Last-Quarter Burst Saves Cleveland, 78-66

What Cleveland, Ohio, is to cities, this game was to basketball.

It was rough. It wasn’t particularly pretty. And only the toughest guys survived.

With an offense that could score only in fits and starts, Cleveland High turned up the heat on defense to mug Carson, 78-66, at home in the first round of the 4-A City playoffs.

“We were so tight in the first three quarters,” said Cleveland Coach Bob Braswell of his team’s nervous shooting. “My strategy, once I realized how tight we were, was to stick with the man-to-man defense and hope that we could wear them down.”

Going into the fourth quarter with only a three-point lead, that is exactly what Cleveland did.

The Cavaliers opened the final period by forcing two straight turnovers with their full-court press and went on to score 32 points to run away with the game.

“Defensive pressure--that’s what has done it for us all year,” said guard Michael Gray, who led Cleveland with 22 points. “You have to start with the defense before you can get the offense going.”

For Carson, this has been a season of near-misses: In each one of their league losses, the Colts were within two points going into the last three minutes.

This time, it wasn’t that close.

Gray was just one of the Cleveland starters who found his offense late in the game. Richard Branham scored 17, Adrian King scored 15 and Damon Greer added 14.

What had been a tough, close battle turned into a comfortable, albeit, hard-fought win.

“We didn’t get good shots and we didn’t have enough patience in the critical situations,” mused Carson Coach Richard Masson.

It was a game George Patton would have liked.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Braswell said. “But the kids worked hard for it.”

Going into the game, Masson had hoped his team could handle Cleveland’s defensive pressure and put a slowdown on the Cavaliers’ fast break.

For three quarters, at least, the Colts made a decent try.

And guard Torrance Alexander put on a one-man show for Carson, scoring 24 points with a highlight film’s worth of twisting drives and baseline jump shots.

However, that was all the grace Carson could muster. Three of Carson’s starters played for the school’s City champion football team, and on court the Colts look like they could just as easily be leading a sweep as a fast break.

Carson could have used a little blocking against Cleveland’s variety of half- and full-court zone presses. The Colts continually flirted with 10-second violations trying to get the ball past the half-court line on offense.

Even when they did get into their end, the Colts still had difficulty contending with Cleveland’s trapping, scrambling defense. Cavalier center Branham set the tone early, blocking a shot and knocking away several passes.

But in the first half, Cleveland’s fast-break offense couldn’t get out of the blocks. The Cavaliers ran into a string of turnovers in the first quarter.

Gray was near-perfect from the foul line and Adrian King added some outside shooting to give Cleveland a 17-12 lead at the end of the quarter.

Carson, sparked by Alexander and Holt, made a run at the Cavalier lead in the second quarter. But Cleveland hung on to take 32-27 lead at half time.

Once more, at the start of the second half, the Colts came charging. Alexander drove the lane for a lay-up to bring Carson within one.

Twice Carson had the ball with a chance to take the lead, but the Colts couldn’t get a shot off either time.

That’s defense.

Finally, Greer found his jump shot and carried the Cavaliers through a rough stretch. Cleveland again held the fort, protecting a lead that see-sawed between 2 and 6 points.

All of this, of course, set the stage for the fourth quarter.

Cleveland, 18-3 and ranked seventh in the state by Cal-Hi Sports, plays El Camino at home in the second round.

Although Cleveland is playing without forward Albert Fann and guard Joey Manliguis, who were lost to academic ineligibility, the Cavaliers have enough depth to feel optimistic about the playoffs. Especially since Gray, a junior guard, has come on to average 18 points over the last seven games.

Carson ends the season 11-11.