Well-Coiffed Cleveland Brushes Gardena Aside, 92-75

How did Cleveland High look in its 92-75 win over Gardena on Friday night? Depends on whom you talk to and what you talk about.

Eddie Hill, for instance, readily admits that the Cavaliers’ play in the first-round game of the City Section 4-A Division basketball playoffs was “so-so.” Cleveland Coach Marc Paez said he thought the team played at about 75% efficiency.

But there are other ways of grading appearance. Ask Hill, who a few minutes before the game was caught red-handed, fixing his hair in the locker room mirror. Believe it: Hill’s hair, which rises a good three inches above his head in mocking defiance of Newton’s Law, looked really good.

“Aw, man,” he said. “That’s just a hairstyle. I came here to play basketball, not look good.”

Hill, a senior guard who has signed a letter of intent to play at Washington State, was among a trio of styling Clevelanders offensively, finishing with 18 points. Sophomore forward Brandon Martin also had 18, with off-guard Pat McCook coming off the bench to score 16.

Talk about hair. McCook’s style--he looks like an Egyptian pharaoh who rode around in a convertible all day--makes Hill’s high-rise job look microscopic. McCook’s hair is stacked so high, in fact, that he needs mirror time before tip-off, too. “It tilts back on my head because I push it back,” said McCook, a 6-4 junior. “If I don’t, when I shoot, it hits my hand. But it’s my good-luck charm, it makes me look taller.”

On the floor, however, the game was not without a few hairy moments. The Cavaliers (20-5) played very little defense early but led, 49-39, at halftime. Without McCook, who scored 13 points in the half, it might have been a different game. And the opponent looming on the horizon next Wednesday is Fairfax, which knocked Cleveland out of the playoffs last year with a second-round upset. A similar performance doubtlessly would produce a different result.

“We played a first-round playoff game,” Hill said. “We definitely looked a little rusty. There were lots of mistakes and silly turnovers.”

Cleveland, in fact, turned the ball over 20 times; good thing Gardena coughed it up 26 times.

“Today we played at about 70 or 75 percent,” Hill said. “And most of that came on D, where we allowed 75 points or whatever it was.”

Defense? All you need to know is that Cleveland made 20 of 37 field-goal attempts (54%) in the first half and it was only good for a 10-point lead. Cleveland, however, buried Gardena (5-19) with a 15-7 run, including five points from Hill, to take a 64-46 lead with 2 minutes 32 seconds left in the third quarter.

Gardena’s Robin Kirksey led all players with 21 points, making 15 of 17 free throws. But Cleveland’s superior depth--Andre Chevalier and Trenton Cornelius each added nine points and Bobby McRae had eight--was too much.