Frederick – Frederick lived on the edge Friday night.
With a rotation of just six players, Frederick was physical all night with Sterling and stayed out of foul trouble. The Warriors got hit with two technical fouls in the third quarter for arguing and practically abandoned their inside game in the second half, despite the presence of 6-foot-7 senior Kris Houseman.
All that turned out to be window dressing for a furious finish as the Warriors rallied from an eight-point deficit for a 54-52 Class 4A Northern League Eastern Division victory.
Fresh off a two-point loss to Greeley West, the Warriors (7-2, 2-2 in league) took the lead for good with 4:53 remaining and never let up. The Tigers (6-4, 3-2) tied the game four times down the stretch but couldn’t answer Luke Witty’s 3-pointer with 46 seconds remaining that put Frederick up 53-50.
“That’s the good thing about this team is that we have a lot of weapons,” Warriors coach Terry Witty said.
The Warriors attempted 26 3-pointers and made nine. Witty drained three and finished with a team-high 17 points and Tory Cox hit four and finished with 14 points. Guard Justyn Genchi attempted just one shot from behind the arc, but sank it to tie the game 42-42.
The game had 14 lead changes.
Neither team led by more than five points before the Tigers went up by six late in the third quarter on Ben Patten’s uncontested 3-pointer. Sterling went up 42-34 on Patrick Merten’s basket with 47 seconds left in the third quarter only to have the Warriors respond with a 10-0 run.
The Tigers tried to slow the game down in the fourth quarter but was hampered by 4-of-10 shooting.
“We got exactly what we wanted,” Tigers coach Mike Holloway said. “In about the last four minutes there was a stretch where four or five times in a row I thought we got great looks at the basket, but we just didn’t put it down.”
Sterling 15 12 15 10 – 52
Frederick 11 15 13 15 – 54
Sterling – Patten 5 6-6 19, Short 0 4-6 4, Roche 0 0-0 0, Parker 2 2-2 6, Cummings 5 0-2 10, Carrillo 1 0-0 3, Mertens 4 0-1 8, Janda 0 0-0 0, Peters 1 0-4 2. Totals 18 12-21 52.
Frederick – Witty 7 0-2 17, Dufour 3 0-0 6, Cox 5 0-1 14, Genchi 1 1-2 4, Houseman 3 2-3 8, Kindig 1 2-2 5, Ellingsen 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 5-10 54.
3-point goals – Patten 3, Carrillo; Cox 4, Witty 3, Genchi, Kindig. Total fouls – Sterling 20, Frederick 18. Fouled out – Short. Technicals – Frederick coach Terry Witty, Luke Witty.
