The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Hugley leads Arcs; Mentor showdown set
John Hugley ranks among the top-rated big men in the Class of 2020. While his senior teammates at Brush, Andre Harris and DJ Dial, draw much attention, the 6-foot-9 junior helped the 20-3 Arcs during the season in his own right.
Hugley led the team in rebounds and blocked shots, and finished the season as the team’s second-leading scorer.
March 7, Hugley was the main reason Brush will play for its first district title under coach Chet Mason. Hugley led the Arcs with 25 points, pulled down 13 rebounds and led Brush to a 68-67 victory over Cleveland Heights in a Division I Euclid District semifinal.
Dial and Harris often stepped up in the Arcs’ games against teams like SPIRE Institute, Kennedy Catholic and St. Vincent-St. Mary. When Hugley was the one to put the team on his back against the Tigers, coach Chet Mason wasn’t surprised. What’s more, Mason knows Hugley’s best basketball is still ahead of him.
“It hasn’t clicked all the way for him yet,” Mason said. “When I mean click, I’m looking at it from a college aspect where if you’re in high school and you’re supposed to be the
guy, you’ve got to dominate night-in and night-out.”
Corey Floyd Jr. added 12 points and Harris chipped in 11 as Brush advanced to the D-I Euclid District final on March 9 against topseeded Mentor. The Cardinals eliminated the Arcs in the Euclid District semifinals last season.
Matched up with senior Jae’Lyn Withers, a 6-foot-9 Louisville commit, Hugley scored twice near the basket and knocked down a 3 to spark Brush’s 14-3 run that began the game. Hugley added another bucket before he sat down with two fouls late in the period. Brush led, 25-12, after Dial and Floyd made 3-pointers to close the first quarter.
Cleveland Heights rallied to slice its deficit to six by halftime, 36-30. Hugley opened the second half with baskets on Brush’s first two possessions, and his layup put the Arcs up, 51-45, headed to the fourth. Withers fouled out less than a minute into the final period.
Nigel Martin scored 16 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter to help the Tigers take their first lead, 58-57. Hugley answered with two scores to put Brush back ahead before he fouled out with more than two minutes to play.
“When I fouled out, I knew my brothers would go,” Hugley said. “I wasn’t worried. I knew they was going to come big, I knew we was gon’ win. We’d been hearing about this all week. We just stayed patient, stayed quiet and we came out, showed what we can do.”
Harris made six free throws in the final minutes to help the Arcs maintain their lead against Martin’s onslaught. Dial, on his sixth attempt of the game, made his first free throw with 11 seconds to play for a 68-64 Brush lead before Martin hit a 3-pointer as time expired.
Alongside Martin, Withers added 13 points and Robert Morgan chipped in 10 off the bench. Cleveland Heights yielded 20 offensive rebounds to Brush, seven to Hugley alone, which coach Mike Cruz factored heavily into his team’s loss.
“Their guards do a great job getting on the glass and that was really, besides the fouls, that was the X-factor,” Cruz said. “If we can contain them on the glass, we’re probably talking about an eight- to 10-point victory for us.”
Brush advances to its first district final since 2012, when the Arcs were defeated by Mentor at Euclid.
Brush looks forward to the opportunity to end a lengthy postseason losing streak against the Cardinals, as the Arcs’ senior class will play in a district championship for the first time.
“It’s big for us,” Floyd said. “We ain’t never been past it before. The work we put in, don’t nobody know the work we put in and we just want to show how it pay off and stuff.”