Collins Silences Taunts With 29-Point Showing to Lead Cleveland, 86-73 : Prep basketball: Cavalier point guard who transferred from Taft registers season-high total to help saddle former teammates with a North Valley League loss.

The first three letters of the words are identical and they roll off the tongue in the same basic manner, which might account for some of the trash-talking. Of course, scoring a ton of points against one’s old team can cause a pretty good stir too.

Transfer.

Traitor.

Cleveland High point guard Kenny Collins is definitely the former. And almost every time he touched the ball Friday night, he was called the latter.

“I like to be taunted,” said Collins, who was roundly jeered by Taft’s fans. “It makes me want to do more damage to my opponent.”

That’s right, Taft faithful, you are now and forevermore, the opponent.

If there was any residual doubt about Collins’ loyalties, they were dispelled after he scored a season-high 29 points to lead the Cavaliers to an 86-73 North Valley League victory at Cleveland.

Collins, a 6-foot senior, transferred to Cleveland from Taft after his sophomore season. He didn’t do much to hurt his former teammates in a reserve role last season, but this time pulled no punches.

“There’s no bitterness at all,” Taft Coach Jim Woodard said. “He’s a tremendous talent, a great point guard. If anybody knows, I know.”

After trailing from the opening bucket, Taft (13-6, 5-2 in league play) took its best second-half shot in the final moments of the third quarter. After the Toreadors scored to close within 60-49 with 1 minute 20 seconds left in the quarter, Cleveland’s Brandon Martin (20 points) answered with a driving layup.

Then Collins went to work. After a pair of free throws by Steve Harris again cut the Cleveland lead to 11, Collins drove the length of the floor and tossed in an off-balance jump shot, was fouled, and converted the three-point play for a 65-51 Cleveland lead.

With 7:02 left, Collins scored on a bank shot, was fouled, and again made his free throw, giving Cleveland (16-5, 7-0) a 68-53 lead. Razzed in sing-song voice by the Taft fans as he stepped to the line, he pointed a finger toward the stands after knocking down the free throw.

“I heard them, but it was no big deal,” Collins said. “It doesn’t bother me, it just fires me up.”

It started an inferno.

After a Taft turnover, Martin scored on a slam dunk. After a Toreador basket, however, Collins gave the Cavaliers a 72-55 lead with a leaning jump shot in the lane. It also may have sounded the death knell for Taft’s league championship hopes--the Cavaliers lead Taft and Granada Hills (5-2 in league play) by two games with three to play and already have beaten both.

It was uphill from the outset for Taft as Cleveland raced to a 28-17 lead after one quarter.

Cleveland off-guard Carlos Vasquez, a senior who had one eye blackened against Granada Hills on Wednesday and another bruised against Taft, scored 12 of his 20 points in the quarter en route to his second consecutive performance of 20 points or better this week.

Call it 20-20 vision, black and blue or not: Vasquez made six of nine shots from the floor in the first half.

Collins, who also has recorded two 20-plus games in a row, was just as deadly, making five of eight. Woodard admitted it sent his team reeling.

Taft’s Casey Sheahan (14 points) and Eric Dafney (12), who lead the team in scoring average, again suffered a cold night. Sheahan made four of 15 shots from the floor and Dafney five of 19.

Center-forward James Wade was the only other Toreador to score in double figures with 11 points.