STERLING — Hubs varsity basketball coach Tim Thompson told his players during halftime that the most important possession of Friday’s game against the Sterling Golden Warriors would be getting the first stop of the second half.

Rochelle trailed by five points at halftime after being down by as many as 17 points in the first quarter. But the Hubs were unable to stop the Sterling offense in the second half, as Golden Warrior guard Sean Gingrich nailed a 3-pointer on Sterling’s first possession of the third quarter and helped the Golden Warriors take down Rochelle 78-56 and drop the Hubs to 15-10 overall. Gingrich scored 15 points for Sterling, while guard Micah Kendrick led with 17 points.

“We just couldn’t get it going,” Thompson said. “We need to forget about what happened tonight. We play nearly 30 games in a season and sometimes everything isn’t going to be clicking. We just have to let it go and try again, and our kids are competitors so that’s what they’re going to do.”

Friday was Sterling’s regular season finale, and the home fans and students were pumped up for the school’s Senior Night game against the Hubs. The Golden Warriors fed off the energy inside the gymnasium, starting the first quarter on a 19-2 run to take firm control of the Northern Illinois Big 12 West battle. Gingrich scored the first basket of the game on a 3-point shot.

“The added emotion of Senior Night had those guys fired up to play and they had some good seniors out there,” Thompson said. “We looked a step slow in everything that we were doing. Ultimately it came down to second-chance opportunities and we didn’t do a good job of sealing out their guys.”

Centers Tyler Willman and Aidan Shore made rebounding the basketball difficult for the Hubs all game long. Willman scored on two put-back shots in the first quarter for four of his nine points, while Shore scored six of his 11 points in the second quarter. Sterling led 24-14 after the first quarter.

But Rochelle senior Noah Griffith kept the Hubs in the game almost by himself during the first half. Griffith made four 3-pointers and led Rochelle with 12 points in the first half, and Griffith’s offensive effort sparked a Rochelle rally that allowed the Hubs to enter the locker room after the second quarter down 39-34.

“Their goal was to not allow Johnny [Beck] to get off inside and to not allow Angel [Aguirre] to get going,” Thompson said. “Noah was huge for us, and knocking down those 3-pointers kept us in the game… We got to where we wanted to be trailing by five points at halftime.”

While Sterling’s ability to keep Rochelle off the glass created many one-and-done offensive possessions by the Hubs, the Golden Warriors took advantage of Rochelle’s foul trouble as well. Both Aguirre and senior Noah Mershon ended the first half with three fouls, and Sterling entered the bonus early in the second quarter.

“I don’t think we were being too aggressive, but we were just getting away from our defensive principles,” Thompson said. “We do a lot of reaching in and slapping as well as going straight up… Being a step slow is basically why we got in foul trouble tonight.”

The Golden Warriors led 65-49 after a strong third quarter, and Sterling coasted to victory in the fourth quarter by outscoring Rochelle 13-7. Griffith finished with a team-high 18 points on six 3-pointers for Rochelle, while senior Riley Lodico added 14 points and Beck recorded nine points. Mershon totaled five points, with both Aguirre and senior Komla Gati chipping in four points. Junior Kaleb Ackland scored two points.