Rolling Hills Hotshots : Look-Alike Trio Already Has 46 Three-Pointers This Season

They’re not, their coach acknowledges, completely without conscience. It’s just that none of the three is gun-shy. Just ask anybody who was buried under a hail of their 3-pointers last week during the Pacific Shores Basketball Tournament.

Last year they averaged five 3-point baskets per game. This year they’ve made 46. And they are three important reasons that Rolling Hills High School is off to a 6-0 start and that Coach Cliff Warren has a tournament championship under his belt.

They’re just three quiet, bookish-looking guys, unimposing sorts that you don’t really notice on the court until you hear the click that the basketball makes as it sails through the hoop without rippling the net. They’re the sort of guys you can’t pick out without a program, so here’s an introduction:

- Steve Clover is the guy with the picture-perfect jump shot and No. 13 on his jersey. At 6-foot-4, he’s an inch taller than Rolling Hills’ other two outside gunners. He’s the only junior among the trio and the only one that shoots right-handed. Last year he was the Titans’ point guard, but this season, Warren has him prowling around the 3-point stripe, looking for open shots. He’s averaging 20 points per game and has already hit 21 3-pointers.

- The guy with No. 21 on his back is Ron Dinnel. He’s a senior left-hander and last year came off the bench as Rolling Hills’ sixth man. He’s averaging 16.8 points per game and he has responded to his starting job at swingman this year by nailing 12 shots from 3-point range. He’s the strongest physically of the three and is a threat to either step behind the 3-point line or drive with the ball to the basket.

- The other southpaw--No. 32--is the point guard, Mark Tesar. Last year he started at off-guard and led the Titans in 3-pointers, but Warren switched him with Clover this year to take advantage of Tesar’s ball-handling skills. So far this season, Tesar is shooting less, but when he does he usually makes it--as his 13 3-pointers and his scoring average of 11.8 points per game would attest. He’s also leading Rolling Hills in assists.

The guy that Tesar dishes off to most is John Hardy. Hardy is easy to pick out. He’s the one getting tons of points on acrobatic rebounds and layups inside the paint. Hardy is Rolling Hills’ scoring leader with 27.4 points per game, and it’s his imposing force inside the key that frees up Rolling Hills’ sharpshooters to cast off with abandon.

“We just try to get the ball to the open man,” Warren said. “The open man is the shooter no matter what number he has on.”

More often than not that man is Hardy. But in Rolling Hills’ season opener against Culver City during the Pacific Shores Tournament, Dinnel led the way with 26 points. In the second round game against El Segundo, Tesar’s 22 points paced the Titans. Hardy was the leading scorer in the next two games, but in one--against Carson in the semifinal--Dinnel scored 27.

Then it was Clover’s turn. He bombed away for 30 points--21 of them coming on 3-pointers--in the Pacific Shores championship game against St. Bernard. Tesar added four more 3-pointers in that game and Rolling Hills took the title with a convincing 87-75 victory over the much taller Vikings.

This week, the Titans are playing in the Beverly Hills Tournament. Clover hit five more 3-pointers to lead Rolling Hills over Thousand Oaks in the opener Tuesday, and Tesar hit five in a second-round win Wednesday against Ventura. It’s a good bet that Beverly Hills’ gym will be full of rainbows again Friday night when Rolling Hills plays in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m.

Warren insisted that his trio of outside gunners won’t be firing away without looking inside for Hardy first. But he conceded that it’s nice to be able to surround the 3-point stripe with three legitimate long-range shooters.

“No matter how the ball travels around the key we always hope we have someone posted up inside there,” Warren said. “You’ve got to be able to score inside if you want to be a really top team.”

Nonetheless, Warren became a blessed man when the 3-point shot was installed in prep ranks for the first time last year. Warren was initially opposed to the rule, but now he stresses the shot in practice. He claims that the 19-foot, 9-inch stripe is well within the natural range of a good shooter.

“It’s a normal distance shot,” Warren said. “It’s really no more difficult than a 16-footer with someone guarding you right in your face. If you’re not shooting well on a given night you’re going to miss 16-footers as well as your 3-pointers. There are nights where you just don’t shoot well from the free throw line or anywhere else. So a 3-pointer is just a normal shot.”

Warren’s players certainly don’t mind the chance to extend their range. In practice, the Titans’ outside shooters drill themselves on knowing where the 3-point stripe is at all times.

