Cleveland Again Starts With a Loss

Kevin Crider can look at things two ways. If the first-year Cleveland High basketball coach prefers to view matters optimistically, he didn’t fare any worse than the two coaches who preceded him. If he opts for the pessimistic outlook, he didn’t fare any better, either.

For the third season in a row--under its third coach in as many seasons--Cleveland stumbled in its opener against Westchester, this time falling in a heartbreaker, 74-72, in a nonleague City Section game at Westchester on Wednesday night.

Westchester’s James Gray knocked down a 15-foot jump shot with two seconds left to break a 72-72 tie. Gray’s basket came moments after Cleveland forward Brandon Martin scored inside and made a free throw to complete a three-point play to tie the score with 26 seconds remaining.

A 50-foot desperation heave by Kenny Collins (12 points) missed wide to the right. Once again, Cleveland is 0-1.

“We played the first half real well,” said Martin, who scored a game-high 21 points. “Then, in the second half, we came out like we had it won.”

Westchester didn’t seem to want to come out at all. The Comets stayed in the locker room until 10 seconds before the buzzer sounded to start the second half and didn’t run any warm-up drills.

Guess which team turned ice cold? Westchester trailed, 42-38, at the half but tied the score with 6:10 left on an inside basket by Lorenzo Ball (15 points). The score was tied, 58-58, after three quarters.

Cleveland took a 64-60 lead with 6:10 left on a jump shot by Kayheed Murray (13 points) but did not score again from the field until Collins scored on a dribble drive with 2:02 left to bring the Cavaliers to within 70-68.

Westchester slowed the pace and worked the ball inside to center LeRoi O’Brien (17 points), whose thundering dunk gave Westchester a 72-68 lead with 1:31 remaining. Collins was fouled on the other end and made the front end of a one-and-one opportunity with 1:09 left, but Cleveland was called for a lane violation on Collins’ second attempt--which he made--and trailed, 72-69.

Ball missed from three feet and grabbed his own miss, but Murray stripped away the rebound. Sophomore center Shawn Bankhead (seven points) missed inside, but Martin rebounded and tossed in a follow shot and was fouled with 26 seconds left. Martin made the free throw to set the stage for Gray, who, after a timeout with 10 seconds remaining, took the inbounds pass and scored on a jump shot over the outstretched arms of Collins.

Cleveland’s Carlos Vasquez was six of six from the field in the first half and scored 17 points.