Girls basketball: Sterling battles until the end, but falls to Quincy at home

STERLING – All season, Sterling has been making strides and showing improvement in the tough Western Big 6 Conference.

Coming off a disheartening loss to Geneseo on Thursday, the Golden Warriors might have taken their biggest step forward Saturday against Quincy.

After losing by 19 earlier this season in Quincy, the Warriors fought tooth and nail at Musgrove Fieldhouse on a snowy afternoon, falling 35-33 to the Blue Devils on a pair of free throws with about a minute to play.

[ Photos from Sterling vs. Quincy girls basketball ]

“Our last game against Geneseo really hurt us as a team, I think, so we just had a ton of anger and urgency to just come out play hard and start fast,” said sophomore point guard Delali Amankwa, referring to Thursday’s 45-19 loss to the rival Maple Leafs. “It’s been a lot of ups and downs this year, but that was a really good game for us, and I think that’s going to help us end our season on a good note the rest of the way.”

Sterling (3-22, 0-11 WB6) jumped out to a 16-4 lead in the first quarter, as Olivia Turner hit two 3-pointers and scored 10 points in the period, and Olivia Melcher added a pair of layups. Kathryn Rowzee chipped in a jumper from just inside the 3-point arc at the top of the key as the Warriors were firing on all cylinders early.

“I feel like we moved the ball and worked together as a team. We saw the open looks, and got the ball in the right spots,” Turner said. “And rebounding, as well, was big for us.”

Quincy (16-9, 7-4) answered with a big run of its own. Leila Dade hit a 3-pointer in the final minute of the first quarter to make it 16-7, then nailed another one less than two minutes into the second period to ignite a 19-3 surge by the Blue Devils.

“I think a lot of it was the fact that we were all kind of [ticked] off about falling behind,” Quincy junior forward Taylor Fohey said about the answering run. “They got out on a run there, making a lot of shots, and we just kind of got in the mindset that, ‘This isn’t OK. We shouldn’t play like this, we’re a better team than that.’ We just kind of got our act together.”

After Dade hit from the perimeter, Fohey finally got going inside. She drove down the lane for a basket, then hit a runner before Dade knocked down another 3. Asia Seangmany then fed Fohey on the low block for another basket and a 23-19 lead with 59 seconds left before halftime.

“I do think that being able to work inside and outside really helps,” Fohey said. “It makes the defense decide if they’re going to guard the inside and let our shooters shoot, or play outside and give up that inside stuff. Us being able to do that really helps our game, and it showed today.”

But Sterling stayed in touch. Turner ended the run with a 3-pointer with two seconds left to make it 23-22 at halftime, then Amankwa hit a pair of jumpers around a Fohey putback to give the Warriors a 26-25 lead three minutes into the third quarter.

Fohey had another putback to put Quincy back in front, then Leah Chevalier scored a layup off a feed from Fohey to give the Blue Devils a 29-26 lead. Melcher scored for Sterling to cut the deficit back to one, but Dade scored on the fast break with 20 seconds left in the third to make it 31-28 Quincy heading to the fourth.

“Just stay calm and play our game, play at our pace and have a lot of intensity on defense,” Amankwa said. “That’s what kept us in the game, I think.”

Dade opened the final quarter with a drive-and-dish to Fohey for a layup and a 33-28 lead, but again Sterling answered. Amankwa scored on a drive to the basket, then Rowzee hit Madison Austin with a post-to-post pass for a layup to make it 33-32.

After both teams locked down on defense for a few minutes, Rowzee split a pair of free throws to tie the score at 33-all with 1:48 to play.

“I think we really tried to rebound hard, just scrap for the ball. We really wanted this win, and we were right there,” Turner said. “If nothing else, we always want to hustle, just fight for everything and make sure we’re trying our hardest.”

Fohey provided what turned out to be the winning points from the free-throw line, hitting two foul shots with 1:04 to go. Neither team was able to score after that, alhough Sterling had a shot to win it in the final 10 seconds. Amankwa passed to Turner on the perimeter, but her 3-pointer came up short.

“It’s really hard to play in games like this,” Dade said. “We’ve just come in off a couple of games where we went into OT, close games. We didn’t want to do it again, and we’ve learned to keep our composure. There’s still always time left on the clock, and we just had to play defense and do what we do.”

Turner finished with 13 points, five rebounds and two assists for the Warriors, and Amankwa added nine points and four assists. Melcher had six points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals, Rowzee scored three points, and Austin chipped in two points and six rebounds.

Fohey led all players with 16 points and nine rebounds, and she also dished two assists and nabbed a steal. Dade had 13 points, two assists and two steals, and Seangmany added four points, six rebounds and a steal for Quincy. Chevalier chipped in two points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal.

Dade credited a tough defense and a better offensive approach after the opening quarter as the keys to the victory.

“Defense is one the big things our coach instills in us, and if your offense isn’t going, defense is what you can always fall back on. Our defense really wasn’t showing early when they went on that run, and our coach kind of talked to us and we kind of got our act together, and I think that really helped us,” Dade said. “And we opened some things up on offense by getting in the gaps – I think we could’ve done a better job of doing that, have more people be included in that – but I think we did an OK job of doing that today.”