It was the logical conclusion to a period of sustained growth for the De Smet basketball team.
After a magical run to the state championship game in 2013, the Spartans suffered through five consecutive losing seasons beginning in 2014, including a low-water mark 7-19 overall record in 2017-18.
But since the 2018-19 season, De Smet won over 75 percent of its games, and often stood a play or two away from advancing to the Show-Me-Showdown – the Missouri State High School Activities Association final four.
“We’ve been knocking on the door for the last several years, you just never know when you’re going to bust through,” De Smet coach Kent Williams said.
De Smet did not just bust through the door, they bulldozed the entire structure.
After scoring the first 17 points in their semifinal victory, the Spartans hit 10 of their first 11 threes and sprinted past Jefferson City 75-56 to win the Class 5 state championship at Mizzou Arena.
Junior Dillon Duff hit a right wing three on De Smet’s first possession and did not stop. His fourth triple made the score 15-3 just four minutes into the contest and prompted a timeout from Jefferson City.
“I was feeling it in the beginning. That was a dream come true in that environment. I embraced it and just rolled with it,” Duff said.
Junior Riley Massey and freshman Will Foulk joined the long-distance brigade, and when Duff knocked down his fifth 3-ball, De Smet had a 21-12 lead after one quarter by going 7-for-7 from beyond the arc.
“Every time Dillon hit a three, it kept hyping me up,” Massey said. “I saw his confidence, and I’d get open and shoot it with confidence too. Everybody fed off that great start.”
Jefferson City, which used an aggressive 2-3 zone to hold sharp-shooting Vianney to just 4 for its first 23 attempts from 3-point range in the semifinal, abandoned its zone to begin the second quarter and played man-to-man.
“When we were able to start the game like that, it kind of pulled them out of the defense that they wanted to play,” De Smet coach Kent Williams said. “We built a lead where they had to come and chase us, and that is basically what the game turned into.”
And the Jays always seemed to be a step behind Massey, who scored 10 points in the second quarter. A smooth, pull-up jumper opened the frame and a tough drive to the hoop closed it. In between, he drained a three in transition and a three from the wing, as De Smet opened an 18-point halftime lead on the strength of a 10-for-11 performance from beyond the arc.
“We ran into a buzzsaw,” Jefferson City coach Josh Buffington said. “When they zap you that quick, and with how well they play with a lead, they’re a very hard team to beat.”
Jefferson City, which played in a state title game for the first time in 31 years, returned to its extended 2-3 zone to begin the second half, with a focus on sprinting out and challenging perimeter shooters.
De Smet junior Liam Russo, a 6-foot-7 center, scored the first seven points for the Spartans with strong moves inside the paint and helped push the lead to 49-27.
“We can play all sorts of different ways. Once you take away one of our strengths, we’re going to give you another,” Duff said.
Duff attempted only three shots in the second half, spending his time breaking full court pressure, collecting rebounds and playing lockdown defense. He finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
“I found a different role, guarding on defense and getting the ball to my guys,” Duff said.
Massey led the Spartans attack with 21 points and Foulk added 12. The Spartans shot 61 percent from the floor and 65 percent from three while not allowing Jefferson City to climb within 15 points for the entirety of the second half.
It was a championship performance hatched through the heartache of previous playoff near-misses. The Spartans lost to Caleb Love-led CBC in 2019 and 2020; and to Cardinal Ritter in 2021 and 2022, including a 60-57 state quarterfinal loss to a Lions team that went on to win the Class 5 state title.
The most gut-wrenching defeat may have been last season, when, on its final possession, De Smet misfired on four shots from within three feet of the basket in a 48-47 loss to Ladue in the district title game.
De Smet vs Ladue game story: https://metrosportsstl.com/2023/03/06/freemans-game-winner-lifts-ladue-over-de-smet-in-district-championship-thriller
“It feels great,” Massey said. “The last two years, we barely didn’t get through districts with teams that we knew could win a state final. Just the feeling of finally breaking through districts, getting past that barrier and going step-by-step, felt great.”
After that breakthrough, Williams was not sure what to expect from the Spartans when they experienced the pressure and pageantry of the Show-Me-Showdown at Mizzou Arena.
“You never know how the guys are going to react in an environment. I trusted these guys, and I felt like they would embrace the occasion and they did,” Williams said.
When Williams first took the job at De Smet, he sent out a hashtag, “Mission back to tradition.” He wanted to restore De Smet to the place it once occupied at the top of the basketball mountain and secure its first state title since 1999.
“For seven straight years. we were knocking on the door,” Williams said. “Tradition was back, we’ve been relevant, but to get over the hump and win a state title was why I came here and why I know a lot of these guys came here – to be a part of something like this.”
