The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Brush falls to Shaker Heights in OT
In front of a pumped-up, vocal capacity crowd, in a game that felt more like a district final than a regular season game, the nonconference matchup between Brush and visiting Shaker Heights on Jan. 23 delivered on all the hype.
The Arcs and Red Raiders fought back and forth, and both teams left everything on the floor in a contest that was tied at halftime and tied again at the end of regulation when Brush erased a six-point deficit to send the game into overtime.
In the extra session, it was Shaker Heights that made the big plays and the big baskets, and the Arcs uncharacteristically turned the ball over a few times too often. Christian Guess scored eight of his 22 points in overtime, Justin Phillips hit all four of his attempts from the line in the extra frame, and the Red Raiders prevailed, 82-72.
Although disappointed his team turned the ball over more frequently than it usually does, and some other things didn’t go its way, Brush coach Chet Mason knows he has a lot of positives to glean from this game and certainly would rather take a loss like this in January than in March, if he has to take one.
“I think both teams fought really hard,” Mason said. “Turnovers hurt us tonight. I love the growth in my team, and we’re getting better. Honestly, tonight (will hurt), but it’s not March. We’re going to take the positives from this one. We went toe-to-toe tonight with a great team that has great players and a really good coach. We’re going to learn from this. We had a one-point game, and turned the ball over three times. When March comes around, I don’t expect us to do that.”
Brush (10-4) fell behind by nine points in the third quarter, but rallied to take a 51-50 lead with 6:29 left in the fourth on a 3-pointer by Deion Burton. Dale Bonner, who scored a gamehigh 26 points and had eight rebounds, several of those on the offensive end, responded quickly with a layup to put Shaker Heights back ahead.
Sophomore John Hugley, who scored 11 of his 12 points in the second half for Brush, picked up his fourth foul with 4:32 remaining, and Guess hit a free throw to put the Red Raiders up, 59-53. Hugley hit a big bucket to bring the Arcs within 61-59, but fouled out with 2:30 left.
After D.J. Dial scored to cut Brush’s deficit to 6763 in the closing minutes, Andre Harris drilled four straight free throws sandwiched around a traveling call on the Red Raiders with 30 seconds left, to send the game into overtime. Harris connected on 11 of 16 from the line overall, but made all eight of his attempts in the fourth quarter.
A Guess three-point play kicked off a 7-0 Shaker Heights run in overtime, and critical turnovers by the Arcs prevented them from stopping the Red Raiders’ charge in the extra session, and Shaker Heights (8-3) took advantage in pulling out a big road victory.
“We knew coming in this was going to be a hard-fought game,” Shaker Heights coach Danny Young said. “Chet’s done a great job with great young guys, and they have some quality wins against Garfield Heights and some other teams they’ve played. So we knew what we were going to come into as far as their home court. Some people asked me if we were going to do anything different, and I said no. We’re going to press, and press the whole game. We’re going to try to turn you over and wear you down.
“In all of our timeouts, we just told our guys to play with heart. Strategy went out the window.”
Brush opened the game on a 10-1 run and dominated the boards in the early going. Shaker Heights battled back in the second quarter, and took its first lead with 3:20 before halftime when a Bonner steal led to a Dakota Cochran dunk to make it 22-21.
Dial and Harris combined to score seven points down the stretch to set up a 28-28 halftime deadlock.
Phillips finished with 13 points for Shaker Heights. Dial led Brush with 21, Harris finished with 17, and Hugley added 12. Brush will travel to North on Jan. 26, then square off against Cornerstone Christian on Jan. 28 at the Dunk for Diabetes at John Carroll.
“Their press worked for them tonight, and we’re usually a team that can handle the press,” Mason said.
“We’re going to take the positives from this game and let (our guys) know what they’re doing well, and we’re going to take the negatives and we’re going to work on them. They fought. When you say, ‘Leave it all on the floor,’ they left it all on the floor. They kept playing through all the turnovers and adversity. So I commend them, but also I commend Shaker. That’s a very good ball team.”