Taft Flattened by Cleveland’s Press, 77-45

Taft High Coach Jim Woodard, a history teacher by trade, flipped through the musty pages of time to summarize how he felt before Friday night’s North Valley League opener at Cleveland.

“I feel like Louis XVI,” Woodard said. “Right before he went to the guillotine.”

Woodard was dead right, because it was over in a flash. The Cavalier press generated 25 first-half turnovers in a 77-45 rout, giving them 14 victories in 15 games.

With surgical precision, Cleveland took a 48-11 lead at halftime as Taft made a mere three of 23 shots (13%) from the field.

“They could have made it 95-30,” Woodard said. “(Cleveland Coach) Marc Paez is a gentleman for calling off the press in the second half.”

While a guillotine is purportedly painless, the effect of a blowout is not.

“I’m sensitive to that because I’ve had scores run up on me,” Paez said. “As hurtful as it is to me, it’s even harder on the kids. Our press gave us what we wanted by halftime, so I called it off.”

Taft (13-6, 3-2 in league play) must have wished it had been called off entirely.

Cleveland (15-4, 5-0) rattled the Toreadors so often that Woodard was forced to temporarily yank point guard Casey Sheahan in the first quarter. Sheahan, clearly frustrated, barked at the Taft coach from the floor. “He lost his cool,” Woodard said. “Players don’t do that to me. It won’t happen again.”

What’s worse, 6-foot-7 Taft forward Jason Deyoe--the team’s leading scorer--left the game in the third quarter with an injured right knee and did not return.

While Taft lost its big man, Cleveland found theirs. Senior center Trenton Cornelius, who has struggled all season, scored nine points in the first half and 11 overall.

“I haven’t been playing too strong,” Cornelius said. “I know what to do now--utilize the inside game more.”

No player from Taft scored more than six points. Cleveland was led by reserve Pat McCook (21 points), followed by Eddie Hill (13) and Andre Chevalier (eight points, eight assists). Paez had to agree that while Cleveland’s attack may not yet be razor sharp, it still has teeth.

“When we have the tempo going our way, it creates high-percentage shots and the kids really feed off that,” he said. “It creates a feeding frenzy.”