Peterson Sees Stars in His Komets : High school basketball: Kearny coasts in Hilltop Tournament, but coach doesn’t. He makes it clear he demands team play even when outcome is already decided.

You can never tell the fortunes of Kearny High’s boys’ basketball team by watching its coach, Bill Peterson, a man of perpetually changing moods.

Kearny, playing host Hilltop in the third round of the Hilltop Invitational Tournament Friday, appeared to be sailing toward a 4-0 record when Peterson decided his players needed a chewing out and called timeout to do so midway through the third quarter.

While Peterson launched into a small-scale tirade, the scoreboard showed the Komets with a 25-point lead.

The next time a timeout was called, Peterson stood with his hands in his pockets, chomped on a piece of gum and said nothing while his assistant spoke softly, encouragingly as Kearny, then leading by 40, was 1:21 away from a 77-39 victory.

That’s Peterson. One minute the 58-year-old coach will be laughing and joking on the bench, even occasionally talking to people in the stands during the game. The next he’ll be kicking his ball bag, red in the face. One minute he’ll be stomping his heels in front of the bench, irate at a referee. The next he’ll be reclining in a chair at the end of the bench with a pensive look on his face.

The unpredictable Peterson Friday blew his stack as No. 6 Kearny was outscoring the winless Lancers, 13-2, and in the midst of a 10-0 run. The timeout came 3:31 into the period, after Kearny’s full-court press and half-court 3-2 zone defense had forced eight Hilltop turnovers in that span.

Peterson saw it as perfect timing for a tongue-lashing. The Komets weren’t passing the ball and were caught in a rare shooting lapse.

“They were thinking about their scoring averages,” said Peterson. “They were trying to pad their stats. The strength of this team is its passing. They score when they pass, play well when they pass the ball around.

“They know how to play. They also know how the game is supposed to be played. But they needed a little reminding.”

Kearny passed the ball around enough so that 11 of its 12 players scored, Damion Victor, who had 19 points, including 12 in the first half on three three-pointers. Demetrius Brown and Ali Nayab each had 12 in this no-contest game that put the Komets into today’s championship game against Rancho Buena Vista, a 49-46 winner over Mira Mesa Friday. Kearny and RBV met in the first round Wednesday. The Komets won, 73-43.

“We’re loaded,” Peterson said. “I’ve got 10 kids who can play. And we really had good intensity tonight. They played hard the whole game.”

The Komets also had scoring runs of 8-0, 8-0 and 13-0 and broke out to an early 9-3 lead before they outscored the Lancers, 24-12, in the first period. Hilltop, led by Jorge Munoz’s 14 points, trailed by 15 at the opening of the second period as Brown buried a three-pointer from the top of the key. The Lancers cut the lead to eight, 27-19, as Colby Popplewell scored on an offensive rebound and Ivan Dishman hit back-to-back jumpers, one a three-pointer.

But Kearny, a lightning-fast run-and-gun team, shifted gears and left Hilltop in the dust again. Nayab nailed a three-pointer from the wing a Keith Robinson hit two jumpers and two foul shots to key the 13-0 run that resulted in a 42-24 halftime lead for Kearny.

Kearny’s defense forced 14 Hilltop turnovers and the Komets’ half-court zone pressure had the Lancers taking fishermen’s shots--as in casting off.

The Komets led by as many as 41 and would have won by that much had Munoz not banked in a three-point bomb with five seconds left. The victory left Peterson, the man of many expressions, smiling. He expects to be grinning for the next two seasons, after which he plans to retire.

Said Peterson, “I’m going to go out smiling.”

But that could change with the tick of a clock.