Neither Brush nor Euclid could get an early edge Dec. 21 at the NEO Youth Elite Christmas Classic. Damari Dammons of Brush and Thai Duncan of Euclid went shot for shot early in the contest. But the Arcs also turned to other players for scoring while the Panthers only had three other players record field goals. The Arcs also had a stout second-half defensive performance, holding Euclid to 11 points in their 72-37 victory. Brush improves to 5-2 while Euclid falls to 1-5. Early on, both sides needed time to find their grooves. Euclid was coming off of a one-point loss to VASJ the night before, and it was the earliest tip-off the Arcs had had this season. The Panthers ran out to a 14-9 lead, but a pair of quick buckets for Brush had the game tied at the end of the first. Brush coach Chet Mason said they needed to get back to their tempo. “That’s what we kept harping on,” Mason said. “When teams play early, they tend to lose games. It’s a 12:45 start, you get used to it in AAU but not in high school. We had to adjust so I told the guys we needed all the energy possible.” Euclid was 4-for-5 on 3-pointers to start but ended the game going 4-for-16. Dammons continued his hot start, as he finished with 17 first-quarter points and finished with 29. But the other members of the Arcs started to find a shooting rhythm. Prince Ryleigh-Johnson and Quintez Matthews had six in the first half and Dekhi Owens had four. Euclid’s offense ran through Duncan, who had 16 of his 20 in the first half. Dammons said the Arcs needed to find an overall tempo to the game. “We just came off of a loss. So we felt like we had to get our momentum back,” Dammons said. “After the first half, we still felt a little sloppy so we had to turn up in the second half. Coach Chet told us to pick it up and go to the energy we knew we had to before.” Dammons got a lot of help from Ryleigh-Johnson in the paint. The junior had 10 second-half points to finish with 16 points off the bench. He also added eight rebounds to finish just short of a double-double. With him rolling, it took some of the focus off of Dammons and gave him better looks. One of those came on a drive to the paint for a dunk. “It’s a big help for him (Damari) for me to come off in the backcourt,” Ryleigh-Johnson said. “It feels a lot better to be better. At halftime we had to pick up the pace. They had scored more than 10 points in both quarters so we needed to really lock in and limit them.” Another emphasis for Brush was the rebounding side of the game. They combined for 43 rebounds to Euclid’s 23. One of them came off of a missed free throw from Dammons and exemplified the effort of Brush in the paint. Matthews tipped the ball back to Dammons at the free throw line for an uncontested runner. “It was very important because we wanted to limit their second-chance looks,” Mason said. “When they are on, Euclid can score like crazy. So all week in practice with film and scout team, we harked on we had to gang rebound. All five guys, even the smaller guards needed to go hit someone. I’m proud of what the guys did today.” Dammons finished with nine rebounds and four assists. Jayvyn Gilchrist had six rebounds and Matthews added five. Brush returns to the court Dec. 27 at home against Toledo Start. Euclid has one more before the break with Cornerstone on Dec. 23. The score Brush 72, Euclid 37