Late break
BY WILL LARKIN
SVN REPORTER
wlarkin@svnmail.com
DIXON - The Dixon Dukes weren't exactly sitting pretty Friday night against Sterling, but they were feeling pretty good.
Coming off a 67-26 blowout at the hands of the Golden Warriors a week earlier at the Sauk Valley Thanksgiving tournament, Dixon had its foes in its sights, down 39-34 before the third quarter's final possession.
Sterling's Niko Rivera drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer, though, and the Warriors held Dixon scoreless for nearly five minutes in the fourth quarter on the way to a 57-40 win in both teams' NCIC Reagan opener.
"That kind of took a little bit of wind out of us," said Hense Witherspoon, who scored nine of his team-high 13 points in the third. "We were on a roll, and then all the sudden we were down."
Rivera ended up with 14 points. The junior took all three of Sterling's 3-point attempts, making two.
"That gave us the momentum back," Rivera said of his buzzer-beater, which was set up when the Dukes (2-4, 0-1) double-teamed Joseph Bertrand. "We calmed down a lot after that."
Sterling's win was the first in five tries for coach Peter Goff at Lancaster Gym.
"You've got to give Dixon all the credit in the world," Goff said. "They forgot about those 41 points, came out here and battled us all the way to the wire."
Dustin Fritsch led the Warriors (6-0, 1-0) with 17 points, and his nine rebounds helped his team to a 33-20 board advantage. Josh Feldthouse added eight points and six rebounds off the bench.
"We weren't getting a lot of post looks early, and that was part of our problem," Fritsch said. "In the second half we found a lot more openings, and we knew once we did that we'd be all right."
Dixon sophomore Matt Ross looked comfortable competing in the post with Fritsch, Feldthouse and Sterling center Tim Gaumer. The 6-foot-5 center scored nine points, grabbed five rebounds and had five of the Dukes' seven blocked shots.
Nick Rains added nine points for Dixon, and Ben Emmole had six points, four rebounds and four assists off the bench.
"This was a big step forward for us tonight," Witherspoon said. "They thought they were going to come in here and blow us out, and we didn't let that happen. We just need to work on playing with a little more intensity and we can get even better."
Bertrand scored 10 with five rebounds and four assists for Sterling, which shot 22-for-44 from the field but was 11-for-22 at the foul line while committing 17 turnovers.
"We didn't have a good week of practice, and that kind of showed tonight," Rivera said. "We didn't take Dixon as seriously as we should have, but we made enough plays to win."
