Cleveland Keeps Rolling in Vegas

If this outcome was being calculated according to the rules of new math, it would go down as a win with 2 constants and 1 variable.

Cleveland High, behind guard Adonis Jordan and forwards Lucious Harris and Warren Harrell, advanced to the semifinal round of the Las Vegas Holiday tournament at Nevada Las Vegas with a convincing 85-67 win over Rolling Hills on Tuesday night in the Cavaliers’ second game of the day.

Harris scored a game-high 28 points and had 13 rebounds, his third consecutive 20-plus performance in the tournament. Jordan scored 20 points and paced Cleveland’s torrid pressing defense. They were the constants.

Harrell, however, was probably the difference. The 6-6 senior had scored only 3 points in the Cavaliers’ 2 preceding games and was clearly struggling in all phases of the game.

Harrell, who will attend New Mexico State, scored 12 points, all in the first half, as Cleveland (7-2) started its rout and set the tempo for another easy win.

Harrell admitted that it may have been a matter of personal tempo as well.

“I’m just trying to get back in my rhythm,” he said. “Tonight the scoring was there, sometimes it isn’t. Those times I just try to help out as best as I can.”

Rolling Hills (9-2) had made a living at the 3-point stripe in its first 2 games, making 22 of 44 attempts. Cleveland spread out its defense, however, allowing the Titans to make just 4.

“We didn’t do anything real different,” Cleveland Coach Bob Braswell said. “We tried to just play our normal defense, except we wanted to be sure we denied them the long bombs.”

Rolling Hills connected on 2 3-point shots in the first quarter and none in either the second or third, as Cleveland rolled up a huge lead. The Cavaliers, who face Redmond, Wash., at 7:30 tonight in the semifinals, led, 50-30, at the half.

It may have been over before then. Cleveland scored 30 points in the first quarter and it was obvious that the bench depth of the Cavaliers was superior to that of Rolling Hills, who also had an earlier game Tuesday. And when teams play twice in the same day . . .

“We figured that if we could get out on them that their legs would be tired and they couldn’t make the long ones,” Harrell said.

It would have been a complete blowout without senior center John Hardy of Rolling Hills, who scored a game-high 35 points and had 15 of his team’s 21 points in the third quarter.

In other tournament games:

Cleveland 85, Skyline 72--The Cavaliers took a 20-point lead, 62-42, on a basket by Lucious Harris with 4:45 left in the third quarter. However, behind forward Rahim Harris, who scored 6 of his 21 points to open the fourth quarter, Skyline cut the lead to 3 with 3:49 left.

Nothing came easily for Skyline (11-3), though, after Rahim Harris scored inside to cut the Cleveland lead to 77-72. Skyline went scoreless over the final 4:11, missing 7 consecutive shots from the field. Cleveland made life easier for itself, making 6 of 8 free throws over the final 2:45.

Cleveland’s fierce tempo finally got to Skyline.

“Nobody ever presses a pressing team where we come from,” Skyline Coach Don Lippi said. “Nobody ever does it to us, and we weren’t able to handle it. When we made our run, we finally took our press off and went to a half-court man-to-man, so they’d stop getting the easy baskets.”

Ocean View 68, El Camino Real 55--For the second time in as many days, the Conquistadores started slowly and paid the price.

El Camino Real (3-3) was outscored, 19-5, in the first 8 minutes and made only 2 of 15 shots in the first quarter. In Monday’s 60-48 opening-round loss to Fairdale, Ky., El Camino Real was outscored, 16-7, in the first quarter.

El Camino Real trailed only 39-24 at the half despite the absence of senior center Jason Steele, who sat out the second quarter with 3 fouls.

Senior forward Brent Lofton finished with a team-high 21 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

El Camino Real plays Santa Barbara at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.