J D Green

After enjoying "the greatest feeling on Earth" with last Friday's City 4-A semifinal win over Crenshaw, Coach Bob Braswell of Cleveland High School in Reseda now looks to the heavens. He looks to the stars--Chris Mills, J.D. Green and Sean Higgins--of top-seeded Fairfax, the Cavaliers' opponent tonight in the title game at 9:15 at the Sports Arena. The Lions (24-0) are No. 1 in the state, No. 2 in the nation and have already beaten Cleveland three times this season.

When this game was finally over, Taft High Coach Jim Woodard didn't pout or shout. Reality was easy to accept. The Fairfax scoreboard left him no other choice. "We couldn't beat them," Woodard said, glancing one last agonizing time at the scoreboard that showed his team on the losing end, 104-66. "They're the best team I've ever seen. I've seen high school basketball for over 30 years."

Cal State Fullerton caught a Lamar basketball team on the rebound Monday night and lost to the Cardinals, 95-86, in their season opener at Beaumont, Tex. Lamar, 7-21 last season, turned eight offensive rebounds into 19 points. The Cardinals were fouled on three follow shots and converted the three-point plays.

Inmates at the Orange County Jail have used court-ordered telephones to make bomb threats to police and to have other prisoners released by impersonating prison officials, a jail supervisor testified Wednesday. Sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Green, a nine-year staff veteran at the main men's jail in Santa Ana, told a federal judge that inmates "have been released early" from custody after judges received telephone calls from prisoners claiming to be an official with the state Department of Corrections.

Kennedy blew a six-point lead with four minutes remaining and lost to powerful Fairfax, 59-58, in overtime, at Kennedy. Fairfax's Sean Higgins made four jumpers from beyond 20 feet and J.D. Green made two baskets as Fairfax, the second-ranked team in the country in USA Today's prep basketball poll, caught Kennedy to send the game into overtime.

Fairfax High School got 28 points from J.D. Green and 24 from Chris Mills to beat Manual Arts, 82-75, in the quarterfinal round of the City 4-A basketball playoffs Wednesday at Fairfax. Sean Higgins, a senior forward, had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Lions, the top-seeded City team. Green, also a senior forward, had 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Mills, a junior center, chipped in 10 rebounds for Fairfax (23-0), which last season was knocked out of the playoffs in the quarterfinal round.

For the first 10 minutes of Friday night's Bay League showdown at Santa Monica, Carlton Davenport was like his surname--immobile, passive and taking up space. But midway through the second quarter and on into the opening minutes of the second half, the 6-0 Davenport proved why he is regarded as the finest point guard in Southern California as he literally took over the game and led Santa Monica to a 66-49 victory over West Torrance.

J.D. Green, a 6-foot-6 guard-forward who played on the Fairfax High School basketball team that included Sean Higgins and Chris Mills, said Tuesday he will transfer to Cal State Fullerton. Green graduated from Fairfax in 1987, and has played at Southern Methodist the past two seasons. He started six games last season and averaged six points and three rebounds a game for SMU, which posted a 13-16 record. He decided to leave SMU to play closer to home, he said. "I guess it was just a little bit too far away," Green said.

The Fairfax High School basketball team won its way into Saturday's Division I title game of the Southern California Regionals with a victory Thursday night, pretty much as expected. Sean Higgins (25 points), Chris Mills (21) and J.D. Green (20) led the way in the Lions' 83-65 romp over Santa Monica at Cal State Dominguez, as expected. Yes, just another day at the races for the City 4-A champions and No. 1 team in the state. But for a while there . . .

Bob Braswell is only 25 years old and in his second season as coach at Cleveland High School in Reseda, but he is still a man of the world, basketball-wise. Two consecutive trips to the City 4-A championship game make him so. He had also faced Fairfax three times during the regular season, so when he laid out the Cavaliers' game plan for meeting No. 4, this time for the City 4-A championship, no less, he spoke from experience.