“It’s unforgivable to take a shot with your foot on the line,” Warren said. “I harp on that constantly. Six inches isn’t going to change your shooting percentage one bit, but you lose a point. So we drill to make sure that we know we’re right behind that line the instant we get the ball. It’s really unfortunate to shoot a 19-foot, 4-inch shot.”

Practice makes perfect. During the Pacific Shores Tournament, Rolling Hills’ hot-handed gunners connected on 43% of their shots from 3-point land.

“You just get out there, and if you can hit ‘em, you go for it,” Clover said. “Last year, it seemed like quite a heave. “But now that I’ve gotten a little bigger it seems like more of a routine shot. It’s really not all that far.”

But the 3-pointer impact is a little more far-ranging. In the Pacific Shores Tournament, the Titans’ mad bombers beat back several rallies by Carson and St. Bernard with outside shots.

“The other teams would just get demoralized,” Tesar said. “When you hit a 3-pointer, it takes the steam out of their run and gives you a chance to catch your breath.”

And it makes coaches cringe. Warren said the psychological effect of the 3-pointer is tremendous.

“It’s a real emotional blow,” he said. “As a coach, it’s just gut-wrenching when that 3-pointer is going down.”

Fortunately for Warren, it is Clover, Dinnel and Tesar who do most of the gut wrenching--for other coaches. And in the process, Rolling Hills has become a thrilling team to watch by adding what Warren called “another dimension of excitement” to its game. In return, Rolling Hills’ demure-looking threesome has become the crowd favorite of a loud and boisterous Titan rooting section.

“They’re eating it up,” Clover said. “The crowd’s doing a great job. The ultimate for them is John (Hardy) dunking--then they’re jumping out of their seats. But they get pretty fired up whenever we hit a 3-pointer.”

The Titan marksmen also seem to feed off of their own enthusiasm.

“We usually get two or three of them in a row,” Dinnel said. “We get going on streaks. It seems like once someone gets hot we seem to get it out to that guy.”

The key to that is Tesar. He’s rapidly adapting to his role as ball handler and played a major part in picking away at the tenacious, pressing defenses that Carson and St. Bernard threw at them during the Pacific Shores tourney.

“Whenever you’re a really good shooter, you don’t want to give up the ball,” Warren said. “But these guys have the instinct to give up the ball without thought to another guy who is open. Especially Tesar. He sacrifices the number of shots he takes for what’s best for the team.”

Clover has the best pure shooting form, but all three of them have slightly different styles as to how high they jump and how quickly they release the ball.

“The most important thing all three have in common is complete confidence in their shot,” Warren said. “None of them are afraid to let it fly.”

Warren said he thinks all three have a good chance at being successful college players.

Tesar scored a 1,340 on his Scholastic Aptitude Test and is leaning toward Stanford, Yale, Columbia and Harvard. Clover, who has a 3.7 grade-point average, is being recruited by Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine. And while Dinnel has received only one letter thus far--from Idaho State--his eye-opening scoring average is likely to bring in more offers now that he is a starter.

“All three of them are pretty good-sized guards,” Warren said. “It’s surprising that there isn’t more emphasis in college to recruit players specifically as 3-point shooters. A good shooter in high school is going to be a good shooter in college. It’s an ability you really can’t coach. All you can really coach is confidence, and all three of these guys have that.”

In the meantime, those three will concentrate on trying to shoot their way toward another CIF title shot for Warren.

Two years ago, Rolling Hills lost in the final to Saugus and finished 26-4. In his four years at the school, Warren’s teams have a combined 74-17 record and have never failed to reach at least the CIF quarterfinals, even though Roger Hendrix--a 6-5 sophomore post player on this year’s team--is the tallest player to suit up in a Titan uniform during Warren’s tenure.

They’ve gotten there traditionally with a solid defense and a hard-nosed inside game. It appears now that Warren’s “added dimension”--the 3-point shot--will be a permanent part of the Rolling Hills arsenal for a few years to come, at least.

Another sophomore, Chad Heitzler, is a 6-2 guard who comes off the bench for Warren in the late minutes. He’s the heir apparent to one of the spots that will open up when Tesar and Dinnel graduate. And although Heitzler has yet to hit his first 3-pointer, it’s probably not long in coming.

Warren’s description of Heitzler won’t come as good news for Rolling Hills’ future opponents.

“He has the same type of potential,” Warren said. “He can shoot right along with them.”