By Lannis Timmons
The Hughes Big Red had won their last five regular season games before they entered the tournament, while the Summit Country Day Silver Knights were 3-1 in their last four games.
The Big Red jumped out to an 11-2 lead behind the hot shooting of senior DJ Brewton as he scored eight points in the quarter, but he had help with Dwayne Rosado scoring five points, and Shawn Hawkins added four points. Summit Country Day’s Xavier Johnson kept the Silver Knights close by scoring eight points as the quarter came to an end with Hughes ahead 19-13.
When the second quarter got started, the Silver Knights began to make a push at the Big Red, as Sam Gosier found the range from behind the three-point line, as he knocked down two shots, and Alonzo Motley and Xavier Johnson also helped Summit CD, as Motley added five points, while Johnson scored four points. But it wasn’t enough as Brewton scored seven points in the quarter, to help keep the Big Red up 32-31 going into halftime.
Hughes came out of the locker room fired up, senior Shawn Hawkins started putting pressure on the Silver Knights defense, as he scored six points and got on the glass, and Dwayne Rosado made two timely three-point goals, and senior Giovanni Santiago added five points, and did a good job of running the Big Red offense. Xavier Johnson scored seven of Summit Country Day’s ten points in the quarter, as it came to a close with the Big Red in control 51-41.
As the fourth quarter got underway, the Big Red continued to run their Base Line Out Of Bounds plays scoring with two or three options. Shawn Hawkins worked hard around the basket, and showed positive leadership with his teammates. Hughes place four players in double figures, with DJ Brewton leading the way with 23 points, Hawkins adding 21, Rosado 14 points, and senior AJ Smith finishing with 10 points. Summit just ran out of gas against the higher seeded Big Red, but Xavier Johnson went down fighting as the Ohio State bound senior led the way with 23 points, and Sam Gosier showed his shooting touch from the three- point line, as he scored all of his points on three- point shots, finishing with 15 points.
With the Big Red winning 76-57, this sets up a showdown with the Aiken Falcons who they beat twice this year in league play. They’ll play Saturday at 6:00.