Depth Charge

The first dozen games or so resembled a casting call.

But the auditions were mostly a bust. The Cleveland High boys’ basketball team couldn’t find anybody to replace graduated star Kent Dennis and his 24.6 point average.

“In the beginning, everybody was trying to be the next Kent Dennis,” said Quenton Harvey, a senior shooting guard who is averaging 16.2 points in league play.

“People were just out for themselves.”

With only one returning starter, six returning lettermen and three transfers, Cleveland struggled to find a new identity in a 7-6 start.

“We lost games we shouldn’t have lost,” said T.J. Stephens, a junior guard. “We lost to teams that are inferior to us.”

A coaching change after 11 games provided another distraction.

James Morris, a co-coach with Adam Levitt last year, was fired because he wasn’t a credentialed teacher. Levitt, who left the team in November, was rehired to take over the 7-4 team.

Without the benefit of one practice, Cleveland lost its first two games after Levitt’s return.

“The only way these guys knew me was with James and I,” Levitt said. “They didn’t know me as the head coach. We went through a rough spot and slowly they were adjusting to not a new system, but they were adjusting to me and I was adjusting to them.”

Then, almost overnight, it happened. Cleveland stopped looking for its next star and reinvented itself . . . as a team.

“Everyone has stepped up and done just a little bit more,” Levitt said.

The new Cavaliers provide opponents with a daunting task because there isn’t just one or two players to key on.

Sure, Anthony Davis, a 6-foot-5 junior transfer from Locke, seems to attract the most attention. But four players are averaging 10 points or more for Cleveland in league play. Four others are averaging between 6.4 and 8.1.

Most of the reserves are as talented as the starters and get nearly the same playing time.

Justin Thompson, a 6-5 junior transfer from Reseda, is averaging 7.2 points and 9.2 rebounds in a reserve role. Another off-the-bench spark is provided by David Franklin, a 6-1 junior transfer from Canoga Park who is averaging 8.1 points and 3.1 steals.

“We have a lot of fresh bodies and when they get in the intensity is still there,” said Harvey, who transferred from Compton High as a sophomore. “We’re coming on with a different load every couple of minutes.”

Cleveland (13-6, 4-0 in league play), on a six-game winning streak, is taking its tag-team act to Taft (14-1, 4-0) today for a West Valley League showdown.

The magnitude of the game isn’t lost on its participants. Least not the Cavaliers, who want to extend a 14-game league winning streak.

“I think we’re at the beginning of a peak,” said Grant Pledger, a point guard. “[Today] we want to show everyone where we’re heading.”

Shuttling players in and out of the game every couple of minutes has worked well for the Cavaliers, who are at their best in a transition, up-tempo game.

Setting the pace is the point guard, or in this case point guards Yashar Mehrabani and Pledger.

Mehrabani and Pledger, who get about the same amount of playing time, have two different styles, but get similar results.

Mehrabani, a three-year starter, is averaging 10 points, three assists and 2.9 steals in league play.

“I believe that I do the little things that help us win,” Mehrabani said. “I think to a certain extent I’m the glue that keeps this team together.”

Pledger averages 10.2 points, 4.1 assists and 3.2 steals in league games.

That’s 20.2 points, 7.1 assists and 6.1 steals from one position.

“They’re like a two-headed monster at point guard,” Levitt said.

Mehrabani is perhaps the most experienced point guard you’ve never heard of. But he isn’t complaining.

“We’ve been gifted to have all these athletic people who can score,” Mehrabani said. “My job is easy. I get the ball, bounce it once or twice and just pass it up. That’s why I don’t score that much and I don’t get recognition.

“But that’s fine with me as long as we win.”