Cleveland Lets Crespi Escape With 50-49 Win

Paul Muff, the basketball coach at Crespi High, found it ironic that two of the San Fernando Valley’s best teams historically would have to travel to Pomona to finally meet during the regular season.

And when Pat Knight hit an off-balance 10-footer with seven seconds left to give Crespi a 50-49 win, the Celts--at least temporarily--came away one up in Valley superiority. It also advanced Crespi in the consolation bracket of the Tournament of Champions at Cal Poly Pomona.

The 2-4 Cavaliers have lost three games by one point and another by two. And Wednesday’s loss prompted Coach Bob Braswell to call his Cavaliers the “best-worst team in the City Section.”

“Crespi hit the big shot when they needed to,” Braswell said. “But we should have put the game away.”

Twice in the last 31 seconds, Cleveland’s Trevor Wilson missed the first free throw of a one-and-one opportunity that would have put the game away.

The 6-8 senior finished with 22 points, but missed 7 of 11 free-throw attempts.

Wilson also missed the first quarter of the game, a result of being absent from practice Tuesday from an illness that has affected several teammates.

Braswell called it “Saturday night fever.”

Two Cavaliers--starter Antoine Shofner and top reserve Kevin Anderson--have been hospitalized with high temperatures. Shofner’s reached 105 degrees.

Starter Damon Greer missed the game with strep throat. Even Braswell became ill Saturday night and entered himself in the hospital Sunday morning with a high temperature.

“It was tough with some of the troops out,” Braswell said.

Despite the lean lineup, Cleveland led at the half, 28-26. And despite Wilson’s absence the first eight minutes, Wilson finished the half with 10 points.

“If he was sick, I’d like to see him when he’s healthy,” Muff said. “When he wasn’t in there, we played a five-man defense. With him in there, we designed our defense to stop him because he gets the ball 60 to 70% of the time.”

Wilson got the ball enough in the third quarter to score seven points and give Cleveland a 41-40 lead entering the final quarter.

Less than four minutes remained when Wilson broke a 46-46 tie with a three-point play.

It was the last time Cleveland would score.

Wilson was fouled with 2:43 left and the Cavaliers holding on, 49-48. He missed the free throw, but Cleveland got the ball back and ran the clock down to 31 seconds before Wilson was fouled again.

Wilson misfired again, but Crespi could not forge ahead. Knight’s pass to Steve Yoest was intercepted by Wilson with 20 seconds left.

With 16 seconds to go, Wilson went to the line again. He missed and Crespi, with 12 seconds left, called time out to set up a shot for Jason Turner.

“We were looking for Jason in the corner, but we couldn’t run that,” said Knight, who scored 12 points. “We then went to Yoest, but Trevor was covering him. So Yoest threw it to me.”

And Knight threw the Cavaliers out of the tournament.

“When it went in,” Knight said, “it felt good. Real good.”

The Celts didn’t have their best shooting game of the season, hitting 46% (24 of 52) from the field.

But compared to Cleveland’s 37% (19 of 51), the Celts looked like marksmen. In the second half, Cleveland made just 8 of 29 shots.

Yoest led Crespi scorers with 15 points, while Turner had 11. Chris Wheeler, with 10 points, was the only Cavalier other than Wilson to reach double figures.

The Celts (4-2) meet Verbum Dei in the consolation semifinals Friday at 3 p.m.

Verbum Dei defeated Compton, 52-49, Wednesday.

CRESPI--Tanin 4; Yoest 15; Campbell 4 and 9 rebounds; Knight 12; Turner 11; Morley 4.

CLEVELAND--Wheeler 10; Branham 0; King 2; Dixion 4; Manliguis 6; Wilson 22 and 10 rebounds; Anderson 2; Love 0; Fann 3.