Boys basketball: Sterling takes control after halftime in win at own MLK Classic over Hinsdale South

STERLING – After falling behind late in the first half, the Sterling Golden Warriors found another gear on both ends of the court Monday night.

The Warriors closed the first half with a surge, then had another run early in the third quarter to take control in an 81-54 win over Hinsdale South in the finale of the Sterling MLK Classic at Musgrove Fieldhouse.

Trailing 31-29 with 2:33 left in the second quarter, Sterling (16-5) scored nine of the final 10 points of the first half. Andre Klaver and Kaedon Phillips both went the length of the court after grabbing defensive rebounds, and Lucas Austin kicked out a pass to Klaver for a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left to give the Warriors a 38-32 lead at the break.

“It was really easy to score a lot with the way the game went,” Austin said. “We got steals, we got layups, we got to the free-throw line. We’re really good when we run in transition, and that’s what we did to get the momentum back.

“Then in the third quarter, we started playing as a team more, we started locking it up on defense. We started talking, and the energy was nice and we stayed up.”

Austin and Klaver were the aggressors all game long, as both scored 24 points for Sterling, which is without the services of senior point guard JP Schilling. Austin added nine rebounds and two assists, and Klaver also had seven assists, three rebounds, three steals and a blocked shot.

The two opened the game assisting on each other’s 3-pointers, and they never let up. Klaver would drive the lane and either dump a pass down to the 6-foot-7 Austin on the low blocks or for a mid-range jumper, and Austin would get the ball in the paint and draw the defense before passing to a cutting Klaver.

“When me and Luke are aggressive, it opens up things for our teammates,” Klaver said. “It’s just our overall mentality; instead of settling, we need to get to the rim early and assert that, so we can get our defense going.”

That’s where Phillips came in, especially in the second half. After three drives to the basket for six second-quarter points, Phillips was a defensive pest in the third period. He dove for loose balls, picked the pocket of Hinsdale South ball-handlers, and got out on the fast break.

He went 5 for 6 from the free-throw line early in the third after being fouled three times on runout layups, and he finally hit a layup after a pretty pass from Klaver on the fast break to end the Warriors’ 15-2 run in the first half of the third quarter.

“That’s my main thing for this team, bring energy to the defensive side of the court. That’s really big for our team, and it brings a lot of energy, which leads to the offensive side,” said Phillips, who finished with 13 points, three rebounds and three steals. “Coach V [Ryan Vasquez] told us at halftime to keep putting pressure on them, apply the pressure every time they had the ball, make them make mistakes. We got some loose balls, pushed it out in front of us and got easy buckets.”

Austin’s three-point play late in the third was followed by a pretty crossover drive by Klaver for a bucket, then Kael Ryan drove the baseline to make it 60-40 with 25 seconds left in the third.

Ryan added a drive down the lane for another layup in the fourth quarter, then hit a layups off a Klaver drive-and-dish play before he and Austin added layups to stretch the margin to 78-50 with 3:16 left, prompting both teams to empty their benches.

Ryan stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, four rebounds, four steals and two assists, and Nico Battaglia (5 points) and Trevor Dir both hit 3s in the fourth quarter.

“That’s a big part, hitting some shots early to open up the driving lanes and get everybody involved,” Klaver said. “But it’s also the unselfishness of our players; we’re willing to move the ball to get the best shot, and it ultimately gets guys open who can hit those shots. We got a lot of layups with good ball movement today.”

Sterling’s ability to drive to the basket was mirrored by Hinsdale South, at least in the first half. The Hornets (6-14) repeatedly got to the hoop and were able to erase deficits in both the first and second quarters.

Trailing 14-4 in the first, Matt Rudolph, Nate Marcopulos and Jack Weigus all drove for baskets, then Weigus knocked down a 3 after Ayden Farrare and Marcopulos snapped off quick passes around the horn to make it 18-17 in the final minute of the opening period.

And after Sterling stretched the lead back to 26-17 early in the second, a six-point swing ignited another Hinsdale South surge. Matas Peczulis hit a 3 and was fouled; he missed the free throw, but Rudolph grabbed the rebound and put it back up while being fouled, and he converted the three-point play.

Anthony Lavorato drove to the basket to give the Hornets a 27-26 lead, then Brendan Savage hit two free throws and Weigus scored off a feed from Rudolph on a pretty basket cut along the baseline to make it 31-29 Hinsdale South with 2:33 left in the first half.

“We just got to the rim. I have a young team – they’re shooters, generally speaking – but sometimes we forget to drive to the rim, and we started to do that,” Hinsdale South coach Mike Moretti said. “And I thought we did a decent job on their big guy [Austin], in the first half especially, and that helped us out too; we just heavy-helped on him. It’s been like that all season; we’re undersized, but we did a reasonably good job against that guy.”

Weigus scored 14 points, and Rudolph added nine points and three rebounds. Farrare scored six points, while Savage, Peczulis and Elijah Fields added five points apiece, and Marcopulos chipped in four points and a team-high four rebounds for the Hornets – who also lost a 91-88 game to Rock Falls earlier in the day in a game that went to overtime after Hinsdale South erased a 16-point lead with a 38-22 scoring edge in the fourth quarter.

“We were gassed. That 91-88 game was ridiculous; it was a track meet,” Moretti said. “I’ve never coached in a game where a team scored almost 40 points in the fourth quarter. It’s a long drive, we come out here and it’s easy to start flat, despite what we tried to do. I’m not trying to make excuses, it just is what it is, these are kids. But after a track meet like that first game, we kind of were worried about running out of steam there.”