THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Remarkable Rally by L.A. Baptist Executed Without a Shot Attempt

The scoreboard showed that L. A. Baptist had defeated Western Christian in an Alpha League game, 35-34.

But that did not tell half the story.

In a game last week that belonged more in the theater of the bizarre than in a gymnasium, L. A. Baptist triumphed despite not attempting a shot from the field in the final 10 minutes.

The Knights trailed, 31-24, late in the third quarter but used a spread offense for the remainder of the game and converted 11 of 12 free throws.

With a bit more than a minute left and the score tied, 33-33, a foul was called on L. A. Baptist, sending a Western Christian player to the free-throw line. However, the wrong player attempted the free throws.

L. A. Baptist Coach Maury Neville alerted the officials--after the player had made both free throws.

Duly corrected, the officials wiped off the points and sent the correct player to the line. He made one of two free throws for a one-point lead, but L. A. Baptist was awarded two free throws because Western Christian had sent the wrong player to the line.

After L. A. Baptist’s Kevin Bennett sank both free throws for a 35-34 lead, Western Christian missed a final field-goal attempt, and the madness was over.

“My assistants thought I was nuts for staying in the spread,” Neville said. “But I stuck with it and look how it turned out.”

Family affair: It was enough to make a grown man blush.

In last week’s game against Grant, Harry Marks of North Hollywood considered his trip to the free-throw line for a pair of shots during a timeout. Grant led, 46-44, with 17 seconds left and fans in the packed Grant gymnasium were going wild.

What do you do if you are Marks? Take time, perhaps, to give your mother a kiss? That’s just what Marks did before he made his way to the free-throw line.

It was a gesture to melt the iciest of hearts. What’s more--Marks made good after his loving gesture: He sank both free throws before Grant came down the court and won on a last-second basket by Rene de la Hoya.

“Since I was little, my family has been into my game,” Marks said. “The Grant game meant so much to them and they knew how much it meant to me. And I knew my mom was sweating it.

“So I just thought I’d give her a good-luck kiss.”

Add Marks: The 6-3 junior forward scored a team-high 20 points and made four three-point shots. Two days later, in a win over Reseda, he made four three-point shots in the first quarter and scored 21 points in the game.

Now, apparently, Coach Steve Miller is just wild about Harry taking those shots.

“We have study hall,” Marks explained, “and Coach let me go shoot in the gym when I finished all my tests and everything last week. I just started shooting three-pointers, and now it feels just like a jump shot to me. I shoot about 100 to 150 of them a day.”

Focused: Ask any Cleveland player this season about the team’s overall play, and it almost seems as though they have been uniformly brainwashed. Then again, perhaps after considering the Cavaliers’ performance in the playoffs the past two seasons, the team-wide mind-set is a good idea.

An example: “We have to play to the best of our ability right now,” center Trenton Cornelius said after last week’s whipping of Taft. “We can’t slip like we have the last two years. We have to play our best ball right now so we can be better in the end.”

In each of the past two seasons, the end came early--in Cleveland’s opening game of the playoffs. The two seasons before that, the Cavaliers had advanced to the City Section 4-A Division final. First-year Coach Marc Paez says the players are extremely aware of both facts.

So is he.

“One of my early concerns has been pacing,” said Paez, whose team stumbled to a 1-3 start and has rebounded to win 15 of its past 16. “I didn’t want us to peak early.”

Steps have been taken to help ensure that there is no “three-peat” in the early rounds.

“I anticipate that the next three weeks will become more intense,” Paez said. “We’ve intentionally held some things back from the offense and the defense. I figure that if we can keep them stimulated mentally, maybe we can keep them stimulated physically too.”

I’m OK, you’re OK: Westlake Coach Greg Hess turned psychologist Friday when his team prepared for a home game against Channel Islands. The Warriors were coming off an emotional 77-64 loss to Royal, their first Marmonte League loss of the season. Fearing a letdown against the last-place Raiders, he tossed basketballs aside in favor of a psychology textbook.

Hess gathered players, statisticians and managers in his classroom before the game and told all 15 to write two positive elements about each person on a piece of paper.

“After a loss, kids can start to maybe blame the other people on the team,” Hess said. “The kids heard 28 good things about themselves. If you can get positive images directed at themselves, you can build confidence again.”

Hess was the head of the psychology department at Ernest Manning High in Calgary, Alberta, for four years, yet he teaches economics at Westlake. Hess, in his third season at Westlake, also has nearly 100 slogans programmed on a computer disc, and he prints inspirational posters that hang in the Warriors’ locker room.

“I have always tried to be positive,” Hess said. “The posters simply tell you that you are going to win. It’s an ‘If-I-don’t-win-the-team doesn’t-win attitude.’ ”

The mind games must have worked--Westlake defeated Channel Islands, 76-54.

Injury report: Glendale center Jason Harper, elbowed in the neck Friday during the fourth quarter of a Pacific League game against Hoover, complained of a tingling sensation in his neck and head and was taken away by paramedics.

He was examined by doctors who diagnosed the injury to be little more than a bad twist, Glendale Coach Bob Davidson said. “It was scary,” Davidson said. “He was lying there for 20 minutes.”

Harper, the Dynamiters’ leading scorer, came back to contribute 15 points and 13 rebounds Tuesday in a 72-60 loss to Pasadena.

Staff writers Steve Elling, Sam Farmer, Brian Murphy and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.