By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
STURGIS — Both of Sturgis’ basketball teams completed the series sweep against Three Rivers on Friday, Feb. 20, with the girls’ team defeating the Wildcats 56-39 and the boys’ team winning 58-43.
Here’s how both Sturgis teams got the job done last week:
Girls’ game
Sturgis’ girls’ basketball team came back from an early deficit to grab the 56-39 win over Three Rivers at home Friday night.
Three Rivers led 11-7 after the first quarter thanks to a 5-0 run in the middle of the quarter, but an 11-2 run in the first two minutes of the second quarter to go up 18-13, leading to a Three Rivers timeout and a deficit the Wildcats wouldn’t be able to come back from.
Sturgis led at the half, 29-22, and then exploded for a 13-0 run in the first five minutes of the quarter thanks to three-pointers by Cora Phillips and Kinder Smith to make it 35-22, three free throws by Angela Cary, a layup by Phillips, and two free throws from Smith before Three Rivers got its only point of the quarter on a Breajana Taylor free throw. Another three-pointer by Smith capped the scoring, making it 47-23 after the third.
Three Rivers would outscore Sturgis in the fourth quarter 16-9, but the third quarter was what ultimately sunk the ‘Cats in the end, giving the Trojans the home win.
“In the first quarter, we came out a little flat, but our girls responded,” Sturgis head coach Andy Phillips said. “I challenged them a bit to come out and leave it all out on the floor, so we got some steals in the second and third quarter, we needed to be a bit more aggressive, be a bit more intentional with our passes and all the things that are important for basketball. I’m proud of them for the bounce-back.”
Sturgis was led on the evening by Cora Phillips, who led all scorers with 20 points. Cary added 13 points, Smith added 12 points, Sydney Bir added eight points, and Kimora Parker added three free throws.
As for Three Rivers, they were led by Dani Glass with 10 points, Emmersyn Quake with seven points, Braylee Burg with six points, Karsen Keller with six points, Jersey Roehrs with five points, Neiraja Reyes with four points, and Taylor with one point.
“At halftime, we were close to where we wanted to be, but we just ran out of gas,” Three Rivers head coach Mike Morrison said. “We got a little lazy in our stuff and when we get tired, we get a little lazy. That’s on me to get them conditioned better and better moving on offense.”
With the win, Sturgis moved to 17-3 on the season and 11-2 in the Wolverine Conference.
Boys’ game
Sturgis’ boys’ basketball team dominated in the middle quarters of Friday’s match against Three Rivers to leave with a 58-43 win in their final regular season game of the year.
Three Rivers got an early lead in the first quarter, 6-4, but an 8-1 run to end the quarter – thanks to two buckets by Gavin Lewis and buckets by Carter Oswald and Lukis Bir – portended what would go down in the second quarter.
Sturgis would outscore Three Rivers by a margin of 13-3 in the second quarter to take a 25-10 lead into the half, with Three Rivers failing to make a field goal in the stanza. Bir had five points to lead the way in the quarter, including an old-fashioned three-point play with less than three minutes to go. The half was punctuated on an Oliver Lamb bucket as time expired.
In the third quarter, a couple of midrange buckets by Lewis would extend the lead to 29-12 at the start of the half, but Three Rivers would go on a 10-3 run of their own to get back within 10 points, 32-22, thanks in part to five points from Brayden Carpenter in the run. However, the Trojans would settle all doubt about a comeback as Simon Phillips hit back-to-back three-pointers on the next two Trojan possessions to make it 38-24 going into the final quarter.
The Trojans would extend the lead to 43-24 at the start of the half thanks to two Lukis Bir free throws and another three-ball from Simon Phillips, but Three Rivers would then go on an 8-2 run to get it back to 45-32. However, after a Wyatt Miller three-pointer and a Bir bucket-and-bump for the three-point play, Sturgis would go back up 51-32.
After that is when the game began to be a bit chippy between the two rivals. After a Carpenter bucket for Three Rivers, technical fouls were called on both him and Miller, leading to Carpenter making his free throw to complete the three-point play and Lukis Bir hitting one of his two technical free throws to make it 52-35.
A bit later in the half, with about two minutes to go, a scrum for the ball near midcourt and some questionable contact by both Three Rivers’ Carter Stewart and Mason Awe led to technical fouls called on both players, which some in the Three Rivers part of the crowd took exception to from the bleachers. Sturgis would make three of the four technical free throws to bring it to a 56-37 game.
Cooler heads would prevail the rest of the way as Three Rivers would end the game on a 6-2 run to make the score a bit more respectable, but in the end, it was the home team coming through with the win.
“We wanted to send [our seniors] out with an unblemished record against our rival,” Sturgis head coach Keith Kurowski said. “We were ready for them tonight, we wanted to jump on them early, control tempo, limit their transition game, get out on shooters, and I think for the most part we were able to do that over the course of the 32 minutes. We took care of the ball offensively, and we just scrambled and we were aggressive defensively, and we took them out of some things.”
Sturgis was led in the victory by Lukis Bir, who led all scorers with 21 points on his 18th birthday. Lewis added 13 points for the Trojans, Simon Phillips had 10 points, Miller added seven points, and Lamb had three points.
As for Three Rivers, Carter Langston led the team with 16 points, including two three-pointers in the fourth quarter. Carpenter had 15 points, Stewart had four points, and Zander Barth had three points.
“We won the second half, and the story of our season has been the second quarter. It plagued us; they got us by 10 there,” Three Rivers head coach Drew Bosma said. “All season, we’ve been trying to fight back, and we couldn’t do it tonight.”
With the win, Sturgis went to 11-12 to finish the regular season, while Three Rivers moved to 3-19.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
