The Warriors traveled to Salina to take on #18 Kansas Wesleyan University. It was a tough night for Sterling as they struggled to get the lid off the rim to stay competitive against a good KWU team. At the end of the night, Sterling found themselves on the wrong end of an 81-54 score.
The Sterling men came out a little slow but were able to tie the game at 12 at the 11:30 mark. It was six minutes before the Warriors would score another basket when Will Thigpen broke the drought. KWU went on a 13-0 run before the run-stopping shot. Sterling never let up on defense contesting shots a creating turnovers. It was hard for the Warriors on offense as Kansas Wesleyan had active hands creating deflected balls. When they did get open looks, they struggled to put the ball in the basket. At the break, Sterling had a 15 point deficit to overcome. They trailed 32-17.
Kansas Wesleyan slowly built the 15 point halftime lead to 24 over the first eight minutes of the second half. The Warriors continued to struggle to put the ball in the basket. It was one of those nights for the Sterling that seemed like every defensive deflected pass and every loose ball went the other way. Even though scoring was tough for the Warriors, they scored twice as many points in the second half as they did in the first.
When the final buzzer sounded it was Kansas Wesleyan 81, Sterling College 54. Elias Ngoga led Warrior scoring with 12 in a game where 9 Warriors put numbers in the scorebooks. Sienion Dozier and Lucas Briar each had 7 rebounds, Derrian Reed had 6 and Will Thigpen had 5. As a team, Sterling was only able to muster 22-66 (33%) shooting from the field, 3-18 (17%) from three point range, and just 7-11 from the free throw line for (64%).
Sterling drops to 7-6 on the season and is 4-4 in KCAC play. The return to action for a New Year's Eve game in Sterling against Central Christian College (Kan.). Game time is 2 pm.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up