Cleveland Gets Hold of Victory

RESEDA —  To make a long story short, it was a standoff for nearly half of the fourth quarter and Cleveland High, without two of its top six players, escaped with another victory on Wednesday.

Cleveland’s Daniel Yang held the ball near the bench at midcourt for more than 3 1/2 minutes in the fourth quarter and Donald Holt made five of seven free throws after the stall to help the Cavaliers beat El Camino Real, 59-54, in a Northwest Valley Conference boys’ basketball game at Cleveland.

In a game that saw 10 lead changes and seven ties, Cleveland took the lead for good, 52-51, on a layup by Holt with 6:17 left.

Cleveland (15-3, 3-0 in conference play) went into a four-corner offense on its next possession and El Camino Real (6-9, 1-2), which played a 2-3 zone defense throughout the game, held its ground while the clock ticked.

The crowd booed and Cleveland Coach Andre Chevalier shouted back, “I’m just doing to them what they’ve been doing to us the entire game.”

The Conquistadores came out of their zone with two minutes left and after Holt sank one of two free throws, El Camino Real turned the ball over on an errant pass by reserve Henry Aubrey with 1:34 left.

After Cleveland missed three free throws, Simmagin Smith hit a jumper to give the Cavaliers a 55-51 lead and Hasan Hoke scored to get the Conquistadores to within 55-53 with 9.8 seconds left.

But Holt, who scored 32 points, made four free throws in the final seconds for Cleveland, which played without center Mike Schultz (ankle sprain) and sixth man Kenny Mason (flu).

“I know the crowd wants to see basketball,” Chevalier said. “I’m embarrassed because that’s not my style. I want to get up and down the court, but it’s frustrating when people are zoning us all the time.”

Demond Daniels had 17 points and 14 rebounds for El Camino Real. Elan Buller added 13 points.