Cleveland Stops Taft, Clinches Title

Two seasons ago, the Taft High boys’ basketball team completed its entire schedule without a slam dunk. No slams, no jams, no ma’am. And, knowing their vertical limitations, they didn’t attempt many.

Coach Jim Woodard probably wishes the latter was true in 1991, because on Friday night, the Toreadors’ problems with gravity led to gravity, indeed.

Taft, which has not won a league title since 1982, missed four slams and fell to Cleveland, 71-67, in overtime. The Cleveland victory, before a packed house at Taft, gave the Cavaliers (18-6, 9-1 in league play) the North Valley League title for the third consecutive season.

“Sometimes, people get so motivated they try to do things they can’t do,” Cleveland’s Brandon Martin said. “Like dunk the ball.”

Taft owned the boards, outrebounding Cleveland, 53-30. But the Toreadors also had a love affair with the back of the rim.

Perhaps the most visible mistake was the missed slam by Cornell Hill, who had three dunks when Taft played Cleveland two weeks ago. Taft trailed, 53-50, with 2 minutes 23 seconds remaining in regulation when Hill stole a pass and found himself open on a breakaway. He even had time to peek over his shoulder before he leaped and banged one off the rim.

“My knee went out on me,” Hill said. “I was there, but . . . I don’t know what happened.”

Yet Taft (15-7, 7-3) somehow mounted an eye-popping rally to send the game into overtime. With Cleveland holding a 57-50 lead, Eric Dafney, who earlier had missed two dunks and a wide-open layup, dunked with 1:17 left. Casey Sheahan stole the ball on the inbounds pass, whipped the ball to Hill, who passed to Dafney, who slammed down another dunk to cut the margin to 57-54.

Cleveland’s Kenny Collins (18 points) made a pair of free throws with 43 seconds left, but Dafney answered on a follow shot. After another Cleveland turnover, Sheahan followed a Dafney miss inside, was fouled with 18 seconds left and made the free throw to tie it, 59-59.

Cleveland made no such mistakes in overtime, however.

With the score tied, 63-63, and a minute left, Martin, who finished with a game-high 28 points, made two free throws. Steve Harris threw in a 10-foot jump shot for Taft, though, to tie it again.

Collins then scored from five feet to give Cleveland a 67-65 lead with 32 seconds left. Harris, perhaps thinking he was on a roll, tried--and missed--a 15-foot shot with 21 seconds left.

Collins was fouled with 18 seconds remaining and made both ends of a one-and-one to give the Cavaliers a four-point lead. Sheahan knifed through the lane to score with 11 seconds left, but Taft then committed its final faux pas.

“I told everybody that if we scored to call (a timeout),” Woodard said. “Nobody did.”

Martin, who made 14 of 18 free throws, was fouled and sank both shots with seven seconds left.

“It was our season in microcosm,” Woodard said. “We were taking bad shots and missing easy ones. We played hard but not intelligently.”