Cleveland Leaves No Suspense This Time

With two Cleveland High players benched for disciplinary reasons, the stage was set Friday night for Granada Hills to get back into the West Valley League hunt.

After all, the last game between the teams Cleveland won at the buzzer.

With Granada Hills celebrating “Senior Night” and looking for revenge, the Highlanders had to have an edge, right? If there was an edge, it needed sharpening.

Cleveland dominated Granada Hills from the beginning and cruised to a 77-65 victory at Granada Hills.

“We shot a lot better and we distributed the ball better,” Coach Adam Levitt of Cleveland said.

Nobody was dishing better than Grant Pledger, a reserve point guard who had seven assists to go with 12 points and six steals.

“The last time we played [Granada Hills] we were tense,” Pledger said. “[Friday] we knew we had to put it on from the beginning of the game.”

An 11-0 start had Cleveland heading in the right direction. Anthony Davis of Cleveland scored 16 of his 24 points in the first half and had 11 rebounds.

Davis, a 6-foot-5 junior transfer from Locke, said he concentrated on maintaining the momentum he had in the fourth quarter of the Cavaliers’ loss to Taft on Wednesday. Davis scored 10 of his 11 points in the fourth quarter.

“I put the team on my back and said, “Let’s go,’ ” Davis said.

The Cavaliers (14-7, 5-1 in league play), one game behind first-place Taft, made 48% of its shots, including eight of 20 (40%) from three-point range.

Quenton Harvey scored most of his 23 points on four-three pointers.

Granada Hills (11-10, 3-3) pulled to within 24-19 midway through the second quarter on a layup by Midwin Francis, who had 26 points and 17 rebounds.

Cleveland reclaimed a 12-point lead with a 9-2 run and didn’t let Granada Hills get closer than eight points again.

Justin Thompson--starting in place of Larry Knox, who along with Leveil Palmer was benched for disciplinary reasons--scored 11 points and blocked eight shots.