Kennedy Shakes Cleveland With Final Shot, 58-56

If you’re looking for a sleeper team in the upcoming City 4-A basketball playoffs, look no further than the city of Granada Hills.

For therein lie the Golden Cougars of Kennedy High, undeniably one of the hottest teams in the Valley 4-A League.

“If we can play with this type of intensity and if we stay healthy,” Kennedy Coach Yutaka Shimizu said, “then teams will have to worry about us.”

Kennedy gave Cleveland a lot of things to worry about Wednesday afternoon--like how the Cavaliers will respond in the playoffs after losing their last regular season game.

That came about when junior guard Marcus Malone hit a 10-foot jump shot with one second left to give the Golden Cougars a dramatic 58-56 win over Cleveland at Kennedy. The loss cost the Cavaliers an undisputed league championship.

Kennedy finished third in league with a 9-3 record, having won its last five games. The Golden Cougars (14-6 overall) open the playoffs against Manual Arts.

Cleveland finished league with a 10-2 record, the same as Fairfax, which beat Reseda, 93-69, on Wednesday. A coin toss today will determine who enters Friday’s playoffs as the No. 1 team from the league.

The league’s No. 1 team will be seeded third overall, while the No. 2 team will be seeded fourth. That difference is important. Whomever is seeded fourth would probably face Crenshaw, the two-time defending City 4-A champion, in the semifinals. Crenshaw is the top-seeded team overall.

Cleveland Coach Bob Braswell isn’t thinking about a trip to the Sports Arena--cite of the semifinals and finals--just yet.

“I said before the game that I would be concerned about our attitude if we lost,” Braswell said. “That’s why this game was so important.

It is a problem Braswell has to deal with after Cleveland (13-7) was generally out-played and out-hustled by the Golden Cougars. “We played poorly the whole game,” he said. “They wanted it more.”

Malone, who led everyone with 22 points, said he had a feeling before the game that the Golden Cougars would win. And he’s confident that Kennedy will continue to win.

“To tell you the truth,” he said, “I don’t think we’re going to lose any more games.”

Kennedy pulled off the win despite losing four players to fouls. When Andrew Como picked up his fifth foul with 1:14 left, Shimizu had a real problem. The only player he had left to bring into the game was Greg Fontenette, who had re-injured a ligament in his right leg just six seconds into the game.

Fontenette had limped off the court in obvious pain, his day supposedly over. But when Como went to the bench, Shimizu asked Fontenette if he could play.

Fontenette dragged his leg onto the court in time to see Cleveland’s Andre Anderson miss a free throw with 1:14 left that would have broken a tie at 56.

Anderson had created the deadlock when he hit a layup with 2:32 left. Cleveland, which led, 32-28, at the half, fell behind, 50-44, entering the final quarter. But Trevor Wilson brought the Cavaliers back with seven of his team-high 17 points in the final eight minutes.

Malone grabbed the rebound off Anderson’s missed free throw and Kennedy dribbled the clock away until 20 seconds remained. In a timeout, Shimizu designed a play to get the ball into the hands of either Malone or Marcus Jones (18 points) with six seconds left.

It was Malone who got the ball at the right side of the basket with time running out.

“I knew it was going in when I let it go,” Malone said. “I can’t even express how I feel.”

Malone may have had trouble saying what he felt, but his basket left a lasting impression on the Cavaliers.

CLEVELAND--Wilson 17; Fann 4; Dixion 4; Greer 1; Shofner 12; Anderson 6; Manliguis 6; Branham 4; Wheeler 2.

KENNEDY--McDaniels 2; Williams 4; Malone 22; Jones 18; Como 8; Newman 4.