Boys basketball

Sterling 88, Geneseo 44: Nico Battaglia hit six 3-pointers to set the school’s single-season record of 97 as he finished with 18 points in the Western Big 6 Conference finale. He also set the school’s single-game record with 10 3s this season against Alleman.

Kaedon Phillips had a game-high 30 points, and Will Ports scored 10 for Sterling (15-15, 6-8 WB6).

Newman 65, Hall 51: The Comets (17-14, 5-5 TRAC East) wrapped up Three Rivers play with a road win as Evan Bushman scored 21 points, John Rowzee had 16, George Jungerman had 11, and Garrett Matznick scored 15.

Harlem 65, Dixon 54: The Dukes (22-8) fell short at home ahead of another good test at Sherrard on Thursday.

Eastland 56, Fulton 32: The Cougars led 15-5 after one quarter and did not look back as Eastland (24-4, 10-0) won the NUIC South title outright. Peyton Spears led Eastland with 20 points. Fulton fell to 15-14 and 8-2 in conference.

Amboy 51, Polo 50: Amboy’s Eddie Jones made a game-winning free throw with less than a second left to give the Clippers a clutch victory at home.

Girls basketball

Amboy 51, Putnam County 33: The Clippers scored the game’s first seven points but couldn’t break away from the Panthers in the first half of a Class 1A St. Bede Regional semifinal.

Putnam County limited Amboy to just four second-chance opportunities in the first half, and the Clippers managed just two second-chance points. Amboy led 12-4 after the first quarter and 20-11 at halftime.

“I thought we didn’t handle the ball quite as well as we normally do at the beginning,” Amboy coach Mike McCracken said. “Our big girl got in foul trouble, and that makes us small. But we stepped up and played better defense in the post, and then we started boxing out a little. Nobody’s hit the boards that hard against us.”

While the Panthers played solid defense and rebounded early, they struggled offensively, but senior Eme Bouxsein kept them in it. She scored Putnam County’s first nine points with her 3-pointer pulling PC within 12-9 with 6:01 left in the first half.

“I thought defensively in the first half we did a nice job of limiting their driving lanes and forcing them to take some outside shots,” PC coach Jared Sale said. “I thought it could’ve been a pretty tight game at the half, but we just couldn’t seem to get much going on the offensive end.”

The Clippers closed the first half on an 8-2 run then scored nine quick points – on 3s by Tyrah Vaessen and Bella Yanos and a three-point play by Addison Pertell – to start the third quarter to begin to pull away up 29-15. Amboy led 39-20 after three quarters and led comfortably throughout the fourth.

“That was huge,” McCracken said. “A big part of my halftime talk was building the lead, so to get nine points that fast kind of set the tone.”

Yanos led Amboy with 19 points, while Pertell and Jillian Anderson had nine each.

Bouxsein poured in 18 points for PC (7-24), while Maggie Spratt added eight.

Amboy will face Marquette at 6:30 p.m. in Thursday’s regional final.

— By Kevin Chlum