Cleveland Starters Steal Away to a Quick Start

For a high school basketball team to average 88.8 points a game, it takes turnovers, it takes breaks and it takes hot shooting.

What’s more, it takes a thief.

Cleveland (11-2) has players who certainly qualify. Starting guards Adonis Jordan and Tim Bowen are averaging more than 9 steals a game between them, despite splitting time with several other players in Cleveland’s run-till-they-drop game plan. Jordan is averaging 5.6 steals and Bowen is averaging 3.6. Senior forward Lucious Harris, a projected off-guard in college, is averaging 3.4 steals.

Jordan and Bowen not only taketh away, they also giveth. Jordan is averaging a team-high 11.5 assists a game and Bowen is averaging 7.9.

Three of the area’s best pickpockets will meet Jan. 25, when Jordan and Bowen face Taft senior Dedan Thomas, who is averaging 5.5 steals a game.

Scoring: No one can say layups have padded Cleveland guard Eddie Hill’s scoring totals. Hill is averaging 13.1 points a game off the bench, but his methods are rather peculiar. Hill, a transfer from Burroughs, has made 47 of 99 field-goal attempts (47%), yet is shooting at almost the same clip from 3-point range (14 of 30 for 46%). . . . It is no secret that the key to stopping Newbury Park is stopping Wayne Cook. In the Panthers’ 9 wins, Cook has averaged 27 points; in their 3 losses, 12.7.

It seemed fairly innocuous when Newbury Park’s Tim Lane missed the second of 2 free throws with 5 seconds left in the third quarter of the Panthers’ 64-50 loss to Westlake on Jan. 4. That miss, however, was Lane’s first after making 21 in a row to start the season. . . . Burroughs’ Marnie Calderon is 23 for 50 (46%) from 3-point range.

On a team laden with feisty guards and long-range gunners, it is forward Lucious Harris who leads Cleveland in 3-point field-goal percentage. Harris has made 7 of 10 attempts. . . . With 747 career points at El Camino Real, senior forward Brent Lofton needs 78 points to break the school record of 824 set by Sean Davis, a 1987 graduate who now plays at San Jose State.

Four players are averaging in double figures for Bell-Jeff: Center Nick Sanderson is averaging a team-high 22.3 points, Greg Dunn is averaging 15.5, Chris Dyer 12.7 and Ray Witt 10.5. Said Coach Joe Dunn: “Our offense is an equal-opportunity employer.”

Three Harvard players--Brian Domyan (14.5 points), Rick Osterloh (13.8) and Mike Beckwith (13.6)--are averaging in double figures.

Extra points: El Camino Real has lost 4 games in a row after a 3-1 start. Pinpointing the reason is simple--in the 4 losses, the Conquistadores (3-5) have been outscored, 73-28, in the first quarter.

Taft is 11-1, winning its past 6 games, yet will play its first home game today at 4 p.m. against Canoga Park. . . . Camarillo has won 4 games in a row and 7 of its past 8.

BASKETBALL TOP 10

Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Last Rk Wk Team League Record 1 1 Cleveland North Valley 11-2 2 2 Taft North Valley 11-1 3 3 Rio Mesa Channel 10-3 4 4 Granada Hills North Valley 9-3 5 6 Bell-Jeff S.F. Valley 14-1 6 7 Kennedy North Valley 8-3 7 5 Grant East Valley 8-3 8 NR Camarillo Marmonte 10-3 9 NR North Hollywood Mid-Valley 6-4 10 NR Simi Valley Marmonte 10-5

NR--Not ranked.