Cleveland Puts Kennedy in Its Place With an 82-42 Blowout

So much for showdowns.

That’s how Friday night’s North Valley League basketball game between Cleveland High and Kennedy was billed.

It turned out to be an 82-42 rout by a Cleveland team that never gave the Golden Cougars a chance in front of a vocal crowd at Kennedy.

It was the 14th win in a row for the Cavaliers, and as lopsided as the final score was, it could have been worse. Cleveland held a 50-15 lead midway through the third quarter and a 69-23 advantage early in the final period. Kennedy scored less than 10 points in each of the first 3 quarters before scoring 21 in the fourth.

And this was no slumping team Cleveland picked on.

Kennedy (12-5, 5-2 in league play) had won 4 consecutive games and 7 of its past 8.

The Golden Cougars had won their past 3 by coming from behind in the final minutes. But against the talented Cavaliers (17-2, 7-0), they were only in the game for the first 10 minutes.

Cleveland led, 12-7, midway through the first quarter, then went on a 15-1 tear to take a 27-8 lead with 5:11 left in the second period.

The Cavaliers hit 7 of 12 shots during the streak, while Kennedy missed all 7 of its shots.

Dana Dotson’s basket cut Kennedy’s deficit to 27-10, but Cleveland went on an 8-3 run to end the half.

“Our defense played really well,” said Cavalier forward Lucious Harris, who tied Kennedy’s Randy Brown for scoring honors with 21 points. “We had to get up for this game and we did.”

Kennedy, which only lost to Cleveland by 4 points at home last season, didn’t help itself with pathetic shooting.

The Golden Cougars made only 4 of 22 shots in the first half, including 2 of 12 in the first quarter. To compound matters, they made only 5 of 14 free throws.

“I don’t know what happened,” Kennedy Coach Yutaka Shimizu said. “We were getting the shots we wanted in the first quarter, but they just weren’t falling.”

Shimizu attributed his team’s shooting woes to a combination of being overly eager and the Cleveland defense.

Cleveland Coach Bob Braswell would make a case for the latter and added that Wednesday’s narrow victory (45-42) over Taft was another reason for the Cavaliers’ inspired play.

“That game woke these guys up,” Brasswell said. “We didn’t play well and we hadn’t practiced well the day before.”

The Cavaliers had been so lethargic in Tuesday’s practice that Braswell threw the team out of the gym after 5 minutes.

However, Braswell said Thursday’s practice was the Cavaliers’ best of the season and it paid off Friday as Cleveland made 53.1% (34 of 64) of its field-goal attempts and forced 26 turnovers.

“We knew they would slow the pace down,” Braswell added. “But once we got out to that big lead, they had to catch up and I think we forced them to take some shots they didn’t want to.”

Despite the 27-8 deficit in the second quarter, Kennedy had several open shots within 5 feet of the basket but misfired.