High School Notebook : Pair of Injured Aces to Play Their Hands in Valley Showdown

Forget about basketball, pass that athletic tape.

When Taft plays at Cleveland in a key Valley League game Wednesday, a couple of the league’s best players will be sporting the latest in game attire--splints and bandages on their hands.

Taft point guard Dedan Thomas, who averages 13.9 points, 9.7 assists and 4.7 steals a game, cracked the pinkie finger of his left hand in Taft’s 58-57 overtime win against El Camino Real on Wednesday.

Cleveland forward Richard Branham (15.9 points, 14 rebounds) dislocated the same finger on his right hand three games ago and missed a game before playing in Cleveland wins over Kennedy and El Camino Real last week.

When Taft Coach Jim Woodard learned the nature of Thomas’ injury, he decided to consult an expert.

“I asked Richard how much it bothered him when he plays,” said Woodard, who watched Cleveland defeat El Camino Real on Friday night. “They taped the last two fingers of his hand together. He seemed to be doing OK.”

Cleveland easily defeated Reseda in the game Branham missed. Woodard said that without Thomas, however, there is little chance of winning against Cleveland or first-place Fairfax on Friday. Both games are on the road.

“If we don’t have Dedan in there it’ll be brutal,” Woodard said. “Cleveland will get 150 on us.”

Thomas received one good break--Taft had a league bye Friday. The 5-11 junior will learn Monday whether he can play.

“If it was left up to him, he’d definitely be out there,” Woodard said. “The doctor just has to convince his mom that it’s OK.”

With a record of 11-3 and 3-2 in league play, Taft cannot afford another loss and expect to remain in the league title picture. Cleveland is 12-2, 3-1 in league play.

Biting his time: He was beyond nervous--it was tooth and nail time.

“I was past the fingernails,” Grant Coach Howard Levine said. “I was chewing on my fingers.”

Had Levine worked his way down to the knuckles, he probably would have found they were a nice shade of white--Grant’s 64-62 double-overtime win over Poly on Friday was not decided until Setro Terzian scored four points in the second overtime period to seal the win.

Terzian, a 6-1 sophomore swingman, finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds, and he picked the right time to pick up Grant, which improved to 11-2.

“In the first half we played our best ball all year--we looked like world-beaters,” Levine said of Grant’s 30-19 lead at the half. “And in the second half, we play our worst ball of the year.”

In his past three games, Terzian is averaging eight points off the bench for the Lancers, who are tied with North Hollywood at 3-0 in the East Valley League.

North Hollywood visits Grant on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

What goes around: It is a formality, to be sure, and one to which well-mannered coaches normally adhere. After every game, coaches meet courtside to shake hands.

After Highland Hall’s 112-45 loss to South Bay Lutheran in a Westside League game Friday, however, a little extra pressure might have been applied to the palm of South Bay Coach Norbert Huber.

With the game in hand, South Bay continued its press and kept its starters in the game into the fourth quarter. Four South Bay players scored 20 points or more.

Highland Hall assistant Dave Desmond bit his lip, and told the team to keep an eye on the calendar.

“Last year, we were 8-0 in baseball and they were 0-8 when we played,” said Desmond, who is also the baseball coach. “And we sent in the subs right away. The players can’t wait for baseball season.

“We’re going to break some Southern Section records against those guys.”

All but two members of the basketball team play baseball.

“Our kids have memories, and even if they forget, I’ll remind them,” Desmond said. “I’ll have the score of this game posted all over school.”

All is not well: If Bob Braswell’s speech sounds unusual lately, it is not because of a latent speech impediment the Cleveland basketball coach has developed.

And his tongue is not stuck in his cheek, at least not any more so than usual.

Braswell just has a mouthful of cough drops, and his is one of many Valley-area teams to be weakened by cold and flu viruses. In Friday’s 70-43 win over El Camino Real, Cleveland played without ailing guard Joey Manliguis. Several others, including starters Damon Charlot, Warren Harrell, Damon Greer and Adonis Jordan, reported assorted aches and pains.

“At one time or another, I think they all complained of something,” Braswell said.

It did not help matters when Cleveland (12-2) played what Braswell called the team’s worst game in his three years as coach. “I’m probably not going to even watch the film,” Braswell said. “I was very disappointed. Sometimes I think we just look across the court and see who’s there and play accordingly.”

El Camino Real played without ailing forward Brent Lofton. Teammates Corey Thurman, Kevin McNair and Nick Warner played despite their illnesses.

Double-take: You can look at it two ways. Take your choice.

First, it is a fact that Burroughs center Dan Murphy scored 24 points. Then again, he was just 3 of 12 shooting.

Which means . . .

“It means he made 18 free throws,” said Hart Coach Greg Herrick, whose team defeated Burroughs, 84-78.

Murphy was not the only one getting rich at the line--there were 85 free throws taken during the Foothill League game.

Hart converted 30 of 43 attempts; Burroughs made 34 of 42.

“You should see the score book,” Herrick said, laughing. “We ran out of room for all the little free-throw dots. I’m going to Xerox some copies of it because nobody’s going to believe me.”

The game, which started at 8:15 p.m., ended at 10:45, Herrick said. “You would have thought the refs were getting paid by the hour, or by the foul,” he said.

Sounds familiar: Kennedy lost a heartbreaker at home, 53-51, to defending City Section 4-A Division champion Fairfax on Friday, despite erasing an 18-point deficit to tie the score with eight seconds to play.

Chris Mills, Fairfax’s 6-7 All-American center, ended Kennedy’s upset bid with a dunk at the buzzer.

“I don’t know why, but they don’t give up many points here,” said a relieved Harvey Kitani, the Fairfax coach. “We almost let it get away. Just like last year.”

In the final regular-season game of 1987, Fairfax edged the Golden Cougars, 59-58, in overtime at Kennedy.