advance: Sterling took second as a team at the Dixon Regional at Plum Hollow to advance to next Saturday’s Oregon Sectional. The Golden Warriors rolled a 5,260 as runner-up to LaSalle-Peru’s 5,648. Freeport (5,240) and Moline (5,123) also advanced as teams.

Sterling was led by a third-place finish from Sarah Doughty (1,240) as Olivia Barton (1,088) took 17th and Hailey Conderman (1,013) was 30th. Kara Garcia (976) and Phinley Wright (943) also scored for Sterling.

Freeport’s Diem Beach was the individual champion with a 1,293 and St. Bede’s Maddy Fabish (1,271) was runner-up.

Doughty had the second and fifth highest games at the regional with a 268 and 240.

Oregon, which took eighth, was the only other local school with a bowler to advance to the sectional as Carli Bailey (1,109) took 13th. The last of 10 advancing individuals bowled a 1,064.

Dixon took 10th and was led by a 997 from Addison Cox.

Erie-Prophetstown was 13th as Jolene Wells led the team with a 990.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 21

Dixon’s Madelyn Bird fires the ball Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in the girls bowling regionals at Plum Hollow in Dixon. (Alex T. Paschal)

Boys basketball

Byron 62, Dixon 59 (OT): The Dukes fell short after Cullen Shaner forced overtime with a late 3-pointer. Darius Harrington led Dixon with 21 points but left the game early with an injury.

Sterling 94, Alleman 60: Nico Battaglia poured in 37 points and Kaedon Phillips scored 27 in the road win. Battaglia was 9 of 17 from deep in the performance, setting Sterling’s single-game school record for 3-pointers.

Erie-Prophetstown 57, Newman 46: Connor Keegan scored a game-high 27 points, hitting five 3-pointers, to help the Panthers to a home win. E-P held off Newman after leading 18-12 after the first quarter. John Rowzee led Newman with 15 points and Garrett Matznick scored 14.

Rockford Christian 83, Rock Falls 57: The Rockets fell on the road after Christian Cummings scored a game-high 37 points as one of RC’s four players to score at least 12 points. Kuitim Heald scored 15 points, Ryken Howard had 19 and Austin Castaneda added 10 for RF.

Galena 44, Fulton 42 (OT): Landen Leu led the Steamers with 22 points in the setback.

Oregon 73, Rockford Lutheran 69: The Hawks bounced back with a road win in Big Northern Conference action.

Girls basketball

Eastland 54, Morrison 40: Eastland used a balanced attack in the home win as Morgan McCullough, Sienna Peterson (13), Olivia Klinefelter (10) and Tatum Grim (nine) led the scoring. It was coach Nicole Brinker’s 400th win. Morrison led 15-6 after the first quarter before the Cougars stormed back to take a 26-22 halftime lead. Camryn Veltrop led the Fillies with 21 points and Kaylee Pruis was second with nine.