Deadeye Duffey Strikes Again St. Maries Wins, Advances In State A-2 Tournament

Trent Duffey did it again.

For the third time in less than two weeks, the St. Maries High guard hit the game-winning shot.

Thursday’s shot was easily the most difficult and perhaps the most dramatic.

With 3 seconds remaining and the score tied at 51-51, St. Maries’ D.J. Eberlin threw a 60-foot inbounds pass to Duffey, who caught it about 7 feet above the 3-point arc. Duffey turned, dribbled once then fired a 25-foot leaner practically from his shoelaces. The ball banked off the glass on a line and fell through the net as the Lumberjacks upset traditional state qualifier Sugar-Salem, 54-51, in the opening game of the State A-2 boys basketball tournament at Meridian High School.

St. Maries coach Todd Bitterman squatted on the floor in shock, and Duffey was hoisted by his teammates atop their shoulders just inside the 3-point arc.

“I figure it was a miracle shot because I banked it and I don’t like to bank it,” Duffey said, his heart still pumping hard a minute after his heroics.

Duffey said he practices last-second shots frequently in practice.

“But not that type of shot,” he said, smiling. “I guess you could say it’s (fate). I really don’t know, it’s just one of those things.”

St. Maries (17-7) will take on Bishop Kelly (21-3) in the semifinals tonight. Game time is 5:30 PST and the game can be heard live on radio in the St. Maries area.

Bishop Kelly downed Preston 57-49.

St. Maries 54, Sugar-Salem 51

This was the type of game North Idaho teams in recent years have found a way to lose.

And the Lumberjacks were looking straight into the face of defeat a few moments before Duffey’s shot.

St. Maries was trying to take time off the clock after Mark Raebel made a free throw to tie the score at 51-all. After Raebel missed his second foul shot, teammate Skyler Willard grabbed the long rebound.

Sugar-Salem played tight man-to-man defense and the pressure forced Lumberjacks post Derick Driggs to stutter-step near midcourt. He was called for traveling and the Diggers took possession with 29 seconds left.

The Diggers held the ball until Eric Harris took a pass at the free-throw line. The left-handed post had started to drive when Willard was called for a reaching foul with 4 seconds remaining.

St. Maries called timeout to try to rattle Harris. The strategy worked. Harris missed both foul shots badly. Eberlin grabbed the rebound and called timeout to set up St. Maries’ final attempt.

The Lumberjacks sent Driggs and Raebel down to screen for their guards, freeing Duffey to release to the top of the 3-point arc and receive the pass.

If that didn’t work, Eberlin was going to launch a long pass to the basket, hoping Raebel or Driggs could pull it down for a quick look in the key.

Duffey hit game-winning shots twice against Kellogg - the first to secure the second seed in the district tournament, the second on Saturday to send the Lumberjacks to state.

“That’s crazy,” Bitterman said about Duffey’s shot. “He wants the ball in those situations. Everybody in the huddle’s saying ‘give it to Duffey, give it to Duffey.’ They’ve got so much confidence in him and he’s unreal. They were saying ‘Duffey this is your time.’ And I think he got fouled too.”

Refs seldom call fouls in those situations. They let the kids win the games - and Duffey did.

St. Maries and Sugar-Salem battled from the start. Neither team had more than a six-point lead.

“We’re both a couple of underdogs,” Duffey said of his team and the Diggers. “They’re a real good team. We were pretty nervous. I know I was nervous.”

Sugar-Salem used its size advantage to score several easy baskets in the first half. Then St. Maries had to weather foul trouble in the second half.

“I don’t think we showed a lot of nerves, but we had some breakdowns defensively,” Bitterman said. “We mixed up things differently in the second half and played a little more zone.”

Raebel led St. Maries with 20 points, nine rebounds and five steals.

St. Maries 54, Sugar-Salem 51

St. Maries 14 12 13 15 - 54

Sugar-Salem 13 15 12 11 - 51

ST. MARIES - Krebs 4, Duffey 7, Willard 3, Eberlin 10, Stevenson 2, Driggs 8, Holdahl 0, Raebel 20. SUGAR-SALEM - Rydalch 5, Gage 9, Holman 3, S Hymas 0, Holist 3, Nyborg 0, Butikofer 2, Higgins 0, Romney 0, Furness 4, D. Hymas 8, Dalling 11, Harris 6.

Bishop Kelly 57, Preston 49

Abe Jackson scored 23 points and Cory Violette added 19 points and 11 rebounds as the Knights beat the Indians.

Bishop Kelly had to recover from a 41-35 third-quarter deficit. The Knights outscored the Indians 22-8 in the fourth quarter and took advantage of 14 more trips to the free-throw line during the game.

Besides Jackson - a 6-foot-7 senior - and the 6-6 sophomore Violette, Bishop Kelly got 12 points from Ryan Zimmerman to help overcome a lack of bench scoring.

Preston was led by McCoy Smith with 12 points and Ben Heusser with 10, while Jordan Galloway came off the bench to score 10 more for the Indians.

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