Cleveland Eyes Playoff Run After Dashing Past Kennedy

There were a few moist eyes in the crowd and on the court at Cleveland High on Friday when, during the team’s annual Senior Night, parents of 12th-grade players were trotted out from the stands in a salute for their support.

If that didn’t tug on enough heartstrings, Cleveland retired the jersey of 1987 graduate Trevor Wilson at halftime. Wilson, who starts at UCLA, was visibly moved as he walked off with enough memorabilia to open a medium-sized pawn shop.

After Cleveland’s 79-50 win over Kennedy, however, senior point guard Adonis Jordan couldn’t help but recall the tears of 12 months ago, when Cleveland was rudely bounced from the City Section 4-A Division playoffs in a first-round loss to Fremont.

“I was really hurt,” said Jordan, who scored a game-high 23 points against Kennedy. “Not as much for myself, but for those seniors. I told the seniors this time that I’m saving all my crying for when it’s all over, after we go all the way.”

With an eye on the playoffs, Cleveland (20-2) won its 17th consecutive game in a manner that also caused a display of emotion from the Kennedy stands. But these were jeers, not tears.

Kennedy Coach Yutaka Shimizu was roundly razzed throughout the first half by a group of Kennedy fans who blamed Shimizu for failing to stop the Cleveland onslaught. Cleveland put five seniors who had never started on the floor for the tip-off, yet Kennedy trailed, 14-4, after the first quarter and 31-10 at the half.

Shimizu called only two timeouts in the half, despite a rash of turnovers and some frigid shooting. Kennedy made only four field goals and committed more turnovers (20) than it had field-goal attempts (13) in the first half.

And for the Cavaliers, ranked No. 2 in the state, it may have been a tune-up, but most of it was worth tuning out.

Cleveland made only 30 of 72 field-goal attempts (41.7%). Kennedy was even worse, making only nine of 29 (31.0%) over the first three quarters.

“I kind of expected it,” Cleveland Coach Bob Braswell said. “There were a lot of distractions tonight. I told one of our assistants before the game that I’d be real surprised if we shot well tonight.”

Kennedy found consolation by scoring 28 points in the fourth quarter. Randy Brown led Kennedy with 21, seven in the fourth quarter.

Cleveland forced more than enough turnovers (36) to make up for its poor shooting. Sparked by the press and transition game, Cavalier guards Lucious Harris and Eddie Hill each scored 14 points to fuel the runaway. Hill scored seven consecutive baskets at the end of the third and in the opening moments of the fourth quarters to give the Cavaliers a 66-24 lead with 6:18 remaining.

“Our defense really carried us,” Braswell said. “The rest of it was kind of ragged. We didn’t play real well offensively.”

Shimizu, who was ragged by spectators as thoroughly as his team was run ragged on the floor, explained that it wouldn’t have mattered had he called a dozen timeouts.

“Everybody has his own coaching style,” he said. “We just haven’t started well in our last four games. It’s been because of poor shooting and a lot of turnovers.”

Kennedy (12-8, 5-5), which lost its fourth consecutive league game, fell into a tie for third with Granada Hills, a 68-56 winner over Taft on Friday.

Cleveland will open the playoffs against Gardena, a team it defeated, 111-58, in early January. Jordan promised that there will be no letdowns along the lines of last year’s Fremont debacle. In fact, Jordan scheduled a meeting of seniors Thursday to address that very topic.

Jordan said he, for one, is not prepared to handle the kind of emotional baggage he had to carry after last season’s upset.

“I feel our team can do a lot of special things. I’m not ready to pack it up yet,” he said.