Boys basketball: Sterling can’t keep up the flow in loss to Quincy

STERLING – After a back-and-forth first half Friday night at Musgrove Fieldhouse, Sterling struggled to find its offensive rhythm in the second half, and Quincy took advantage.

The Blue Devils took the lead with a third-quarter run, then took control with a fourth-quarter surge in a 57-45 Western Big 6 win over the Golden Warriors.

[ Photos from Sterling vs. Quincy boys basketball ]

Sterling (18-6, 6-4 WB6) led by as many as seven points twice in the first half, on a driving layup by Andre Klaver for a 20-13 lead with 3:46 left in the second quarter, then a Lucas Austin 3-pointer off a loose ball for a 23-16 edge with 2:58 left in the half.

“We found the space at the high post, and we moved the ball, kicked it out. They were a little lost, and we got open 3s and knocked them down,” Austin said about the first-half flow.

Klaver’s layup came right after he dished to Carter Chance for a 3, and Austin’s 3 was the fourth of the half for Sterling. Klaver corralled a loose ball and hit a 3 to open the third quarter, and the Warriors were up 28-23.

“The first half, ball movement was really good,” Klaver said. “In the second half, we kind of settled to just stand there. We let them hang around a little bit too much when we should’ve been pushing the ball and trying to extend the lead. That’s not a team we want to be in the half-court with; we want to be able to get out and run.”

Quincy (19-3, 9-1) started incorporating 6-foot-6 sophomore Keshaun Thomas into the offense, and things turned around. After he spent much of the first half on the bench with two fouls, Thomas scored 11 of the Devils’ 14 points in the third quarter, and scored all of his game-high 18 points after halftime.

He scored in a variety of way down low: on a putback, backing his defender down the lane, and on a pair of pretty post feeds from Tyler Sprick and Camden Brown.

“I just had to try to work as much as I could. If I run the floor more, that gives more more opportunities to get open and score, and that’s what I did,” Thomas said. “It helps a lot to get the ball in the lane, because when our guards drive, they can hit me, then can go up for a shot or get a foul, or they can kick it to the corner and get a 3.”

Thomas’ two free throws made it 37-33 Quincy at the end of the third quarter, then he scored back-to-back baskets down low early in the fourth to make it 41-34. After Klaver scored on a give-and-go play with Kael Ryan, Bradley Longcor III drove to the hoop for a bucket, then Ralph Wires threw a skip-court pass from one corner to the other and Sprick buried a 3 for a 46-36 lead with 3:30 remaining.

“I think Coach provided a good game plan in the locker room, so we all just came out energized and ready to go. We started pushing the ball in transition, just rebounding and looking up the floor immediately, not just putting our heads down and dribbling,” Longcor said. “That’s the point Coach tried to get across at halftime. Just get it up the floor and make sure we have all the scoring opportunities we can have.”

The Warriors weren’t done. Austin hit a turnaround baby hook in the lane, then after Kaedon Phillips and JP Schilling both hit two free throws, Austin nailed a deep 3 from the top of the key to cut the deficit to 51-45 with 55 seconds left.

But those were the last points for Sterling, as Quincy shot 11 for 12 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter to ice the victory.

“We’ve got to play better defense. We didn’t really do that much on that end,” Austin said. “When the shots aren’t falling, we’ve just got to pay better defense as a team. The shots will fall, but defense wins games.”

Some cold shooting also hurt the Warriors after halftime. After shooting 45% from the field in the first half (9 for 20), Sterling hit just 26% in the second half (6 for 23), including 23% (3 for 13) from 3-point range.

“The shots just didn’t fall. We’ve got to hope next time that they fall,” Klaver said. “We got some looks that we wanted, too. If those shots fall, it’s a different game.”

“At some points, we took some selfish shots and selfish drives,” Austin added. “In the second half, we needed to move the ball more; we got stagnant, and it didn’t really work out well.”

Quincy’s defense and rebounding also played a part in the second-half surge. The Blue Devils’ zone forced Sterling to stay patient and pass the ball around the perimeter, and most of the trips were one-and-done, as Quincy outrebounded the Warriors 36-20.

“We knew they liked to attack gaps, so we tried our best to close them,” Longcor said. “That held up their drive and kick and pitch, and I think that really helped with our defense.”

“Every game, we try to rebound as hard as we can,” Thomas added. “We always want to crash the boards and have at least two people get back, and that’s what we did tonight.”

Thomas also had a game-high eight rebounds to go with his 18 points, and Longcor finished with 17 points, five rebounds and three assists for the Blue Devils. Sprick added nine points and six rebounds, Brown had four points, six rebounds and three assists, and Wires chipped in two points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Austin’s 17 points and four rebounds led the way for Sterling, and Klaver added 16 points and six assists. Phillips finished with five points, four rebounds and two steals, and Ryan and Schilling both scored two points and dished two assists, with Ryan grabbing four rebounds as well.

It was Schilling’s first game back from a suspension, and the student section gave him a loud ovation when he entered the game early in the third quarter.