Boys basketball: Schilling shines, but Sterling falls to No. 1 Metamora

GALESBURG – Even when JP Schilling tried to miss, the shot still went through the hoop.

That was the kind of game the Sterling senior was having in the Class 3A Galesburg Sectional semifinals on Wednesday night.

In what turned out to be his final game as a Golden Warrior, Schilling poured in 32 points to go with six assists, four rebounds and two steals and nearly willed his team to an upset over 3A No. 1 Metamora. Instead, the Redbirds were able to absorb every punch Schilling and the Warriors threw at them for a 72-70 win.

“We just kept playing and sticking together and doing the things we’ve been doing all year. There was great energy from the crowd, so I think we played off that very well. We didn’t let the big-time game get to us,” Schilling said. “I thought we played very well. A couple things didn’t go our way – second-chance points and 50-50 balls – and they hit a lot of free throws. But at the end of the day, we played the best team in the state to the wire, had them on the ropes, just didn’t come out with the win.”

Schilling was unstoppable at times, carving up the Metamora defense with drives to the basket that led to either layups or assists. He scored 14 of Sterling’s 30 first-half points, then after a quiet third quarter, he was a one-man wrecking crew in the fourth.

He scored 18 of the Warriors’ 26 points in the final period, driving to the hoop for layups and even banking in a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 69-68 with five seconds remaining. At the free-throw line with 1.1 seconds left and down 71-68, Schilling made the first free throw, then tried to miss the second to set up a possible offensive putback to tie the score – but it banked off the backboard and through the net to make it a 71-70 game.

“I was going to miss it so it bounced right, and Lucas [Austin] was actually going to set a screen and Andre [Klaver] was going to come around him and try to get the tip,” Schilling said. “But I made it – and I was mad at myself for not missing.”

Sterling (24-9) fouled Ethan Kizer before the ball was inbounded, so no time ran off the clock. Kizer made the first free throw and missed the second, and Austin’s one-handed full-court heave after he grabbed the rebound came up way short as time expired.

“They’re a tough team, and they battled hard. We executed sets down the stretch and made our free throws, and really honed in on defense,” Metamora senior Drew Tucker said. “We really just stuck together, played as a team. We just calmed down and focused, and executed our plays and played together.”

The Warriors started hot, scoring 13 of the game’s first 19 points. Schilling scored a three-point play and nailed a pull-up jumper in the run, and also assisted on a Kaedon Phillips layup. Austin put back his own miss, then Klaver went cost-to-coast off a steal before Phillips hit two free throws for a 13-6 lead less than four minutes into the game.

Top-ranked Metamora (30-2) fought back, tying the game 17-17 with an 11-4 run highlighted by Tyson Swanson’s dunk and drives to the basket for layups by four different players.

Schilling’s pull-up 3-pointer gave Sterling a 24-19 lead early in the second quarter, then Austin and Phillips scored inside off Schilling feeds for a 28-27 lead with 4:19 left in the period.

Swanson’s three-point play sparked a 10-2 run to end the half for Metamora, then he drove to the hoop for the first basket of the third quarter to give the Redbirds their biggest lead at 39-30.

“We knew we had to make a run at some point, and we wanted to do it early,” Swanson said. “We’ve been in a lot of situations like that, and we have a lot of experience with our guys on this team, so we were always confident that we could answer them.”

Like they’ve done all season, the Warriors battled back. Schilling capped a 5-0 run by driving the baseline and dumping a pass to a cutting Kyle Billings for a layup to cut the deficit to 39-35 with 5:24 left in the third.

After the Redbirds stretched the lead back to 45-37, Austin nailed a 3 and Klaver found Ryan for a runout layup to get with in 45-42, then Ryan added a putback with 1:36 left in the third.

That’s when Schilling – who hadn’t scored since the 3:42 mark of the second quarter – went back to work. With Sterling down 50-44, he scored two layups and two free throws in the first 2:07 to tie the game 50-50, then after Billings dished to a wide-open Austin under the basket to answer a Metamora score, Schilling drove to the hoop for a three-point play to once again tie the game 55-55, and answered a Metamora 3 with another driving layup to bring the Warriors within 58-57 with 2:51 to play.

“We were getting stagnant sometimes, and we needed something to pick us up,” Schilling said. “We just kept attacking to the basket and good things happened.”

A three-point play and another free throw from Drew Tucker stretched the Metamora lead back to 62-57, then two free throws each by Tucker and Tyson Swanson answered Andre Klaver’s three-point play for a 66-60 Metamora lead with 59.4 seconds remaining.

But Schilling drove to the basket to cut the deficit to four, then after Metamora got a layup from Ethan Kizer on a cut down the lane, Austin drilled a 3 from the right corner to cut it to 68-65. After another Tucker free throw – he was 10 for 13 from the foul line in the fourth quarter – Schilling banked in a 3 from the top of the key to make it 69-68 with five seconds left.

“We pushed the ball, we got out in transition like we always do, and that got us buckets and made it hard for them to set up their defense,” Austin said. “We scored transition points and got a lot of drives to the basket, and we limited their middle drives do they couldn’t get to their drive-and-kick game for 3-pointers.”

Tucker hit two more free throws with 2.9 seconds left to make it 71-68, then the Redbirds fouled Schilling as he dribbled up the court to keep him from shooting a 3. He made both free throws – the second one going in much to his chagrin.

Metamora was 13 for 18 from the line in the fourth quarter, including 10 for 13 over the final 2:17 to answer Sterling’s final run.

“We had to try to contain No. 2 [Schilling], and we didn’t do a great job with that,” Swanson said. “But knocking down free throws was the biggest thing for us. We didn’t miss too many free throws in the fourth quarter, and that was huge.”

“I thought our execution to get the ball in and do little things at the end of the game and then make the free throws was really good,” Metamora coach Danny Grieves said. “Sterling’s a really good team, you could tell that they really put a lot of heat on us, and they made some really nice runs. I told our kids it was going to be a game of runs, we just needed to try and make the last one, and we were fortunate enough to do that.”

Both teams were efficient on offense. Sterling shot 55.1% (26 for 49) from the floor – including 69.7% (23 for 33) from 2-point range – and was 85.7% (12 for 14) from the foul line while only committing six turnovers. Metamora was 53.2% (25 for 47) from the field – and 64.5% (20 for 31) from inside the arc – and shot 73.9% (17 for 23) from the foul line while turning the ball over just seven times.

Swanson led the Redbirds with 24 points, and he also had three rebounds. Tucker finished with 23 points and three boards, Tyler Mason had 13 points, six assists and four rebounds, and Kizer chipped in 12 points, five rebounds and two assists. Metamora advances to the sectional title game Friday night against Peoria Richwoods.

Austin had 16 points and seven rebounds for Sterling, and Ryan added nine points, four rebounds and two steals. Phillips scored six points, Klaver had five points and two assists, and Billing had two points and two assists for the Warriors. Schilling was 12 for 20 from the field – including 10 for 13 on 2-pointers – and nailed a pair of 3s while hitting all six free throws for his 32 points.

“When has this team ever rolled over and given up? That’s just not who they are. I knew these guys would fight back, and we pushed it to the very end,” Sterling coach Ryan Vasquez said. “We knew Metamora’s ranked No. 1 in the state, that’s no secret. They’re a really talented team, making a push to get back down to state [after placing second last season]. We knew what we were in for tonight.

“We also knew that we needed 50-50 balls to go our way, and knew that we needed a little luck to go our way tonight. It didn’t work out in the end, but those 15 guys in those navy blue jerseys tonight, they left everything they had in this gym, and that’s all we can really ask for.”