THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Dunking Debacle Drowns Taft’s Hopes for Elusive League Title

To dunk, or not to dunk.

That will be the question facing the Taft High basketball team when it plays host to Fairfax in the first round of the City Section 4-A Division playoffs Friday.

The Toreadors missed four of six slam-dunk attempts during last Friday night’s 71-67 overtime loss to Cleveland. A win would have given the Toreadors a share of the North Valley League title with the Cavaliers (18-6, 9-1 in league play) and their first championship since 1982. Instead, Taft (15-7, 7-3) fell into a second-place tie with Granada Hills, prompting Coach Jim Woodard to ponder reinstating his miss-a-dunk, be-benched rule of the previous nine seasons.

“I changed that this year,” Woodard said. “Because, to be quite honest with you, some of our kids have really struggled with layups. I used to tell the kids, ‘If you miss a dunk, fake left and go to the bench.’

“But for some of them, the dunk is a higher percentage shot than a layup.”

Although Cornell Hill was not the only Toreador guilty of dubious dunking--Eric Dafney (two misses) and Steve Harris (one) did likewise--his miscue was the most memorable: With 2 minutes 23 seconds left in the fourth quarter and Taft trailing, 53-50, Hill was so open that he had time to reroute his approach from the middle of the court to the right side before takeoff.

“It’s exasperating as a coach,” Woodard said of the missed dunk attempts. “Sometimes your players are so hyped up that they try too hard to do things and make mistakes. . . . I know our kids really played hard last night.”

No rebounds, no rings: By winning its third consecutive North Valley League title, Cleveland will enter the 4-A playoffs as the No. 3-seeded team in the 16-team tournament.

But the Cavaliers are not likely to survive past the second round if they rebound as poorly as they did against Taft.

Cleveland, going against a Taft front line that is far from towering at 6-foot-5, 6-3 and 6-1, was outrebounded, 53-30.

Although Taft hit only 30 of 91 field-goal attempts against Cleveland, the Toreadors repeatedly got inside for second and third shots.

Taft guard Mark Walker, who is listed as 6-0 but is more like 5-10, according to Woodard, had six offensive rebounds.

No big deal: Banning, ironically, will be Cleveland’s first-round opponent in the playoffs: The Pilots are coached by Marc Paez, Cleveland’s coach last season.

“It’s just another playoff game to me,” Paez said. “We’re 5-18 so I don’t know that I’m looking forward to playing anyone at this moment. I’m just looking for a win. . . . It may have been a bigger thing if we had a competitive team, but (Banning) is a football school. The basketball team has been struggling for the last few years.”

Although Banning, a member of the Southern Pacific Conference, posted a dismal 2-8 record in the league, it does have an outstanding player in Jabari Anderson, an off-guard who is averaging 36 points a game.

Two for two: Quartz Hill and Thousand Oaks, which won football championships in the Golden and Marmonte leagues in the fall, added basketball titles.

Quartz Hill followed its first Golden League football title last season with its first outright league basketball title (the Rebels tied Burroughs in 1988).

Thousand Oaks, a traditional Marmonte League football power, won its first basketball title since 1977.

Record march: Chris Loll is closing in on the single-season and career-scoring records at Thousand Oaks, and the person whose records Loll is chasing, Steve Ornelaz, is hoping he gets them.

“I know he’s having a great year,” said Ornelaz, 31, who frequently plays basketball with Loll on the playgrounds in Thousand Oaks. “He’s a good player who has really developed this season.”

Ornelaz, who led the Lancers to their last Marmonte League title in 1977, holds many school records, including points in a career (1,000) and points in a season (617).

Loll has 978 points in his career and 601 this season.

Coincidentally, Ornelaz (6-5) and Loll (6-5 1/2) are about the same height, and both are left-handed shooters.

Loll also ranks second on Thousand Oaks’ single-season list in blocked shots with 75 (Doug Friedman set the record of 81 in 1983-84).

Last week, Loll broke Ornelaz’s single-season rebounding record of 227. Loll has 257.

Savoring a title: It appeared planned, but Hart’s victory celebration after Friday night’s 70-64 Foothill League victory over visiting Burroughs was as impromptu as a Michael Jordan dunk after a steal at midcourt.

Immediately after Hart won, clinching the Indians’ first Foothill League title since 1984, the lights in the gym were turned off and two spotlights were turned on as the players cut down the nets from the baskets.

“I would like to tell you it was designed, but it wasn’t,” Hart Coach Greg Herrick said. “Actually, it was kind of scary. It could have caused some big problems if there had been a fight or anything like that.”

According to Herrick, the lights were dimmed for postgame festivities. When Herrick saw the spotlights, he suggested that they be focused on the players.

“It looked pretty,” Herrick said. “But it was totally improvised.”

pichar

Add Hart: While Herrick was pleased to win his first Foothill League title in his fourth season as Hart’s coach, he was particularly happy for his seniors.

“I know I’ll get another chance at winning league. But for a lot of these kids, this will be their only chance,” he said.

Herrick won two City 3-A titles (1981 and ‘82) and four league titles while coaching at Cleveland from 1979-85. He was an assistant coach at College of the Canyons from 1985-87.