The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
DJ spins a hit in win for Brush
Arcs edge Cornerstone in Dunk4Diabetes Shootout
Brush trailed Cornerstone Christian by a point with 13 seconds left to play at the Dunk4Diabetes Shootout at John Carroll on Jan. 28.
As the Patriots lined up for the front end of a one-and-one at the free throw line, junior point guard D.J. Dial looked to the Arcs’ coach, Chet Mason, to check how many timeouts Brush had left. Mason didn’t answer the question.
“Just get it,” Mason told Dial, “and go.”
Cornerstone Christian missed the first free throw, John Hugley rebounded and passed to Dial.
Dial bolted from the baseline, crossed midcourt and drove into the center of the lane. He leapt into a defender, threw in a righthanded runner and drew a blocking call.
Dial converted the andone free throw, and Brush defeated Cornerstone Christian, 50-48.
“I don’t think they was expecting me to drive with that much time left,” Dial said. “Or for them to call that block, they hadn’t been calling that all night. He tried to take a charge, but it ended up going in my favor.”
Dial was sidelined for most of the game by foul trouble. His coach held no reservations about calling on him to make a gamewinning play.
Mason’s trust in Dial was reward by the Arcs’ 49-47 lead with six seconds to play.
“There’s not too many people in the state who can stay in front of him,” Mason said. “I’ll take my chances with him, not stopping the play, drawing up something and that’s a stoppage.”
Dial’s and-one layup completed Brush’s comeback from a double-digit second-half deficit. Hugley
led the Arcs with 14 points and Dial finished with 13. The victory resembled another of the Arc’s signature wins this season, over Garfield Heights in the Play by Play Classic at Baldwin Wallace Jan. 7.
“We always prepare for these types of games,” Dial said. “Coach Chet’s always preaching to us there’s going to be ups and downs in every basketball game. When we get to those low points like that, we know, in them big games, we just have to keep fighting, our time is going to come.”
Michael Bothwell led all scorers with 25 points for the Patriots, and Kendall Saunders chipped in 12.
Cornerstone Christian shot 10 of 21 from the free -throw line. The Patriots’ misses included two of three tries after Cornerstone Christian drew a foul on a 3-point attempt trailing by two.
The Patriots bolted to an early 13-4 lead before Brush closed within 1411 at quarter’s end. Bothwell made four 3-pointers and scored 14 points in the second to put Cornerstone
Christian ahead, 3322, at halftime. The lead stretched to 14 out of halftime on Bothwell’s fifth make from 3-point range.
Brush limited the Patriots to four points in the third quarter’s final 5 1/2 minutes. Andre Harris made a pair of 3-pointers to help cut the Arcs’ deficit to two, 40-38, headed to the fourth.
The teams traded leads until Dial’s decisive layup. Hugley scored eight of his points in the period as he put together another momentous fourth-quarter performance at a showcase with college coaches in attendance — namely West Virginia’s Bob Huggins.
“The kid don’t even know,” Mason said. “He’s still big and goofy. He don’t even know what he can be, what he’s going to be.”
Brush improved to 12-4 and next plays Chardon on Jan. 30.
More importantly to Mason, his “young boys” took another step forward in their growth.
“They’re growing up every day and it’s good,” Mason said. “When March comes, we’re looking to actually do something.”