Boys basketball: Sterling battles, but falls short down the stretch in loss to Galesburg

STERLING – All Ryan Vasquez wants his young basketball team to do is get a little better every time they step on the court.

And even though the Sterling boys lost to Galesburg 65-61 in a Western Big 6 game Tuesday night at Musgrove Fieldhouse, Vasquez saw the improvement he’s looking for.

“You don’t take moral victories,” Vasquez said. “Is it disappointing that we didn’t finish the game? Absolutely. But we told the guys, ‘Let’s just get 1% better,’ and tonight we did get 1% better.”

It was Galesburg’s experience that won out in the end, thanks to veteran players making a couple more plays down the stretch.

Senior forward Koen Derry made the biggest plays for the Silver Streaks (4-1, 1-1 WB6), breaking a 59-59 tie with driving baskets on consecutive possessions in the final two minutes of the game. His leaner with 1:47 to go gave Galesburg the lead, then his layup on the next possession made it 63-59 Streaks with 1:04 remaining.

“I saw that I could get past my man, and I took the opportunity and just got the baskets that we needed,” said Derry, who finished with team highs of 23 points and eight rebounds. “We have a ton of experience and leadership, and a bunch of great guys.”

Galesburg senior point guard Jeremiah Babers split a pair of free throws with 40.5 seconds left to make it 64-59, then Sterling senior Tyree Kelly put back a missed shot to make it 64-61 with 18.6 seconds left. But Babers split two more free throws four seconds later, and the Golden Warriors couldn’t get a shot to fall on their final possession.

Sterling (5-2, 1-1), which hadn’t had a turnover in the fourth quarter up to the stretch run, had back-to-back turnovers following Derry’s baskets that hurt its comeback chances.

“We definitely had chances to take the lead,” said JP Schilling, who had 25 points, four rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocks. “We had a couple late turnovers there, but we’re a young team, we’re going to get it. Those late possessions, we’ll learn how to score on them.”

Both teams started out hitting shots, especially from the perimeter, as they combined for seven 3-pointers in the opening quarter. Schilling and Kyle Billings each hit a pair of 3s for the Warriors, who led 24-20 heading into the second.

The teams traded leads up until halftime, as back-to-back baskets by Derry off drive-and-dish plays by Babers made it 27-26, then Bilings answered with a 3 before Dre Egipciaco’s driving layup made it 30-29 Galesburg.

Schilling drove the baseline for a reverse layup, then Babers drove in for a layup before Andre Klaver found a cutting Kelly for a 33-32 Sterling lead with 1:57 left in the second quarter. Dre Egipciaco hit a 3 and a free throw to make it 36-33, but Billings got into the lane for a jumper to get Sterling within 36-35 at the break.

“Bigger, faster, stronger doesn’t matter, our guys competed,” Vasquez said. “Our guys are pretty darn good, and I’m going to take the blue and gold over the black and silver any day.”

The shooting was a bit colder in the third quarter, but the game stayed tight. Schilling and Kelly hit 3s around a Derry runout layup for a 41-38 Sterling lead, but Babers’ deep 3 tied it at 41, then Derry’s three-point play with 1:32 to play in the period gave Galesburg a 45-41 lead.

Klaver and Schilling hit fadeaway jumpers in the lane around a Derry putback, then Alex Egipciaco hit a free throw after being fouled on a 3-point attempt with 0.2 seconds left for a 48-46 Silver Streaks lead.

“It was just a great high school basketball game tonight,” Galesburg coach Chad Thompson said. “It was clash of styles – we both play one zone, one man – but at the same time, both so scrappy that anything could happen. The ball bounced our way a couple times on the glass, and we stepped up and made some big shots at the end.”

Sterling tied the game at 48 on a Schilling free throw and a Billings jumper off a baseball pass from Klaver, then again at 50 when Lucas Austin corralled a loose ball for a bucket in the paint after a Babers basket.

Schilling hit two free throws for a 52-51 lead, then knocked down a 3 after Dre Egipciaco’s pump-fake 3 for a 55-54 lead. Derry hit both ends of a one-and-one, then split a pair of free throws 20 seconds later before dribbling into the lane and hitting Dre Egipciaco on a baseline cut for a layup and a 59-55 Galesburg lead.

But Schilling drove to the basket for a layup, then hit a pair of free throws to tie the score at 59 with 2:06 to go to set up the final stretch.

“It’s all five us wanting to do the same thing, win the game,” Schilling said about Sterling’s spunk. “It takes one player to score, one player to take a charge, like Tyree did late. That just gets us going, and we feed off that energy.”

But Derry took over on the next two possessions after the Streaks ran some clock, and late miscues came back to haunt the Warriors.

“I think it was staying focused, not letting them get in our heads when they were getting physical, and just play our game that we know we can do,” Derry said about the stretch run.

Dre Egipciaco had 17 points and four rebounds, and Babers added 13 points, four assists and three rebounds for Galesburg. Easton Steck had six points, six rebounds and two assists, and Carl Dortch finished with five points and seven rebounds.

“Our seniors came up really big, especially Koen,” Thompson said. “The Egipciaco brothers have been longtime guys, Jeremiah did a great job controlling our offense for us to make sure we got our good shots. Koen made three really big drives almost consecutively that really helped us out, he stepped up and made some free throws, and he also secured some big rebounds after having some knocked away in the third quarter. He really stepped up to the challenge as a senior and did a great job securing a win for us.”

Billings had 15 points, two assists and two steals for Sterling, and Kelly added nine points and 11 rebounds. Klaver and Austin scored six points apiece, with Klaver grabbing seven rebounds and dishing four assists.

“It’s just about getting stops there at the end of the game,” Vasquez said. “We know that if we get stops there, we have a chance to win that one. Games like this, with our youth, we’ve just got to find ways as coaches to help them be comfortable, and we’ll get there.”

“It’s a good learning experience,” Schilling said, “and hopefully we can take it down the road and go to their place and do better, and if it comes toe to toe like that again, hopefully we can win that game.”

Ty Reynolds

Ty Reynolds

Ty is the Sports Editor at Sauk Valley Media, and has covered sports in the Sauk Valley for more than two decades.