He’s Looking to Expand His Horizons : Empire League: Steve Carbone is working hard to overcome his image as a gunner, though the senior is Los Alamitos’ best three-point shooter.

In your face, Byron Scott.

Standing alone in his driveway, with only a basketball and a hoop for company, Steve Carbone always matched-up well against the Laker guard. Never mind that Carbone was only in fourth grade at the time and Scott was one of the NBA’s finest jump shooters, it was always the toughest one-on-one game on the block.

An 18-foot jump shot from straight away. Swish . Carbone 1, Scott 0.

A 12-foot bank shot from the wing. Yesss . Carbone 2, Scott 0.

For every basket Carbone made, he got one point and for every shot he missed, Scott, or some other invisible opponent, got two points. As the years passed, Carbone began to win more games than he lost and earned a reputation as the finest shooter in the neighborhood.

As his basketball-playing world expanded, it followed him to Los Alamitos High, where he quickly became the team’s best three-point shooter.

“That was what my reputation here has been for the last two years--a shooter and nothing else,” Carbone said.

Determined to be more than just another gunner, Carbone set out to change his image last summer. He enlisted the help of a personal trainer to help him gain weight and increase his fitness, and he worked on his defense, dribbling, passing and rebounding.

All things considered, he has become a more well-rounded player, according to Coach Steve Brooks. But about that image? Well, it looks like that’s going to take a little more work.

“I guess shooting three-point shots is pretty much my forte,” Carbone said.

Certainly, he talks like a man who shoots first and asks questions later. Carbone, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, described his mental approach this way:

“If you’re a shooter and you’re having an off game, you can’t stop shooting. I’ve had slumps before and the only way out of them is to keep shooting.”

If it sounds as if Carbone is not afraid to launch long-range jumper after long-range jumper, that’s because he’s not. After all, there’s no guilt involved when you’re playing imaginary opponents in the driveway. No one gets benched for having an off day.

Back then, Carbone was his own worst critic. When he got to high school he discovered that if he wasn’t shooting well, he wasn’t playing well, period. Everything suffered.

“In the past, I’d say a bad game affected me more than it should have,” he said. “Mentally, it would take me out of the game. Last summer and through practice this season, it’s been different. I can’t let my shooting affect the team.”

Most of the time, Carbone has only helped the Griffins win games with his shooting. Last season, he averaged 14.2 points as Los Alamitos won a share of the Empire League championship and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division I-A playoffs.

It was in the playoffs that Carbone learned a great lesson from a grave error. When he was shooting in the driveway, he never knew restraint. Sometimes, such as when your team is up by eight points with less than a minute to play, it’s not a bad idea to hold off on that open three-pointer, though.

But with a packed house in a foreign gym watching the final seconds of Los Alamitos’ game against Cajon last February, Carbone did what came naturally--he let fly with a three-pointer.

It missed, and wouldn’t you know it, a sure Los Alamitos victory turned into a 65-64 loss in the final seconds.

“There’s no way I want to go out like that this year,” Carbone said. “It was just devastating.”

Older and wiser, Carbone has filed the experience away and is determined to use his head more often this season. Lifting weights and polishing up the other areas of his game was another noteworthy step in strengthening his overall game.

“You always want to see the kids who have worked hard get rewarded,” Brooks said. “He has paid his dues. I think he’s one of the best guards in the county.”

And to think, it all started in a driveway with a ball, a basket and Byron Scott.