Hughes is the answer man for Campbell

By Jon moffett

jmoffett@vindy.com

SALEM

East Palestine High entered its Division III district semifinal matchup against Campbell Memorial with the intention of taking some of the Red Devils’ best players out of the game.

Unfortunately, they forgot about Lester Hughes.

Hughes led the Red Devils (17-3) in a 61-43 victory. Hughes finished with 19 points, which he said was a relief since he had been frustrated from the field for most of the tournament.

But his performance on the Cabas Gymnasium floor Tuesday enabled him to build some confidence.

“I was seeing the court pretty well and they were [taking away] two of our best scorers, so I had to step up and make some plays,” Hughes said.

With teammate Claxton LeBron facing constant pressure, the Red Devils needed to find another shooter to take pressure off the defense.

“They were trying to do some things with our other players, and I keep telling our guys you never know when it’s going to be your time,” said Campbell coach Brian Danilov. “But when it is, if you’ve worked hard and prepared you’ll be able to do something with that opportunity.”

Hughes made the most of his opportunities, scoring 10 points in the first half.

But the Bulldogs (18-4) had their own weapon in Ben Gysin, who scored 18 points, including 14 in the first half.

Danilov said his team didn’t have an answer for Gysin in the first two quarters. But Campbell was able to game plan around the Bulldogs’ big man and hold him to only two baskets in the second half.

“Thank God,” Danilov said. “I thought there was two of him out there. We knew he was a great player ... we were a little slow with our backside help in the first half and we tried to correct that [at halftime].”

Campbell had a six-point lead going into the half after a 3-point shot by LeBron was called off by the referees. The shot was attempted just after the horn sounded.

But the Red Devils wasted no time in building a lead in the third quarter. The team scored 17 points in the period and led by a dozen going into the final quarter.

Danilov said the key was with the team staying composed in the face of adversity and finishing when needed.

“If you’re not going to handle adversity, you’re going to be going home,” he said. “And if you’re not going to handle adversity in life, you’re going to have problems.

“It’s about sticking together, being a good teammate, showing up every day and playing hard,” he added.

Hughes was a little more candid about what the team could take away from the game and work on for its contest against East Canton in the district championship on Friday night: Free throws.

“We missed a lot of free throws, so that’s what we’re going to be doing [in practice] is free throw,” he said.

As a team, the Red Devils made only five of their 14 attempts from the line. But a stingy defense allowed only eight trips to the line for the Bulldogs, who made five of the attempts.