The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Arcs earn WRC share with big win
Brush girls basketball coach Demarris Winters recognized the electricity in the air as his players waited patiently to cut down the nets in their home gymnasium after clinching at least a share of the Western Reserve Conference with a 57-42 win over Kenston on Feb. 3.
His message to his players before the net-cutting began?
The job’s not done - let’s do this again on Saturday.
Brush used a 19-3 run to overcome a third-quarter deficit to beat the visiting Bombers in what amounted to the WRC championship game.
It’s Brush’s first league title since 2016.
The Arcs can claim sole possession of the title with a win over visiting Chardon on Feb. 6.
“It feels good, but we still want it all,” said Winters on his reluctance of sharing the league title. “We’ve got a big one against Chardon on Saturday. We want to go 7-0 (in the league). We want sole membership of first place in the conference.
“This (share) is cool, but we want more.”
Brush (12-5, 6-0) has a one-game lead over Kenston (10-3, 5-1). The Bombers would need Chardon (4-2 in league play) to beat the Arcs this weekend to get a share of the league title.
The Bombers looked to have momentum on their side after three quarters. Catara DeJarnette’s 3-pointer gave Kenston its first lead of the game at 3736 wth 1:12 left in the third quarter. The Bombers took a 39-38 lead into the fourth.
All was fine and dandy, right?
Not so fast.
Brush scored the first 13 points of the fourth quarter and - well - that was all she wrote.
Freshman Brooklyn Vickers started the run with a 3 from the top of the key, and then she fed Taylor Johnson-Matthews for an and-one and a 4439 lead 40 seconds into the fourth.
After another JohnsonMatthews bucket, Vickers hit a filthy 3 off a crossover dribble to open a 4939 lead.
Asia Nicholson ended the game-altering run with a shot midway through the fourth.
“I told the girls the first four or five minutes would tell what was going to happen in this game,” Winters said. “Either they were going to make a run or we were going to make a run. They made a run in the third to get over the hump. We responded.”
Kenston coach John Misenko could do little more than shrug his shoulders.
Although Kenston’s Sam Bergansky hit a 3 to stem the tide briefly to make t 51-42, those were the only three points the Bombers scored in the fourth.
Brush scored the final six points of the game to win going away.
“Anytime you start the fourth quarter playing for the WRC championship up by one point, you take it,” Misenko said. “They just wanted it more than us in the fourth quarter, unfortunately.
“I told the girls when the game started and at practice yesterday ‘you’ve got to play 32 minutes poised and focused.’ We played 24 - maybe 25.”
Catara DeJarnette led Kenston with 17, while Kate Haynes had 11. Bergansky made a trio of 3s to end with nine points.
Kenston’s youthful varsity roster consists of three senior, one junior and seven sophomores.
Brush was led by Johnson-Matthews’ 18 points, nine of which came in the fourth quarter where the Arcs held a 19-3 advantage. Kayla White had 17, including a 7-for-8 performance from the free throw line.
“That’s a good team over there,” Winters said, nodding toward the Kenston crew. “They were going to make their runs. We knew that. They weren’t going to come in and lay down and give (the championship) to us.
“We were going to have to play for it tonight - and we were able to do that.”