Brush and University needed an extra warmup period in their matchup Jan. 2. But the Arcs made the needed adjustments offensively to take a commanding lead going into the half. The Arcs controlled the glass from the opening tip to final buzzer, converting on second- and third-chance looks to take a 6 5-51 victory. Brush improves to 5-4, while University falls to 6-5. Both sides struggled to find anything in the first quarter, as turnovers and rebounds were the name of the game early. University got the lead on a 3-pointer from Carter Webb with the dish by Kingston Oliver. TJ Thomas added a lay as the lane opened for him and Aditya Nalla had a steal and score that had the Preppers up, 9-6, through the first. Despite the slow start, Brush coach Chet Mason knew his team was going to make the needed adjustments. “We really just caught a stride,” Mason said. “But I think our defense, we call it DCO: defense creates offense. I think that kind of helped us prevail in that second quarter. That’s a really good basketball team over there and they can shoot the ball. Their defensive style is really challenging to prepare for. There were a lot of chippers and layups here and there.” But the Arcs came out strong in the second quarter. Jay Gilchrist had a quick bucket off an inbounds, and Javion Sanderson had a 3-pointer to tie the game at 11. Oliver hit a 3-pointer of his own for the Preppers that game them the lead back. But from there, Brush started a charge. Prince Ryleigh-Johnson was the recipient of a Sanderson outlet pass on a turnover and had another quick layup for the Arcs to take the lead and Reggie Smith had a putback to extend the lead. Ryleigh-Johnson and the Arcs understood that University is strong from beyond the arc and needed to force it inside. The Preppers finished with just seven 3-pointers. “While we were watching film, we saw they love to get out in transition,” Ryleigh-Johnson said. “So after a shot went up, we were already starting back up the court and getting into our defense. Making the right reads, not gambling or forcing those steals.” University chipped back in as Gaspar had a layup and Nalla hit a 3-pointer. But the Arcs answered right back as Ryleigh-Johnson had another layup and Cody Smith-Green had a bank-shot 3-pointer to make it a 28-19 advantage at the half for Brush. The two sides traded early blows in the third, with a pair of Ryleigh-Johnson layups and a Nalla 3-pointer followed by a Thomas lay. Sanderson and Gaspar also traded layups, but the Arcs controlled the game on the glass. Five players for Brush had six or more rebounds, with Sanderson at four. Smith-Green, Ryleigh-Johnson and Reginald Smith had eight each, while Gilchrist and Braylon Davis had six. “At practice, we went at it with extra effort,” Ryleigh-Johnson said. “We needed to prepare for that a lot more in this game after how we looked against Sandusky. We got punked and outrebounded a lot.” Mason added: “We got punched in the mouth against Sandusky on the boards. I kind of went crazy on the rebounding drills, The guards, the bigs, I tell them it’s the game of basketball. How you prepare through the week is usually how you’re going to play a game. And you could see the difference.” Ryleigh-Johnson had 21 points, followed by Sanderson at 11, Gilchrist at 10 and Smith at eight. While the Arcs lead was never erased, University started to chip away at the lead through the fourth. Gaspar hit a 3-pointer, and Tylar Robinson corralled a pass from Nalla in traffic for a layup. Nalla also hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final frame, trimming the Arcs’ lead to nine in the final two minutes. But the disadvantage on the glass made it a tough hill to climb. “I don’t know if that’s something that we can do, and I don’t want to be negative about that,” University coach Sean McDonald said. “I don’t think it matters what defense we were playing, defensive rebounding is going to be hard for us. So we’re trying to find ways to win the possession battle through turnovers, creating them and not being guilty of them on offense knowing that the rebounding is just going to be really hard for us.” Gaspar and Nalla finished with 14 points each, while Gaspar added eight rebounds. University finishes a four-game road trip at Boardman on Jan. 3. Brush next hits the road against Maple Heights on Jan. 6. THE SCORE Brush 65, University 51 ...read more read less