Maple Ohio — Tuesday night Brush (5-3) kicked off the new year traveling to compete against The Maple Mustangs (4-5). Maple improved to 4-1 at home and .500 overall with a 63-55 win.
Kenyon Giles wasted no time setting the tone in the first quarter.
He came out scoring the first two buckets of the game with a layup and a pull up three.
He stayed hot throughout the quarter scoring another three and layup around the halfway mark. His baskets put Maple up 10-6.
Caleb Burge gave Brush their first three pointer to tie it at 12 with two minutes left. The Quarter ended with Brush down one after an Aliyy King layup at the buzzer.
Maple continued their hot shooting start in the second quarter. Dave Aniton knocked down a three and free throws from Aaron Scales put maple up 22-16 with five minutes to go.
A few possessions later Brush started to find offense with free throws from Damari Dammons and a Caleb Burge pull up jumper. Brush trailed 25-21 with three minutes remaining.
A couple more free throws from Brush’s Arnell Edmonds prompted a timeout with two minutes left. Brush trailed 28-23.
Both teams came out of the timeout trading buckets. Brush got a three from Caleb Burge and Maple got buckets from K. Young and Q.Haynes, Maple led 32-26.
Brush ended the half with two free throws and a half court shot from Damari Dammons.
Brush went into halftime trailing 32-31.
King came out of halftime and scored two straight baskets for the Arcs. After that both teams started trading baskets.
King scored another bucket for Brush, Scales and Giles knocked down a few more threes for Maple.
Dammons ended the exchange with a basket to tie it at 43 with two minutes to go. Maple ended the quarter up 48-46 thanks to a three point play from Kalin Allen.
Maple came out in the fourth looking to put the game away but Brush didn’t go down without a fight.
Three minutes into the quarter King tied the game at 52 with a layup. Right on que Scales knocked down another three for the Mustangs. Maple led 55-52 going into a timeout.
From that point on it was all Mustangs as Giles assisted on a basket for Maple. Layups from Giles and Allen seemed to put it away.
Brush fought until the absolute end, Burge hit a three forcing a timeout with 14 seconds to go. Brush led 61-55.
Free throws for Maple closed the deal and they won the game 63-55.
I got to speak with Head Coach for Maple Anthony Burns after their win.
“Besides the record I keep preaching getting better every single game," said Burns. "Win, lose or draw our biggest thing is getting ready for March.”
I also got to speak with him about their upcoming matchup.
“It gets us the momentum, a big win tonight…it’s just gonna help us get ready for Garfield, said Burns. "It will be a packed house like last year..hopefully we can get that dub.”
Maple will be in action back on their home floor taking on Garfield Friday January 5th at 7:30 PM.