United Township kept trying to pull away, but Sterling just wouldn’t go away.

It took a couple of late layups off steals at half court for the Panthers to finally finish off a 51-38 victory over the Golden Warriors in their Western Big 6 game Friday night at Musgrove Fieldhouse.

“We did what we could to battle back,” Sterling coach Ryan Vasquez said. “At the end of the day, our guys did everything we asked them to tonight. I believe we got better tonight; unfortunately we came out on the wrong side of getting the W, but tomorrow’s a new day.”

United Township (11-7, 5-2 WB6) scored the first 11 points of the game, and led 16-5 after one quarter and 29-17 at halftime. But while it felt like the Panthers were in control all night, Sterling (4-15, 2-5 WB6) just kept hanging around.

The Warriors trailed just 16-11 after consecutive 3-pointers by freshmen Gavin Terrock and DeAndre Maas to open the second quarter, then an 8-2 run to start the second half cut the Warriors’ deficit to 31-25.

Back-to-back 3s by Xavian Prather two and a half minutes later got Sterling within 36-31 with 1:47 left in the third quarter.

“We tried to give it back to the them. That’s kind of been a thing we’ve struggled with is putting teams away when we get an early lead,” UT coach Andy Saey said. “We’ve got to be better at putting teams away, and it comes down to decision-making, rebounding and taking care of the basketball.”

Octavius Hickman scored the final five points of the period for UT around a floater in the lane by Sterling’s Aidan Lacy, then a pair of free throws to open the fourth from Prather brought the Warriors within 41-35 with 7:29 to play.

But Jordan Massey and Jasiah Massey had steals near midcourt on back-to-back Sterling possessions and took them the other way for layups to stretch the lead back to 10, and the Warriors never got any closer.

“Toward the end, we had those live-ball turnovers, and that translated into points,” Vasquez said. “They got a quick start on us, and we didn’t get stops – and when you’re not getting stops and you’re not making shots, it was just kind of a domino effect.

“We played hard, but it’s tough to come back against good teams.”

Sterling shot just 27.5% from the field (11 of 40) and committed 15 turnovers. The Warriors did hit seven 3-pointers compared to just one for UT, but the Panthers outscored them 11-0 on points off turnovers and 13-3 in second-chance points.

Prather had 15 points and four rebounds, and DeAndre Maas scored nine points for Sterling. Lacy scored five, Koby Bell (4 blocks), Quincy Maas (5 assists) and Terrock (2 steals) finished with three points apiece, and Jack Saathoff pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.

Jordan Massey’s 17 points, five rebounds, five steals and three assists paced the Panthers, while Joseph Morrow finished with 12 points, six rebounds and six blocks. Hickman had 11 points and five rebounds, and Jasiah Massey chipped in five points, four rebounds and two steals.

Despite the victory, Saey felt there was still a lot his team could learn from it to improve going forward.

“Never apologize for a win, right? But we’re just talking about playing to a standard and having expectations for our team,” he said. “We did just enough to win, but I’m not sure we got better, though – and that’s the goal for us every night, we want to be a better team by the end of each and every night. So we’ve got some stuff to figure out.”