Pressure, pressure and more pressure was the name of the game Monday as the Sterling girls basketball team forced 38 turnovers against La Salle-Peru as the Golden Warriors cruised to a 58-21 nonconference victory at AJ Sellett Gymnasium in La Salle.

The former conference rival turned up the pressure from the word go as did the Cavaliers, but the difference was the Golden Warriors were turning L-P’s miscues into points.

Junior guard Joslynn James made her presence known immediately as she went hard to the basket, drawing fouls and hitting three of her first four attempts from the line for a 3-0 lead.

James stole the ball then threw ahead to Nia Harris for a short jump shot and a 7-0 lead.

A seventh Cavs turnover led to a Harris 3-pointer.

At 3:40 mark of the opening quarter, Emma Jereb hit a runner in the lane for the first L-P basket to make it 10-2 Sterling.

Brie Ruppert made a nice entry pass to Maggie Boudreau and then made a nice move in the paint herself, but the Golden Warriors led 18-6 after the first quarter during which L-P commit 10 turnovers.

“We did not handle the pressure at all tonight,” L-P coach Adam Spencer said. “They picked us up before mid court then peeled back and picked us up at half court and it just didn’t matter. We had a height advantage, but could not get into our offense at all.”

LP’s Alexus Hines started the second quarter with a scoop shot in the lane, but then Sterling went right back to work as James and Brenley Johnson hit back-to-back 3-pointers for a 24-8 advantage.

Jereb drained a 3-pointer and Ruppert hit a tough and-one to make it 25-14, but the Golden Warriors continued to put the pressure on L-P.

James hit her fourth long distance shot to give the Golden Warriors a 28-14 lead heading into halftime.

Sterling (5-1) put the game away in the third quarter, outscoring the Cavs 24-3 and creating double-digit turnovers once again.

James started things off by hitting a 3-pointer and then Harris found James ahead for the layup that pushed the lead to 38-15.

Johnson continued to shoot well for Sterling as she drained a 3-pointer and James followed with getting a rebound and going coast to coast for a bucket.

Moments later, Harris got a steal and found James again for a bucket. James finished off the quarter with a steal of her own and layup at the buzzer to give Sterling a 52-17 advantage.

“Joslynn James is just a gym rat,” Sterling coach Taylor Johnson said. “I love seeing the 38 turnovers as a team and 32 points for Joslynn. We are not the biggest team so we have to rely on pressure and our girls responded. You look at our board and it says rebound, run, attack and play good defense and we did that tonight.”

Johnson hit another 3-pointer and a jumper inside the arc as the Golden Warriors cruised to a 58-21 victory.

Jereb had seven points to lead the way for the Cavs (3-5), while Sterling’s James led all scorers with 32 points with Brenley Johnson adding 12.