Cleveland pulls off a stunner in the first round

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Was sitting around the office tonight, patiently waiting to hear about the first big upset in the Championship Division of the City Section boys’ basketball playoffs. After coming close to giving up hope a couple of times, the call finally came through, Palisades was shocked.

That’s right, 12th-seeded Cleveland took its show on the road and defeated the fifth-seeded hosts, 68-64, in a first-round game Friday evening. Any aspirations the Dolphins might have had at making a postseason run ended before they even started.

‘You know what, we don’t pay too much attention to what people say about us or the seedings,’’ Cleveland Coach Osiris Nalls said. ‘We had a great week of practice and that spilled over into the game. What more can I say, we pulled this one out. We got it done.’’

A well-balanced effort on the offensive end of the floor had a lot to do with the victory. Carl Brackens had 17 points, Jason Johnson added 15 and Dogem Asfaw and Prince Obasi finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Next up for the upset-minded Cavaliers: Fremont, the fourth-seeded team, on Wednesday.

--Sean Ceglinsky