Cleveland Reaches Final as Hill Adapts to Change of Pace

When Eddie Hill first transferred to Cleveland High, he was surprised by how much better the Valley League is than the Foothill League. Sure, he had heard how tough the teams are, how a winning team in the Foothill would be hard-pressed to climb to such heights in the Valley.

But he was Eddie Hill, the sophomore who led Burroughs with a 16.9-point scoring average last year. How tough could it be?

“This is like a brand new world. It’s like going from elementary school to college,” Hill told Cleveland Coach Bob Braswell earlier this year.

If that is the case, summer school was in session for Hill on Saturday night when the Cavaliers played Manual Arts, the defending Division I state champion, in the semifinals of the Fairfax Hoopsters Summer Classic.

Hill’s play might have been too sloppy to get an A, but he definitely passed--and scored and rebounded--as Cleveland beat Manual Arts, 54-51. Cleveland, which beat the Toilers in the L. A. Games semifinals, will play Fairfax, a 63-60 winner over Westchester, in the final at 3:30 this afternoon.

“It’s a big transition,” Hill said of his transfer. “The coach expects so much from me that, at first, it intimidated me.”

And if playing for a new team against the defending state champion isn’t intimidating enough, Hill, a shooting guard, also had to play point guard in place of Cleveland’s Adonis Jordan, a Times All-Valley point guard who is participating in the Nike Basketball Camp in Princeton, N.J.

Cleveland missed Jordan in the first half when the Toilers jumped to a 16-5 lead. Hill missed all four of his first-half shots and looked anything but Jordan’s heir.

But Hill and the Cavaliers adjusted in the second half. Hill’s first shot was an air ball, but the next time downcourt he sank a 15-footer that brought Cleveland to within one point, 22-21, and triggered a 17-7 run.

“That was the key basket,” Braswell said of Hill’s medium-range jump shot.

Hill hit two more key baskets, including a three-point shot that gave Cleveland a five-point lead with 10 minutes left. He finished with nine points and three rebounds.

“I’m ready to step forward and be a leader,” he said.

If he keeps making the shots, Hill might not have to step forward to be the big guard.