The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Leo sets 3-pointer mark in Rangers’ victory
With win over Brush, North holds two-game lead in WRC standings
The odds weren’t on the side of the Brush girls basketball team.
Only two times in the previous 2 ½ years had Destiny Leo been held to single digits in a game.
And Leo scored nine points over the weekend in a 60-45 loss to Fairmount in the Classic in the Country at Berlin Hiland.
Could Brush hope for another off-night from Leo when the top two teams in the Western Reserve Conference met on Jan. 22 at North?
Yeah, right.
Leo scored a game-high 34 points and set a program record with her 234th career 3-pointer, leading the Rangers to a 59-36 victory in a game in which the Arcs struggled just to outscore the Rangers’ all-time leading scorer.
Leo scored in every way imaginable, from floating jumpers to driving layups to off-balance leaners to free throws.
Among her 34 points were four 3-pointers, the third of which broke the program record for 3-pointers in a season, snapping the former record of 232 set by North assistant Lynsey Englebrecht.
“A done-next mentality,” said Leo of putting the rare single-digit scoring night into her rearview mirror. “It’s over with.”
Brush coach Demarris Winters did his darndest to make sure Leo didn’t torch his team, face-guarding the Cleveland State-signee all over the court. But whether it was with her ball-handling or coming off screens set by her teammates, Leo still owned the game regardless of what defense Winters & Co. threw at her.
Leo has been held to single digits only eight times in 92 varsity games in her career — and five of them came as a freshman.
“Listen, they’re a tough guard,” Winters said of defending North. “I heard (from the stands) putting two defenders on her, but this team is too good to put two on one person. (Leo) made plays tonight, like she always does. Like she’s done her entire career.”
The game was never close. North ran out to a 12-1 lead in the first six minutes of the game — with Leo scoring 10 of them — before the frigid-shooting Arcs made their first field goal.
When Leo hit a fader early in the second quarter for an 18-7 lead, the Rangers had a lead that never sunk to single digits the rest of the way.
Brush’s problems were two-fold. Leo and the Rangers shot well and his Arcs didn’t.
Playing a defense that packed the paint to take away Brush’s height advantage, North kept the Brush offense at bay. The Arcs were 0-for-19 from the 3-point arc, and leading scorer Kayla White was held to two points by North junior Abby Carter.
“We got good shots,” Winters said. “They packed it in like they always do and we didn’t make shots. If we hit shots, we’re in the game. If we don’t, we lose.”
Brush was hurt when Jessica Perry went down with a dislocated knee midway through the second quarter.
But throughout, North packed the paint and dared Brush to hit from the outside — and the Arcs didn’t.
“We have some different defenses and a couple of them force their role players to take shot and make shots,” said North coach Paul Force. “We didn’t have to change defenses because they were never able to make us pay for that (pack-the-paint) strategy.”
North’s biggest lead was 55-27 midway through the fourth when Avril Drew scored a driving layup on a fast-break.
Drew was one of only five Rangers to score in the game. She had six, with trailed only Leo’s 34 and Carter’s 10.
Brush (10-7) was led by Asia Nicholson’s 10 and Donnee Frazier’s nine.
“Paul Force is a great coach and has two Division I guards,” Winters said of Leo and Akron commit Carter. “They played like Division I guards tonight. They were great.”
With the win, North (143) took a two-game lead in the WRC over Brush and the rest of the league. But Force noted road games at Mayfield, Chardon and Kenston as part of the five league games on his team’s schedule.
“It’s a good situation to be in,” he said of the twogame lead. “But we’re not talking too much about the conference. We’re just looking at getting ready for Mayfield.”
After the game, Leo shared a moment with her teammates and coaches celebrating the new 3-point record she had set. She credited her teammates for screens that helped her get open for the record-breaking night.
“When I made it and coach called a timeout, I thought I did something wrong,” Leo said with a laugh. “(The record) is cool. When I was younger, we’d come to see (North) play and I was like, ‘She’s Lynsey Englebrecht.’ She’s someone I looked up to.”
Englebrecht said the admiration went both ways.
“I was in high school and you hear of a kid scoring 52 points in a middle school game and you’re like, ‘OK,’” Englebrecht said. “It’s cool to see her grow into an amazing player.”