Basketball Scorebook

Barring a miracle, it looks like Steve Cleaves’ 106-year-old record is safe and he can continue to rest in peace.

Cleaves – who went by Ike – scored 545 points for the Oil City High School basketball team in 1920 – 106 years ago. Those 545 points are the most by an Oiler before or since – in other words a school record.

That record had a chance to be erased this season by Nevin Stinson, who after the first Warren game on Jan.13 had 334 points, and was carrying a 25.69 ppg average, with 12 regular season games to play. (Not to mention playoffs.)

Had Stinson continued at that pace, he would have had 608 points alone by the end of the regular season, shattering Cleaves’ record.

But things began to happen. Stinson missed two games. I’m not sure what happened there, but suffice it to say when he returned to the lineup for the Corry game on Jan. 27, he was slapped with two fouls in the first two minutes of the game, forcing him to the bench for most of the rest of the first half. What’s more, when he did get back into the game to start the second half, those pretty threes just weren’t falling. He scored seven points that game.

And two games later, they’re still not falling.

So, with three regular season games left, Stinson has 403 points on the season. And since it doesn’t look like the league-leading Oilers are going to win the state championship, it appears Cleaves’ single-game scoring record is safe for another year.

There’s another thing, too. Stinson played on the junior high team when he was in ninth grade – not on the jayvees/varsity. As a sophomore, he saw limited varsity action, scoring 17 points. Doesn’t look like a 1,000 points career guy in the making does it?

But, he totaled 407 points as a junior, and coupled with how he became a scoring machine through the first 13 games of this season, Stinson shot himself in contention for that more celebrated achievement. Not your usual route to 1,000, but there he was.

However, due to the aforementioned things that went down in mid-January, that isn’t going to happen, either. Had he reached 1,000 by way of fisher’s fence, Stinson would have only been the second Oiler to hit the Holy Grail of High School Hoops. (Ben Schill is the only one; he finished his career in 1996 with 1,130 points.)

Stinson still has the opportunity to become only the third Oil City player to score 900 points or more. Chris Jasiota ended with 975 points in 2003, and Logan Way is No. 3 all-time with 949 in 2014. (Cleaves, by the way, is fourth with 866).

And getting back to Cleaves. He played in an era where teams had a designated foul shooter, and Cleaves was the man for the Oilers in 1920. Because of the DFS rule, which was dropped in about 1923, there are those who would give Cleaves the record grudgingly. (Never mind that Cleaves didn’t have the luxury of the three-point line.)

In that case, Oil City’s “modern” single-season scoring record is 498 points by Mike Emick in 1971, and Stinson has a chance to break that. As it is, he’s the only Oiler ever to put together back-to-back 400-point single seasons. Plus, he’s still averaging 23 ppg, which would be the best in OCHS history if he keeps that up.

Another thing about Cleaves: He followed his more famous brother Jack, a football All-American, to Princeton where he captained the basketball team, which was 21-2 and Eastern Collegiate (formerly Ivy League) champion his senior year. So he was no slouch. He retired from practicing law in New York City in 1988, and died in 1991, probably never believing he set a record in high school and one that still stands – 106 years later.