SAPPINGTON – De Smet senior Riley Massey suspected he might be approaching the 1,000-point milestone. Before he left for school Thursday, he walked into the home office where his mother was working and noticed an unfamiliar addition.
“I saw she had a little sign in there, and I thought, ‘Oh, I think I know what that is. I must be close,’’’ Massey said.
Massey reached his milestone during an explosive second half in which he scored 16 of his game-high 20 points and led De Smet to a thrilling 53-51 victory over Westminster in the championship game of the Lindbergh Flyer Classic Thursday at Lindbergh High School.
De Smet (14-1), the defending Class 5 state champion, won its 12th consecutive game – the longest winning streak for the Spartans this century, surpassing the 11 successive wins achieved by the 1999-2000 team and the 2012-13 team, both which reached the state title game.
De Smet needed every bit of Massey’s excellence in a game where neither team held a lead greater than three points from the final moments of the first quarter until the waning seconds of the fourth.
Massey connected from behind the arc three times in the second half, each which catapulted the Spartans into the lead.
His milestone-reaching shot was a three-point swish from the right wing early in the third quarter to reclaim the lead for De Smet, 26-25. He drained a triple at the end of the third quarter to give the Spartans a 39-37 advantage, and his long-range bomb midway through the fourth quarter put the Spartans ahead 44-41.
But Massey’s signature moment came on a three-point play the old-fashioned way and exhibited why he is such a prolific scorer. Tied at 44, Westminster senior JD Robertson rejected Massey’s layup attempt in traffic and sent the Wildcats on a fast break that sophomore Will Powers converted into a go-ahead layup.
In a blink, Massey had the ball again, raced into the same congestion, absorbed contact and scored for a three-point play that put the Spartans back into the lead, 47-46.
“I realized they were on their heels, and I thought, ‘I’ve got to take off and go score.’ I didn’t want them to get their defense set up,” Massey said. I got a step on them and just finished.”
The play epitomized the fearlessness and competitiveness of Massey, a North Dakota State commit.
“That’s why he’s scored 1,000 points. He’s obviously talented, but it’s also guts and determination,” De Smet coach Kent Williams said. “Riley’s a gamer. He showed that he wanted the ball in the fourth quarter.”
Westminster (10-3) continued to match gutsy shot for gutsy shot, and when sophomore Darrell Crump knocked down a right-wing, step-back 3 for his first field goal of the game, the Wildcats reclaimed the lead 49-47 with 2:23 to play.
But Massey had more arrows left in his quiver, converting another tough layup in transition to tie the score. His two free throws gave him 10 points in the fourth quarter and put De Smet ahead 52-49.
Westminster, which won a one-possession game against Logan-Rogersville in the Flyer Classic semifinal, had glorious chances to answer in the final two minutes, including a 14-foot baseline jumper by Powers that rimmed out and a strong drive by Robertson that didn’t fall.
“We had opportunities, but we weren’t able to cash them in,” Westminster coach Dale Ribble said. “Give De Smet credit. (Massey) made some big shots and they made the plays to win the game. I’m really proud of our team and the way we competed.”
The Wildcats had to compete simply to stay in the game early after De Smet held them scoreless for the first four minutes and built a 10-3 lead, but Powers, who led Westminster with 15 points, evened the score himself in the final 90 seconds.
He converted two tough baskets in traffic, then took a deflected pass and converted a transition layup to tie the score at 10.
“We were doing everything we wanted to do on defense, they weren’t scoring on us and then a couple breakdowns and a couple bad offensive possessions, and boom, it changed the game,” Williams said. “We had a chance to keep the separation right there, and from that point on, it stayed pretty tight, back-and-forth the whole time.”
In the Class 5 state title game against Jefferson City last March, De Smet went 7-for-7 from three-point range in first quarter and 11-of-12 in the first half. While the Spartans are still prolific from long-range, they are equally strong in the post, as displayed by 6-foot-4 junior Jordan Boyd.
Boyd scored all 10 of his points in an explosive second quarter that included straight-line drives, post moves and putbacks.
“I like to let the game flow into me, and in the second quarter I found my groove,” Boyd said. “We’re a great (outside) shooting team, but if we can get to the rim, it’s hard to stop us.”
Westminster 6-foot-4 senior JD Robertson stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, four rebounds, four blocks and two assists, much of it coming in an electric second half. He opened the third quarter with two blocked shots and two baskets. His driving layup early the fourth quarter tied the game at 41. Moments later, he drained a deep, straight-away 3-ball to even the score at 44.
But De Smet continued to have the answer. With two starters mired in foul trouble, the Spartans received excellent contributions from junior Nick Harper, who went 3-for-4 at the free throw line down the stretch, and junior Braden Dutler, who connected on game-tying three-pointer.
“It took all of us,” Massey said. “We had guys in foul trouble and other guys stepped up and played big roles.”
And the A-lister was Massey, who scored 16 crucial, second-half points and became the 20th player to reach 1,000 points for De Smet. He reached 20 points for the second time this season and the seventh time in his career and can now cherish the sign he accidentally spied Thursday morning.
“My teammates were putting me in position to score. They were looking to me, and I was just trying to make plays for them. I’m glad that they trust me to go and make those plays,” Massey said.
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