RAPID RIVER — Joey Starzynski was the savior for the Stephenson boys basketball team as the senior scored a last-second basket to lift the Eagles to a 41-40 victory over Rapid River here Tuesday.

With Stephenson leading 39-38, Rapid River scored a bucket with eight seconds remaining in the game to take a 40-39 advantage and Stephenson called a timeout to try and set something up.

Out of the timeout, the Eagles set a screen for Starzynski and he took the inbound pass, dribbled the length of the court and hit a tough layup with two seconds left to give Stephenson the victory.

“It was a choppy, back and forth game the whole way,” Stephenson coach Eric Panske said. “I could tell we haven’t been in the gym this week due to snow days because we were a little out of rhythm. Our defense is what won the game for us.”

One of Stephenson’s focuses coming into the game was taking away the scoring ability of Rapid River’s Tyler Sundling, and excluding a small run in the fourth quarter to get the Rockets back in the game, the Eagles did that. Sundling finished with nine points.

“We wanted to limit Sundling and try and take him out of his game, and besides for the run in the fourth I thought we did a good job of that,” Panske said.

Stephenson took a 19-14 lead into halftime and held a 27-23 lead heading into the fourth.

Starzynski led the way for Stephenson with 12 points and Bryce Kuehnau had 10.

Rapid River was led by Tony Demars with 17 points and Brent Lundquist had seven to go along with Sundling’s nine.

Rapid River hosts North Central Monday.

Stephenson 9 10 8 14 — 41

Rapid River 8 6 9 17 — 40

Stephenson – Storzynski 12, Thoune 4, Kuehnev 10, Goldren 5, Cappaert 5, Larson 2, Morette 3. FT: 9-1; F: 17; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals – Starzynski 2, Cappaert 1, Morette 1.

Rapid River – Sundling 9, Moss 1, Orth 4, DeMars 17, Lundquist 7, Hernandez 2. FT: 4-15; F: 14; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals – Sundling 1, Lundquist 1.