DeKALB – Isaiah Youngquist wasn't exactly having a quiet night on Friday against Sterling for the first 30 minutes.
But the DeKalb sophomore scored the game's final eight points, powering the Barbs to a 45-39 win against the Warriors.
"We just knew we had to come back and win," Youngquist said. "To pull it off we had to hit shots, and that's what happened."
The Barbs (8-4 overall, 4-0 Northern Illinois Big 12 East) saw a seven-point lead early in the fourth turn into a 39-37 deficit with 2:07 left. But the defense – which coach Al Biancalana said was a strength for the Barbs all night – came up big when Marcus Bobo drew a half-court charge in the press to give the ball back to DeKalb.
Less than 15 seconds later, Youngquist scored the first points of his run on a corner 3-pointer, his fourth of the game.
"It was a good pass and I knocked it down," said Youngquist, who finished with a career-best 19. "I was feeling it all night."
Sean Gingrich – who finished with 16 for Sterling – fired a 3-pointer down the other end of the Warriors (7-7, 2-2), but the shot missed and the rebound went out of bounds to the Barbs.
Inbounding the ball at mid-court, Michael Vilet found Youngquist driving to the basket for an easy layup and a 42-39 lead with 40.3 seconds left. Sterling threw the ball away on its next possession, and Youngquist made three of his four free-throw attempts in the final 20 seconds.
"Coach knew they'd be pressing on us, and on us and on us," Youngquist said. "He knew if he set a back screen for me I'd be open, and I made the lay-in."
The Warriors started two players 6-foot-6 or taller – Tyler Willman (6-6) and Aidan Shore (6-9). The Barbs didn't have a starter over 6-4, and the task of guarding shore went to 6-2 Michael Newman.
Shore finished with six points, six rebounds and four blocks.
"The real factor I thought was we started Michael Newman, at 6-2, against their 6-9 guy, Aidan Shore," Biancalana said. "Shore only had (three) buckets and we did a really good job of sealing him off."
Biancalana said he was happy with the game Newman played, as the junior scored six points and had four rebounds.
"He's one of the most improved plays on our team," Biancalana said. "I brought him up as a freshman cause I wanted him to experience varsity basketball. I thought we'd get more out of him last year and we didn't. To his credit he didn't pout about it, he kept working at it. He's tough around the basket and he's finishing his shots."
DeKalb led by as much as four in the first quarter, but the Warriors opened p a 19-12 lead early in the second. The Barbs regained the lead in the third, and after a back-and-forth stretch DeKalb went up 37-30, then Sterling scored nine straight.
"That's a tough team that plays very physical, and we have to take care of the ball and rebound," Sterling coach Ryan Vasquez said. "Those are the things we didn't do tonight to be successful."
By the numbers: Bobo finished with 12 points and five rebounds for the Barbs. No player in the game had more than five boards.
Beyond the stats: The Barbs had just four players score in the game, Sterling had seven. The Warrior bench outscored the Barb bench, 9-0.
They said it: "Sterling is a very good team and they're going to win a lot of games this year on the other side," Biancalana said. "It was nice to see that when we gave up the lead late in the fourth quarter we battled back in the last two minutes. We really executed well offensively and defensively."
Up next: Each team play a non-conference game on Saturday – the Barbs will host West Aurora while the Warriors face Rock Falls.