MOTON POWERS KNIGHT KNIGHT 61, CLEVELAND 47.

Byline: SEAN CEGLINSKY Special to the Daily News

Knight of Palmdale's Jerome Moton was relatively quiet during the first half of Thursday night's San Fernando Valley Tournament semifinal game against Cleveland of Reseda. Things, however, were decidedly different in the second half.

The 6-foot-7 senior forward got to the basket seemingly at will, scoring 14 of his 19points in the second half as the Hawks won 61-47 at Kennedy High in Granada Hills to advance to the championship game at 7:30 p.m. tonight.

The Hawks will play against Hart of Newhall, a 73-67 overtime winner over Chatsworth on Thursday.

``Jerome played like a man tonight,'' Knight coach Tom Hegre said. ``Once he asserted himself, he was impossible to stop. He was tough. They had no answer.''

Cleveland (6-3) had a particularly difficult time stopping Moton during the final 2:30 of the third quarter, when he scored 10 consecutive points to give the Hawks (13-1) a 45-30 advantage heading into the fourth.

With a comfortable lead, Moton opened the fourth quarter on the bench and re-entered the game midway through the final eight minutes.

He promptly made a pair of free throws, and on the next possession down the floor grabbed a rebound and scored from inside while being fouled. Moton completed the three-point play before heading back to the bench with the Hawks ahead 59-43.

``I wanted to come out after halftime and be physical, establish my position down low,'' Moton said. ``I kept asking for the ball and my teammates were feeding me.''

Knight jumped out to an early lead, using an 8-0 run to take a 19-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. It was more of the same in the second as the Hawks extended the lead to 16points before going into halftime leading 29-20.

Behind sophomore Prince Obasi, who scored 10 points, Cleveland attempted a comeback in the opening minutes of the thirdquarter, cutting the deficit down to seven points. The Cavaliers would get no closer, though.

Hassan Stephens, who won the slam dunk contest earlier in the day, scored 10 of his 12points in the first half for Knight and Robert Brown added 13, with 11 in the secondhalf.

Michael Montgomery scored 31 points, including a 13-of-14 effort from the free-throw line as Hart (9-2) opened up a 34-27 halftime lead and held off numerous comeback attempts by the Chancellors (6-3) during the final 20 minutes to advance to the finals.

Michael Palarca kept Chatsworth close throughout and finished with 25 points, highlighted by a 26-foot 3-pointer from the leftwing at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.