Taft’s Scoring Burden Too Heavy for Thomas to Carry Alone in Loss

Dedan Thomas backpedaled in a furious attempt to keep his body between the basket behind him and the four Manual Arts High players bearing down on him.

As Cedric Jones, the Toilers’ point guard, passed the free-throw line, he gave a frenzied jerk of his head toward the baseline, fooling everyone in the Fairfax High gym except Thomas, who clung to Jones like a sweat-soaked jersey.

Jones jumped toward the basket for a layup and Thomas, Taft’s 5-foot, 11-inch point guard, went with him, soaring into the air with hands outstretched, ready to send Jones’ shot back to three-point land. But as both players reached the zenith of their leaps, Jones dumped the ball behind him to teammate William Celestine for an easy layup.

Thomas landed on the court and shook his head in frustration as his four teammates arrived belatedly. The basketball season has not even started and already it looks like a long one for Thomas, his pained expression seemed to convey.

From the euphoria of last season when Taft was 16-7 and advanced to the second round of the City Section 4-A Division playoffs to the frustration of Thursday afternoon, when Taft lost to Manual Arts, 54-37, in the first round of the Fairfax Hoopster Summer Classic, Thomas has run the gamut of emotions this year like he runs a Toreador fast break--very quickly.

“We’re not as good as we were last year. We’re really young and we need a lot of work,” Thomas said. “But by the time the season rolls around, we’ll be the old Taft.”

If Taft is unable to mature like Thomas hopes, the guard may prematurely age trying to pick up the slack. Last year, Thomas was third on the team in scoring with a 13.9 average, set a school record with 10 assists a game and was named to The Times’ All-Valley team.

This year, he must do more.

“I wasn’t looking to shoot a lot last year because we had so many options,” Thomas said. “This year, I’m going to have to score a lot.”

Thomas scored five of Taft’s 19 first-half points against Manual Arts and, with four assists, accounted for 68% of the Toreador points. And Taft, which trailed by as much as 11 with 1 1/2 minutes left in the half, scored four points in the last 30 seconds to close to within 26-19.

But Taft could get no closer in the second half. Manual Arts used a half-court trapping defense that forced the ball out of Thomas’ hands and, more times than not, into the Toilers’. Thomas had only one second-half turnover--Taft had only five as a team--but whenever another Toreador had the ball, he seemed more inclined to throw up an 18-foot air ball than wait until Thomas was free.

“We don’t see too many zones in the summer and that really hurt us,” Taft Coach Jim Woodard said.

Toreadors Tony Middleton, Tosh Williams and Tomi Egardo shot a combined 2 for 16 in the second half and Thomas missed his first five shots and 8 of 11 in the half.

The Toreadors’ frustration came to a head midway through the half when they blew three consecutive fast-break opportunities, including a four-on-one with Thomas leading.

“We had no offense going. No one was hitting their shots,” Woodard said. “We just don’t have much offensive punch, and as we got further and further behind Dedan forced some shots.”

But any forced shots Thomas may have taken were an attempt to show his teammates that Taft could still come back against the defending state champion.

“I just had to pick up the team and let them know that we were still in it,” Thomas said. “But we need more scoring from everybody. I can’t do it all.”