Comfortably leading visiting Quincy by 11 points heading into the fourth quarter Friday, Sterling looked to be in position to for a season sweep of the Blue Devils in Western Big 6 Conference play.

Then, Quincy’s defense dug in.

The Golden Warriors were unable to respond.

Sterling’s offense went cold and 6-foot-7 freshman Brennan Lepper banked in a 3-pointer to force overtime as Quincy rallied for a 59-52 win.

After leading Quincy (7-13, 4-6 Big 6) after the first three quarters, Sterling (5-19, 2-8) went scoreless until the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

“They came out with a couple buckets,” Sterling’s Xavian Prather said. “They started pressing us full court and we had some unforced turnovers and stuff like that we have to clean up. We’re young, we’re learning and we’re going to gain that experience.”

Prather had 13 points and Quincy Maas added 15. Both hit four 3-pointers to help build the lead before being held scoreless in the final 12 minutes.

Prather said the pressure defense threw Sterling off its game.

“We weren’t playing like ourselves at all at the end,” he said. “We were rushed. We had the lead going into the fourth, we didn’t need to rush anything.”

While Sterling was 10 of 19 from deep, it was just 4 of 21 (19%) from two. Sterling also shot just 13 of 25 at the line.

“We work on those [free throws] in practice, it just has to carry over. We’ve just got to get reps and just carry that into the game. If we do that, we probably would have won that,” Prather said. “Free throws are very important, especially in a clutch overtime game like that.”

Sterling has also been navigating games without its biggest post player in AJ Coleman.

“Everybody has to box out a little harder,” Prather said. “When you’ve got a guy that clears up almost the whole entire paint, now all five guys have to do their job 110%.”

Prather said the team didn’t know its identify at the beginning of the season. The Warriors have since learned who they are and will continue to chip away despite the recent setbacks, Prather said.

“No matter what our record says, we’re going to get better and better, piece by piece,” he said. “We’re going to come back stronger, and we’ve gotta learn how to close it out.”

Lepper led Quincy with 18 points while the rest of the team was 6 of 8 at the line in overtime.

He said Quincy’s goal was to come back and it came together to make it happen.

“That was the only way we knew how to do it was bring the pressure up, and they seemed to not be able to respond to it as well as they would have liked,” Lepper said. “I think that was the biggest thing.”

Lepper got the ball back after setting a screen and banked in the game-tying triple at the top of the key. A couple seconds were put back on the clock but Sterling’s final heave of regulation was short. It was Quincy’s first OT game of the season.

“I was open for it,” Lepper said. “You live for situations like that, and when you get that opportunity, you do anything and everything you can to capitalize on it.”

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 12

Sterling’s Brady Berlin goes strong to the hoop against Quincy Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Alex T. Paschal)