When Coach Demarris Winters formulated this season’s girls basketball schedule at Brush, he did so with the intent of seeing what his Arcs were made of. If the Arcs’ 67-50 win over visiting Magnificat on Jan. 7 was any indication, Winters didn’t err in stacking the schedule against state-calib er teams. Led by Tatiania Mason’s 25 points, one of four Arcs to score in double figures, Brush earned a 17-point win over a Magnificat team that has beaten the Arcs each of the past two seasons — one in the regular season and one in postseason play. The Magnificat game is the first of a four-game stretch over the next two weeks that will see Brush play two teams that played in last year’s state tournament (Anthony Wayne on Jan. 11 and Columbus Africentric on Jan. 14) and a neighborhood rivalry against Warrensville Heights (Jan. 12). “All three of those teams are final four teams in their own right,” Winters said of Anthony Wayne and Columbus Africentric. “I want to see how we stack up against champions. I want to see it before the playoffs. I want to see where we stand against semifinal teams and championship teams and what we need to do to advance in the playoffs. That’s my reason for scheduling these games.” Juliana Ferraria pushes the ball up the court during the Arcs' 67-50 win over Magnificat on Jan. 7.(Paul DiCicco - For The News-Herald) How do the Arcs stack up? Well, on this night, pretty darn good. When Nylah Mason hit a 3-pointer at the 6:27 mark of the first quarter, it took away what WAS a 5-2 Magnificat lead. When her sister Tatiana put back a missed shot a half-minute later, Brush took the lead for good. “We wanted to make a statement,” Tatiana Mason, a first-team All-Ohioan, said. The statement screamed loud and clear in the first half alone. Behind her 19 points and 11 more from her sister Nylah, Brush held a 41-20 lead at the half. But before embarking on the second half, Winters warned his team of the storm that was coming. “I told them (the Blue Streaks) were going to punch back,” Winters said. “They’re not going to give up.” PHOTOS: Brush vs. Magnificat girls basketball, Jan. 7, 2026 Magnificat made a big run in the third, going on a 16-3 run, capped by Gemma Wichmann's 3-pointer to cut the Arcs' lead to 44-36. But after a Brush timeout, the Arcs got their footing again. Juliana Ferraria hit a 3-pointer from the corner, Tatiana Mason hit a shot, Ferraria drained another triple and Mason split a pair of free throws to complete a 9-0 run. "Scrappy, man, scrappy," Winters said of his team's ability to fight of that third-quarter run by the Blue Streaks. To Magnificat's credit, the Blue Streaks' defense limited the Mason sisters to eight total points in the second half. But Ferraria made three triples in the second half, Jakayln Brown scored five in the fourth quarter, including a critical and-one, and Taya Pempton came off the bench for a big fourth-quarter bucket. Tatiana (25) and Nyla (14) Mason were joined in double figures by Ferraria (12) and Brown (11). "Juliana can shoot the heck out of the ball," Winters said. "I told her if she shoots 14-to-15 points per game, we're not gonna lose. We're unstoppable if she hits shots that way and Jakalyn is rebounding and is scoring inside. The Masons are gonna do what they do... when we get others to go with that, that's a juggernaut. That's a juggernaut." Before the game, a special ceremony was held honoring Winters for his 200th career victory and Tatiana Mason for scoring her 1,000th career point. In front of a large crowd, Mason said her team wasn't about to shrink from the challenge. "That was a good moment to share," she said. "We couldn't go out with an L on a day we got our stuff. We had to turn it up." ...read more read less