Cleveland Sets Trap and Reseda Falls In

OK, so his math needs a little work. He’s a physical education teacher.

Besides, that’s why they have scoreboards.

“Forty-two minutes of hell is what basketball is supposed to be,” Cleveland High Coach Kevin Crider said. “Uh, eight-minute quarters . . . make that 32 minutes.”

Friday night at Cleveland, the game was virtually over in half that time as the Cavaliers spanked previously unbeaten Reseda, 77-62, in a Northwest Valley Conference game.

Unbelievable as it might seem, Reseda’s strength was its weakness. The Regents’ guard trio of Trenton Cross, Archie Williams and Damon Bailey struggled to get the ball past midcourt against Cleveland’s trapping defense. And the feeding frenzy was on.

“We try to put the big men up front (in the trap),” Cleveland senior forward Jimmy Harris said. “That way, they have to throw the ball over you and you can intercept it sometimes.”

If not intercept it often. Reseda (14-1, 2-1 in league play) committed a season-high 16 first-half turnovers as Cleveland (11-6, 2-1) took a lead as large as 20 points.

When Harris wasn’t forcing the Reseda guards to lob passes over his 6-foot-5 frame, he was dropping bombs of his own over their flailing arms. In fact, Harris landed the haymakers in the second quarter that put Reseda in a huge hole.

Cleveland led, 18-8, after the first quarter and didn’t stop pouring it on. Harris canned three three-pointers over a 1-minute 31-second stretch to help give the Cavaliers a 31-12 lead.

“Something I worked on over the summer,” Harris said, grinning.

Reseda stumbled in every way imaginable. The Regents, who struggled to beat Kennedy by two points Wednesday, turned the ball over on their first five possessions of the second quarter.

“I don’t know if it was so much their trap or defensive pressure,” said Cross, who scored 22 points before fouling out. “I think it was a lack of intensity.

“We played in spurts. You can’t just turn it on when you want to.”

Reseda made a run in the closing moments of the third quarter when Cross scored twice on acrobatic drives to pare the lead to 53-43. But Reseda could not cut the lead to single digits in the fourth quarter.

“Turnovers, missed free throws, everything,” Reseda Coach Jeff Halpern said. “It was a team breakdown.”

Proof positive that it was a night to forget: Bailey, a 92% free-throw shooter, had made 23 in a row from the line. He made one of three against Cleveland. Overall, Reseda made 11 of 22 free throws.

Reseda center Roderick Jones (17 points) kept the game from becoming a rout by scoring 10 of the Regents’ 18 points in the second quarter. By then, however, eight Cleveland players had found the scoring column. Edtwaun Adams (13 points) and Louis Fernandez (10) also reached double figures.

The upset marked one of Cleveland’s finest all-around efforts in some time. And the Cavaliers’ defensive trap, well, was downright frenetic.

“It’s been tougher on some people than others,” Crider said. “I don’t think (Reseda) has seen the kind of pressure we can put on people.”

Williams was held to 13 points--and one field goal in the second half. Cross scored all but four of his points after halftime. But when the Regents repeatedly coughed up the ball to open the second half, it made for a tough mountain to climb.

“The crowd really got into it,” Cross said. “But we gave them reason to be excited. We had a lack of effort in practice all week and it showed in the game.”