STERLING – Sycamore’s Devin Mottet dominated Tuesday night, and he wasn’t even at 100 percent.
The 6-foot-2 junior forward had 24 points in less than three quarters of play before being removed with the game well in hand in a 76-49 win over Sterling. He finished his final play several rows up in the bleachers behind the Spartans’ hoop after chasing a loose ball and then limped slightly back onto the court. Before the indbounds pass, he had taken his spot on the bench.
Mottet did all that while playing sick.
“He hasn’t felt good all day,” Sycamore coach Andrew Stacy said, “but he played an outstanding game. He finished really well around the basket and kicked it out to shooters when he was covered.”
The rotation of the ball from the post to awaiting guards behind the arc is what broke the game open in the second quarter.
The Warriors had climbed to within nine points of Sycamore (15-9) at 35-26 with about three minutes left in the half, when Sycamore center Scott Nelson fired a pass out to Nicholas Feuerbach for a 3-pointer.
Another post-to-guard exchange on the next possession resulted in a three-pointer by David Compher.
“We weren’t playing defense,” Sterling senior Zach Rehmert said. “We wanted to double down on [Nelson], but then he’d kick it out. It just seemed like they were getting tons of open shots.”
The two 3-pointers ignited a 20-0 run that lasted the rest of the quarter, giving Sycamore a 46-26 lead. They scored the first six points of the second half to go up 52-29 before Sterling’s Alex Soriano ended the drought with a 3-pointer with four minutes left in the third quarter.
“Our offense ran very well tonight,” Stacy said. “Probably about as well as it has all season. Our defense was slow to start, but did a better job in the second quarter of denying them layups. But it did seem like once we hit those two threes, we were able to take control.”
Compher finished with 11 points, and Ben Nieman added nine.
Rehmert led Sterling with 13 points.
Knights fall: West Chicago beat Kaneland, 54-43, snapping the Knights’ seven-game winning streak. John Pruett and Tyler Carlson each had nine points for Kaneland (13-7), while Dan Miller and Matt Limbrunner finished with eight.
Marengo slips past G-K: Genoa-Kingston had the lead with just more than a minute left against Marengo, but the Cogs couldn’t close it out, falling 67-64.
Tommy Lucca led G-K (14-9, 5-4 BNC East) with 25 points. Eli Thurlby added 19 and Adam Price finished with 12.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Sycamore downs Aurora Central Catholic: Sycamore got 20 points from Bailey Gilbert and 12 points from Paige Wogen in a 50-35 non-conference win over Aurora Central Catholic. The Spartans (13-11) also got three assists from Julia Moll and Lauren Goff along with 10 rebounds from Taiya Hopkins.
"That may have been the best overall complete game we've played this year," Sycamore coach Brett Goff said. "Played well on both sides of the floor. Our role players are really starting to do this job, on offense especially."
The Spartans host DeKalb on Thursday in their final game of the regular season.
• Shaw Media’s Dan Woessner contributed to this report.
