SYCAMORE – The Sycamore boys basketball team couldn’t overcome the Sterling Warriors’ height advantage and deep shooting as the partans fell, 57-39, in Northern Illinois Big 12 conference play.
The Spartans (3-15, 2-6 in Northern Illinois Big 12) fought back in the third quarter with a three-point barrage to cut the Warriors lead to five points with 42 seconds left in the period.
“We just came out and made some shots. Basketball can be a really simple game when you make shots. We had a lot of good possessions. We didn’t always make the shot, but we made the extra pass,” Sycamore coach Ryan Picolotti said.
Grant McConkey had two treys, while Darnell Coleman and Quentin Petit each hit a trey in the quarter to keep Sycamore in the game.
The inside-out game of the Warriors (16-9, 7-2) was too much to handle for the Spartans as Sterling jumped out with an 11-4 run to start the fourth and put the game away.
“We knew that we were going to get their best shot. They’re well coached. Tonight they knocked down some shots. We knew we’d have to play 32 minutes to get the win tonight,” Sterling coach Ryan Vasquez said.
Petit did his best to keep the Spartans close, scoring a team-high 12 points, all from 3-point land.
“I’m just trying to be aggressive within the offense. It’s just tougher to get inside against big guys like that, so we were just trying to get some jumpers. See if we could get some points from out there,” Petit said.
The Spartans couldn’t get much going inside the 3-point line, scoring 30 of their 39 points from behind the arc.
Every time the Spartans got the ball inside, they faced the Warrior wall of 6-foot-9 Aidan Shore and 6-6 Tyler Willman, and had to kick the ball outside for a deep shot.
Shore had 5 blocks in the game and Wilman led all rebounders with six boards.
By the numbers: For the Spartans, Grant McConkey had eight points and Payton Picolotti had five points and four rebounds. For the Warriors, Micah Kendrick led all scorers with 13 points.
Beyond the stats: Petit started the third quarter rally with a deep three-pointer with 4:51 left to go in the quarter.
They said it: “I don’t really think much (after a big shot). I just try to focus on defense the next time down the court,” Petit said.
Up next: Sycamore will host Kaneland on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Sterling travels to Ottawa on Friday at 7 p.m.