Deerfield survives vs. Kukoc, Highland Park in regional

Giants' star scores 29 points in 39-37 loss

Deerfield boys basketball coach Bret Just and the rest of the Warriors faithful felt lucky enough to breathe a sigh of relief Tuesday night.

That’s because Deerfield (24-3) - the No. 2 seed in the Waukegan Sectional - barely survived a gut-wrenching 39-37 win over Central Suburban League North rivaland No. 15 seed Highland Park (17-11) in the Class 4A Deerfield Regional semifinals.

"I’m breathing, I guess," Just said. "At this time of year, it’s really all about surviving the dance. We’ve got a ton of respect for Highland Park’s coaches and program and players. Give them credit tonight. They brought it."

Though Wisconsin-bound Deerfield senior Duje Dukan will always be the star on his home court, his close friend - Highland Park senior Marin Kukoc - created plenty of buzz in the shocked Deerfield crowd by making shot after shot over double teams while finishing with a game-high 29 points.

"He’s got a very improving jump shot," Dukan said. "He’s definitely hard to defend going to the hole, and his length is such an issue defensively. He had a very good game tonight. It’s always fun (playing him). You want to compete against the best, and he’s one of the best players we had out here."

With just over 10 seconds left in the game and Highland Park trailing 37-34, Kukoc’s potential game-tying three-pointer bounced off the iron and into the hands of Dukan, who was fouled on the ensuing play.

Deerfield struggled from the line, converting only 6 of 13 at that point, but Dukan sank both free throws to extend the Warriors’ lead to 39-34 with 5.1 seconds in the game.

"You’ve got to make your free throws," said Dukan, who led the Warriors with 17 points. "There’s nothing more you can say about that. You’ve got to make your free throws to seal the game. We were up three at that point with five seconds. As long as I made one, we would be in good shape."

With the game already out of reach, Kukoc ran the ball up the floor and drained a  three-pointer at the buzzer from three quarters of the way down the court. 

"He won’t go down without a fight," Highland Park coach Paul Harris said of Kukoc, who will be heading to the University of Pennsylvania next fall. "He hit shots. He made shots for himself. I’m very proud of how he competed tonight. Obviously, we needed him to do that because we were struggling to score and you need your best player to step up in those kinds of situations, and he gave us a chance."

Kukoc handled most of the scoring duties for Highland Park and even started the game with 13 of the team’s 14 first-half points and 10 of its12 in the fourth quarter.

Highland Park was down 21-14 early in the third quarter but went on a 9-3 run to take a 25-24 lead with 1 minute, 34 seconds left in the period.

"I don’t know what happened," Dukan said. "We just came out so flat. I think their run in the third quarter just killed us. We brought our heads down and we thought like the game was over. Thank God we came back and made a run of our own."

Deerfield went on a 5-0 run, including a big three-pointer from senior Max Burgess, to take the lead for good at 29-25 to end the third.

"I thought defensively we were just trying to pay attention to where Duje was," Harris said. "They had some other guys step up. (Ryan) Davis hit a big three. Burgess hit a big three. But obviously holding them under 40 points is a great accomplishment. We just fell two points short."

 With Deerfield beating Highland Park 41-23 and 44-27 during the regular season, Dukan gave kudos to the Giants, especially  for playing tough in a hostile environment.

"We just didn’t execute our game plan," Dukan said. "Give Highland Park all their credit. They came ready to play from the get-go. They did a terrific job of doing what their coach told them and that’s what kept them in the game. But anytime you can beat a team three times is huge, especially with the home crowd. They were huge for us tonight."

"I would call it an escape tonight," Just said. "We didn’t do a lot of things well. I thought we got out-hustled. We got ou- toughed. Somehow we just got a couple more points on the scoreboard and I’m not really sure of how right now. We made enough plays to get by, but obviously we have to be better by Friday night."

Next up for the Warriors is a regional championship game at 7:30 p.m. Friday against  Wednesday’s semifinal winner between No. 7 seed Mundelein or No. 10 Libertyville . Deerfield beat Mundelein 80-73 Jan. 23 on the road.     

Davis finished with eight points for the Warriors, including five in the third, followed by senior forward Adam Rhum, who scored four points, all on free throws.

Highland Park’s Cole Stern contributed  three points and five rebounds. Senior Jordan Reisner added two points and five boards.