Duffey Hero As The Jacks Cinch Second

It was merely a conversation before the game, but it proved prophetic after the St. Maries Lumberjacks’ 52-49 boys basketball win over the Kellogg Wildcats Friday night.

“It was pretty funny,” Lumberjacks point guard Trent Duffey said. “I told my friend I was feeling it and he said he thought I was going to hit the game winner.”

Whatever it was, Duffey received the inbounds pass with the score tied at 49 with 4 seconds left. Weaving through the defense, he stumbled and buried a 3-pointer.

Duffey, only a sophomore, had 13 points, including three 3-pointers.

The win clinched second place in the Intermountain League for the visiting Lumberjacks (14-6). It also earned them the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye at the district tournament at Lake City next week.

The Lumberjacks built an all-too-comfortable nine-point lead in the third after a behind-the-back pass from Mark Raebel to Derrick Driggs for a bucket. But three consecutive 3-pointers by Wildcats (11-8) evened the score at 40 to start the fourth.

Senior Casey Marek hit two of the three. Marek scored a game-high 18 including the Wildcats’ first 10.

“I give a great deal of credit to those guys,” St. Maries coach Todd Bitterman said of Kellogg. “We were up by nine and they came back.”

A bad pass after more than 30 seconds of stalling by St. Maries gave the Wildcats their final chance.

Marek’s shot bounced off the rim and out of bounds with 8 seconds left.

Bitterman was surprised the Wildcats held the Lumberjacks’ high scorer, Raebel, to nine points.

A technical foul on the Wildcats gave momentum to the Lumberjacks’ most productive quarter.

St. Maries pulled ahead in the final 4 minutes of the second with a 10-4 run. A floating jumper by Duffey and D.J. Eberlin’s 3-pointer resulted in a 29-25 halftime lead.

Mark Magnum put in seven of his 11 in the second for the Wildcats.

Driggs had 14 points and 10 rebounds, while teammate Eberlin had 14 points, including three 3s.

Both teams had 24 rebounds, despite Kellogg’s height advantage. All but two Wildcats are over 6 foot.

Moscow 72, Lakeland 70 (OT)

Brian Reynolds scored a 3-pointer in overtime to edge the Bears (15-4, 9-1) past the Hawks (6-12, 3-7), earning Moscow the league championship.

In regulation, Russ Cosgrove had tied the game with a 3-pointer for the Bears.

Taylor Skidmore and Joe Ploetzner combined for 43 points for the Bears.

Lakeland is tied with Bonners Ferry for fourth place.

Moscow 3 18 20 21 10 - 72

Lakeland 13 18 12 21 8 - 70

MOSCOW - Brown 10, Williams 14, Reynolds 3, Comstock 5, Nelson 5, Busch 1, Cosgrove 15, Gilmore 11, Shupe 7, Walker 0, Bailenberg 0.

LAKELAND - Bertsch 8, Moore 0, Rasor 7, Skidmore 22, Ploetzner 21, Reese 10, Lunsford 0, Hansen 2.

North Star League

Lakeside 70, Mullan 44

At Plummer, the top-ranked Knights (16-4, 8-0) benefited from 30 Tigers’ (16-5, 1-5) turnovers and Barrett Morris shot 5 of 9 from the field and every player scored.

The Knights will play for district tournament seeding next Saturday.

Lakeside 70, Mullan 44

Mullan 8 12 13 11 - 44

Lakeside 22 17 10 21 - 70

MULLAN - Bala 3, Valley 3, Gonzales 7, Stanley 6, Morris 9, Hegbloom 5, Greenfield 11.

LAKESIDE - Kolar 8, Niebhur 2, Lozau 10, Allen 10, Pluff 9, Montague 4, Gajkowski 8, T.Morris 5, B. Morris 10, Johnson 4.

Non-league

Bonners Ferry 52, Wallace 45

Steve Merrill shot 70 percent from the field, scoring 18 points, to lead the Badgers (8-11) past the Miners (7-13).

Wallace 12 12 16 5 - 45

Bonners Ferry 10 18 11 13 - 52

WALLACE - Grattic 5, D.Lee 6, K.Lee 0, Meek 3, Fleming 10, Sprute 11, Pluid 3, Blanchard 0, J.Lee 7.

BONNERS FERRY - Winey 4, Kucherry 0, Clark 3, Bateman 13, Brush 0, Blanford 0, Baker 1, Rice 6, Zimmerman 7, Merrill 18.

Thursday’s games

Lakeland 57, St. Maries 53

Harrison Bertsch hit 11 of 17 field goals to lead a 25-for-48 effort as the visiting Hawks (6-11, 3-6) edged the Lumberjacks.

Lakeland 10 16 14 17 - 57

St. Maries 19 13 10 11 - 53

LAKELAND - Bertsch 22, Moore 0, Rasor 10, Skidmore 14, Ploetzner 7, Reese 4.

ST. MARIES - Krebs 5, Duffey 5, Willard 9, D.J. Eberlin 2, Stevenson 0, Driggs 8, Ware 2, Holdahl 2, Raebel 20.

Lakeside 63, Kootenai 52

Scott Johns finished with nine assists and four steals as the league-champion Knights (15-4, 7-0) defeated the host Warriors (11-9, 2-6) at Harrison.

Lakeside 15 17 15 16 - 63

Kootenai 13 17 12 10 - 52

LAKESIDE - Lozau 10, McFadden 16, Allen 12, Pluff 9, Gatkowski 9, T.Morris 3, B.Morris 4.

KOOTENAI - B.Brede 8, Schorzman 11, J.Passow 2, Shanks 5, Reinhofer 15, Johns 11.

Wallace 59, Priest River 45

Tim Fleming scored 16 of his 20 in the second half as the Miners (7-12) defeated the visiting Spartans (5-14), who got 23 from Kevin Behnke.

Priest River 13 5 17 11 - 45

Wallace 12 8 21 18 - 59

PRIEST RIVER - Bodecker 2, Baker 5, Ackley 13, Behnke 23, Zmuda 2.

WALLACE - Grattic 5, D.Lee 4, K.Lee 3, Meek 2, Fleming 20, J.Lee 10, Sprute 9, Pluid 2, Blanchard 4.

, DataTimes