City Rivalry Rekindled
During the late 1980s, there were few basketball rivalries as fierce as Cleveland-Fairfax.
The City Section schools were in the same league and produced future NBA players Sean Higgins and Chris Mills of Fairfax and Lucious Harris and Adonis Jordan of Cleveland.
The coaching matchup was Bobby Braswell of Cleveland against Harvey Kitani of Fairfax.
Fairfax knocked off Cleveland, 86-58, in the 1987 City Championship game en route to a 25-0 record before the state playoffs. The Lions defeated Cleveland four times that year.
Two seasons later, Fairfax upset the heavily favored Cavaliers, 53-51, in a 1989 quarterfinal that was Braswell’s final game as Cleveland coach.
The fact Cleveland (21-4) is playing top-seeded Fairfax (22-5) in a City Championship quarterfinal Wednesday night at Fairfax brings back memories for Kitani, in his 18th season as the Lions’ coach.
“We’ve had some great games with Cleveland,” Kitani said. “All we need is to have Braswell there.”
Braswell, the coach at Cal State Northridge, said he would attend the game if he wasn’t on the road with the Matadors at Weber State. But he intends to send assistant Andre Chevalier, a former Cleveland player and coach, to Fairfax for the game.
“We’ll have the original Cavaliers represented one way or the other,” Braswell said.
Adam Levitt, Cleveland’s first-year co-coach, was a freshman player at Cleveland when the Cavaliers lost to Fairfax in the City final. Levitt has told his players that a victory Wednesday could propel Cleveland back to City prominence.
“We’ve pumped them up with the knowledge of what Cleveland used to be,” Levitt said. “They want to take us back to the good ol’ days.”
No. 9-seeded Cleveland has won 12 consecutive games led by seniors Kent Dennis, Kenny Mason and Brian Smith. The Cavaliers’ 60-47 rout of Palisades last week sent a message to the rest of the City.
“We’re definitely a legitimate team and have built up a nice set of steam,” Levitt said.
Fairfax has no intention of taking Cleveland lightly.
“We won’t do that,” Kitani said. “They were in our spring league, so I know they have some very good players.”
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San Fernando’s hopes of advancing in the City Division playoffs suffered a blow Monday when guard Jason Tubbs, who is averaging 15 points, was transferred out of school for disciplinary reasons, Coach Oscar Mesta said.
San Fernando hosts Poly in a quarterfinal Wednesday.
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The bad news for Simi Valley: Guard Branduinn Fullove, who has been sidelined with an ankle injury, is questionable for the Pioneers’ second-round playoff game tonight against Fullerton Troy.
The good news: The Pioneers (26-2) might not need him yet in the Southern Section Division I-A playoffs.
Troy (17-10) is an undersized team that might have trouble against Simi Valley’s tall front court.
Troy is led by guard Jerry Inzunza, who is averaging 20.1 points and was a Times’ All-Orange County selection last season.
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Ventura (17-10) hasn’t made things easy for Coach Dan Larson’s heart in the last three games.
The Cougars, who host Anaheim Loara at 7:30 tonight in the second round of the Division I-A playoffs, have played three consecutive overtime games.
Ventura defeated cross-town rival Buena, 68-62, on Feb. 9 and, two days later, lost to San Marcos, 66-62, in a regular-season finale. Then came a 70-67 double-overtime victory over Mira Costa in a playoff opener Friday.
Asked if the Cougars could go three overtimes tonight, Larson replied, “My blood pressure is high already. I couldn’t afford that.”
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Ventura has won seven of eight games, but Larson still pokes fun at his team’s lack of height.
When asked what he knew about Loara, Ventura’s opponent tonight, Larson said the Saxons are 24-4, champions of the Empire League and won a playoff game for the first time since 1966 with a 68-54 victory over Riverside Poly on Friday.
“They’re bigger than us,” Larson continued. “Of course, our girls’ team is bigger than us.”
GIRLS’ NOTES
Foothill, Golden and Pacific league teams from the region were a combined 1-8 last week in the Southern Section playoffs.
Glendale of the Pacific League was the only team to win a game, and that was a Division I-A wild card against Littlerock of the Golden League.
Hart, Canyon and Valencia of the Foothill League lost first-round games by a combined 92 points.
Buena, Ventura and Santa Barbara of the Channel League were 3-0, combining to defeat their opponents by 96 points. Alemany, Harvard-Westlake, Louisville and Notre Dame of the Mission League combined to go 4-1, while Paraclete and Village Christian, the only two entries from the Alpha League, each won playoff openers.
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North Hollywood (21-5) will not be at full strength Wednesday for its City Championship quarterfinal against El Camino Real (22-4).
Standout guard Tashean Thomas, the Huskies’ leading scorer with a 20.5 average, injured her ankle Friday in a first-round victory over Franklin and is questionable for Wednesday.
Thomas was the catalyst in the Huskies’ 61-41 victory over El Camino Real in a Washington tournament semifinal on Dec. 1. Thomas scored 25 points on 11-of-21 shooting.
Staff writers Paige A. Leech, John Ortega and Eric Sondheimer and correspondents Mike Bresnahan and Dave Desmond contributed to this notebook.