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Sterling’s Nate Anderson pushes the ball up court against Central High. Sterling lost that game, but rebounded with a decisive 77-20 win against Cement Tuesday night. PHOTO BY HUGH SCOTT JR.
CEMENT – Fifteen Tigers scored points Tuesday night as Sterling rolled past Cement 77-20 in a game that backups played the majority of the time.
“We came out and started hot,” Sterling head coach Brett Parrish said. “We had several players get buckets early on. We had good intensity and had a fire to go play.”
The win improved Sterling’s season record to 5-2 after a loss to Central High and an overtime defeat to Cyril.
“As a team, we played really well,” Parrish said.
Parrish made a specific mention of sophomore Caden Wilson who connected on five three-pointers and finished the game with a team-high 15 points. Wilson tallied 12 of his points in the first half.
“I talked to him before the game and he was ready to shoot,” Parrish said. “Logan Bradshaw also played well. He had a lot of rebounds and hit a three.”
Sterling’s starters played in the first period but sat on the bench the rest of the game as the backups held their own against Cement. Sterling led 29-4 after the first period and continued to build the lead to 51-12 at halftime. Sterling’s starting five players accounted for 18 of the team’s 29 first period points before sitting down. The second half was more of the same as Sterling outscored the hosts 26-8.
Sterling heads into a tough part of its schedule before the Christmas break as the Tigers compete in the Geronimo tournament Dec. 8-10, visit Fort Cobb on Dec. 13 and then host Apache on Dec. 16. Fort Cobb is ranked No. 2 in Class B and Apache is ranked No. 9 in Class A.
Sterling started the Geronimo Dome Classic Dec. 8 against Geronimo. The score of the game was not available at press time. Sterling is scheduled to play Friday at either 11:20 a.m. or 7:20 p.m. depending on the outcome of its game with Geronimo. Sterling defeated Geronimo earlier this season 60-28.
Cyril 56, Sterling 53 OT
The Tigers came up short against Cyril in one of its closest games of the season as the host team escaped with a 56-53 win in overtime.
Sterling was the beneficiary of a 30-point performance by senior Hayden Taliaferro, but it wasn’t enough as Cyril outscored the Tigers 10-7 in overtime. Taliaferro also scored all of Sterling’s OT points.
Cyril was led in scoring by Kole Carlson with 21 points followed by Nash Harmon with 17. Carlson and Harmon accounted for eight of Cyril’s 10 overtime points.
Sterling led 24-17 at halftime and continued to hang on to a 38-33 lead after three periods. However, Cyril outscored Sterling 13-8 in the final period to force overtime.