It has been a couple of years since the Sterling Warrior men's basketball team has had a conference road win. Sterling took to the court in an attempt to squash that trend Wednesday night when they traveled to North Newton, Kan. to take on the Bethel College Threshers. Sterling was able to accomplish their task in a 75-67 win.
It was a slow start for both teams taking three and a half minutes for either team to find the basket. At the 16:30 mark, the first basket of the game belonged to the Warriors as Elias Ngoga got a short jumper to go in. The entirety of the first half was a back-and-forth game. Neither team was able to put together a sustained lead. Sterling's largest lead was 5 and Bethel's was just 3. Will Thigpen made two big-time threes in the first half and added the buzzer-beating layup to give Sterling a 36-31 halftime lead.
Sterling's Cedric Rollerson started the second half with a three point basket to push the Warrior lead to 8. Over the next 5 minutes, Bethel found their mark hitting a couple of key three point baskets even getting fouled on one for the unconventional four-point play. Sterling found themselves down three and momentum favoring Bethel. Sterling dug deep and came right back as Rollerson took over the game. Rollerson scored 22 of the Warrior's 39 points in the half single-handedly taking back the lead and maintaining a lead that grew to as many as 6. Rollerson scored 16 of the final 24 points for the Warriors with Derrian Reed filling in the missing pieces.
Bethel stayed close down the stretch and brought it to four points at 71-67 with 27 seconds remaining in regulation. Sterling made a couple of stops to hold Bethel scoreless for the remainder of the game as the Warriors came up with the upset win on the road. As the final buzzer went off the scoreboard read 75-67 in favor of the Warriors.
Cedric Rollerson led the Warriors with an impressive stat line with 25 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 steal. Derrian Reed added 12 points and 6 rebounds. Elias Ngoga had 9 points, and Will Thigpen added 8 points and 6 rebounds.
Sterling will follow up their first road win of the season by returning home Saturday night at 7 pm to face the Falcons of Friends University. Sterling continues to slowly move up the KCAC standing, currently sitting 6th, with a 6-5 overall record, and 3-3 in conference play. The Friends Falcons have had a slow start to the season with a 2-10 overall record and 1-5 in the KCAC. They are coming off their first conference win of the season and will look to use that momentum to get their first road win of the season. Prior to Wednesday's win, Friends had lost 10 in a row.
Original source can be found here.
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