Sterling’s smothering defense and 17 points from Jossy James helped the Golden Warriors beat previously undefeated Byron 43-26 and win their first Dixon Christmas Classic since 2018.

Sterling’s six-player rotation brought the energy until the final three minutes when both team’s reserves came in.

Pressuring the ball on defense and pushing forward on offense are Sterling’s mode of operation.

“These past three days have been draining,” James said, “but we fought through it and pulled it out.”

James buried her first triple to give Sterling an early 11-2 lead. The second quarter was a struggle on offense, but Sterling’s defense helped carry a 16-11 halftime lead.

Sterling then outscored Byron 20-12 in the third quarter and led 36-23 through three. The defense continued to lead the way as Byron had just three points in the fourth quarter.

“Our energy brings a lot of chaos,” said James, who added five assists and four steals, “and that helps us throughout it all.”

Sterling coach Taylor Jackson said the Golden Warriors locked in and took care of their assignments to earn the tournament title. Joslyn Green had eight points and 12 rebounds, Alivia Gibson and Brenley Johnson scored six, and Nia Harris had four points and six boards.

“My assistant, Cliff Bardell, watched a lot of Byron film, and he really had a specific kind of game plan going into what we wanted to do today,” Jackson said. “The girls really executed it.

“I know they were down, Macy [Groharing] I think was sick and all of that stuff, but she’s a phenomenal player. I also really just like what our kids did defensively.”

Brynn Green led the Tigers (12-1) with 10 points, Malia Morton had seven, and Macy Groharing was limited to four.

Groharing took a hit in the third quarter and would not return.

“We really didn’t have a full, healthy team, so that kind of made it harder,” Morton said. “We’re missing two starters, so we kind of started off slower. Macy played, but she was a little sick, but we still tried our hardest, that’s all that matters.”

Morton gave credit to Sterling and the Warriors’ energy on defense.

“They were really aggressive, and we haven’t really gone against that recently,” she said. “I think that’s what really caught us off guard.”

Sterling held Byron to a season low in scoring. Offensively, James finished an efficient 7 of 12 from the field and 3 of 6 from deep in the win.

“I think the work that she’s put in has given her the confidence that, when she’s in a big game like this, she wants the ball in her hands,” Jackson said. “She really controls what we do, and I thought she did a phenomenal job with that today.”

Jae James said the team’s togetherness and encouragement from the bench helped add to the defensive energy. While she didn’t score, she had two blocks and played tight on defense.

“We were definitely relentless,” she said. “We said we weren’t gonna fear adversity and just put on a show for all of our supporters, so that we could come out and finally get this win that we’ve been plotting on for three years.”