High school boys basketball: Brush tops South, 68-56, in WRC headliner
By Jay Kron, For The News-Herald
Posted: 12/28/16, 11:56 PM EST | Updated: 15 hrs ago
Through eight games last season, a young Brush team struggled to a 1-7 start.
Through eight this season, including a 68-56 vanquishing of visiting South on Dec. 28, a still-young Arcs squad stands at 7-1. What has been the difference?
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For Brush coach Chet Mason, the turnaround has been as result of trusting “the process.” Keeping to the grind, and using speed, aggressiveness, and exceptional athletic ability, were all key aspects that led to the win in a matchup of two of the top teams in the Western Reserve Conference.
Brush junior Deion Burton provided a spark off the bench with seven points and two steals during a 9-0 Arcs run. That helped give the home team the lead for good early in the second quarter. He also finished as the game’s leading scorer with 21 points.
“Coach needed me to come off the bench and provide some energy, get some steals, “ Burton said. “They couldn’t really keep up with us. We just had to push it and get into transition. They tried to get into a zone to slow us down, but as long as we kept getting steals and fast breaks we were (good).”
Burton converted 10 of 12 free throws, all in the second half, and added six steals. Sophomore point guard D.J. Dial was outstanding again directing the offense and added 16 points and four steals of his own. Sophomore Andre Harris chipped in 13 points.
“We have a couple guys that can come in like that,” Mason said. “Deion’s a really good player. In normal situations he would be a starter. He and Dorian Grayer come off the bench and give us energy. Deion changed the complexion of the game. Their 3-2 zone had us staggered a little bit. We’re working and getting better at (playing against) that.”
South (3-3, 1-1 WRC), led, 14-11, after the first quarter, in which Devanaire Conliffe scored six of his 13 points, and Mitch Ruple and Marcellis Huffman each drained 3s.
Burton nearly single-handedly turned the game in Brush’s favor early in the second quarter, starting with a triple to tie it on a pass from Harris. A Burton steal and lay-in, followed by a drive and floater in the lane by Dial, then another Burton steal and basket, made it 20-14 Brush and precipitated a Rebels timeout.
Brush (7-1, 3-0 WRC) led 29-22 at the half, and was still ahead, 38-29, after another Burton steal and score in the third. A 7-0 Rebels run, capped by a pair of Norm Hughes free throws, brought South to within two.
The Arcs kept up the pressure, and the quick tempo led to more fast-break scores and more trips to the foul line, where they knocked down 16 of 20 attempts, all in the second half. They pushed the lead back out to seven at 49-42 to end the third, and the Rebels didn’t threaten again. A Harris basket later extended the Brush lead to 60-45 midway through the fourth.
“We got a little out of the tempo that we wanted to play,” South coach Roy Infalvi said. “We do want to get the ball up and down the floor, but we got a little out of control during certain stretches. A lot of that had to do with their pressure. We didn’t run our offense very effectively.”
Infalvi, whose team had a three-game winning streak snapped, also noted that second-chance rebounds went in the Arcs’ favor. Jaylen Jenkins led the Rebels with 14 points, backed by Conliffe’s 13 and Huffman’s 10 points. South will travel to Gilmour on Dec. 29 and won’t play again until it hosts archrival North on Jan. 6.
Due to the cancellation of the Brush Holiday Tournament, the Arcs will not play again until Jan. 6, when they’ll travel to Riverside. Brush 6-foot-8 freshman John Hugley, on the radar of college scouts nationwide, finished with eight points and eight rebounds, and showed some shooting ability in hitting a mid-range jumper.
Mason continued to stress the importance of embracing the grind, as his youthful but talented team matures.
“It’s coming together,” he said. “We were 1-7 last year, and now 7-1 this year, it’s progress. I always tell them to trust the process, and you can’t cheat the process. The process is slow, but my team is turning the corner. That’s because they’re embracing the grind.”