The leader on our team.
One of the best players on the provincial 17U male basketball team.
A forward with versatility on his side as an effective shooter from the outside or under the basket in his familiar post position.
A knack for directing traffic on defence and a fine rebounder with an average of 10 per game.
Those were just some of the things Corner Brook High Titans 4A boys assistant basketball coach Mark Thackray had to say about sophomore Marcus Hughes.
Hughes, in his sophomore season and following in the footsteps of his siblings Chris and Josh, is focused on helping his team turn some heads at the 2018 Elite Eight Hall of Fame Cup tournament this weekend in St. John’s.
Hughes, at six-foot-three, is a skilled player who is proof that hard work can pay dividends.
He has worked hard to be the player he is today and selection to the provincial squad is evident he’s been doing the right things.
The Titans head into the tournament ranked fifth out of eight teams with Holy Heart ranked No. 1 and clearly the best team in the province with a number of big offensive players in the lineup.
Hughes believes the Titans have improved a lot since last year so he expects to be competitive against most teams at the Hall of Fame Cup.
He said the Titans depended on a couple of guys to carry the team on their shoulders last season, but this year it’s more of a team effort with the scoring shared among a couple of players so there’s nobody expecting one player to do it all.
Confidence has grown within the group with several sophomore players feeling much better about their compete level than when they broke into the high school basketball scene one year ago so Hughes expects his team to be competitive with most of the teams in the mix.
It may be a tough challenge, but Hughes said the No. 1 ranked team is who they want to earn a date with before the weekend is out.
Holy Heart has two big guns who can light up the scoreboard — Nick Fowler and Liam Chislett — and Hughes believes the key to pulling off an upset will require shutting down these big scorers.
“If we can hold them to 10 points or so I think we can beat them,” he said.
