SoCalHoops High School News

Bell-Jeff Escapes From Village Christian
With A One Point Win--(Jan. 24, 2000)

There were only a few games being played on Monday night (tonight) so we thought we'd go check out one of the top-ranked teams in Division V-AA, Bell Jeff, which is currently ranked No. 3 in the Division in the CIF Southern Section poll.  They were scheduled to play Village Christian, currently ranked as the No. 9 team in Division IV-A, so this was a "two-fer" situation, two top 10 teams in two divisions for the price of one (well, for us it was free, but you get the picture).

This was a non-league contest, played at Bell-Jeff, a smallish D-V school located in Burbank, the alma mater of Ruben Douglas, who recently transferred from Arizona.  The Guards (that's Bell-Jeff's nickname), came into this game 14-5, 4-1, fresh off a loss this past weekend to D-IVAA No. 4 La Salle,  75-61.   We're not exactly sure about Village Christian's overall record, but it's respectable enough that they are one of the top 10 teams in their division.

We had expected this to be a fast paced game, with good guard play on both teams, good ballhandlers, a lot of excellent perimeter shooting and, at least on Bell-Jeff's part, some good low post play from their inside big man, Carlos Arroyo.  What we didn't expect was to see a game that resembled the "Three Faces of Eve."  This was a game which featured four different teams, a "good" Bell-Jeff, and a "not-so-good" Bell-Jeff; a "not-so-good" (note we're avoiding the word "bad" here) Village Christian" and a "good" Village Christian team.   The only question was which team was playing at any given moment.

We'll save you a little of the suspense, and give you the final score right away:  Bell-Jeff 57, Village Christian 56.

In the first half Bell-Jeff jumped out to an 18-4 first quarter lead and then proceeded to stretch it even further in the second quarter, outscoring VC 17-13 to take a 35-17 lead into the locker room at the half.   In case you can't tell which team was which during the first half ("good" or "bad"), we'll give you another clue:  Bell-Jeff forced an astounding 13 Village Christian turnovers in the first half alone, employing a very effective press, caused VC to rush it's offense and generally took one of VC's best shooters, Clint Hamblin out of the game with after he picked up his third foul in the first quarter.  During that same time, Bell Jeff only committed four turnovers, and seemingly were able to penetrate the interior by feeding the ball to Carlos Arroyo (6'-6" Sr. F) whenever   and wherever they wanted, and when he wasn't open, Casey Markovic would pull the trigger from the perimeter.  Of the 35 first half points by Bell-Jeff, those two combined for 24 of them, with Casey scoring 11, and Carlos scoring 13.  Casey was 3 for 9 from the field in the first half, 4-4 from the line, and Carlos was 5 for 12 from the field and 3 for 4 from the line.

And it wasn't that Village Christian's shooting percentage was bad in the first half (it wasn't), it's just that Bell-Jeff's defense was so overwhelming that VC barely got off any shots at all, and in fact we only counted 18 shots from the field taken by VC in the half, of which they managed to convert 8, including one first half three pointer, while Bell-Jeff Bell Jeff took 33 shots from the field but only converted 11 of them (including one three by Casey Markovic in the first half). 

By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, it looked like this game was over.  Done.  Finished.  We thought about leaving.  But then we had a flash, remembering the Montclair Prep v. Campbell Hall game from last week. . .   we were going to leave that one too, because it seemed "over" at the half.  But it ain't over until it's over.  And again, we were glad we stuck around for this one, because it got really good, as in high school hoops at it's best.

In the second half, it wasn't so much that a "bad" Bell-Jeff team showed up as much as it was that the real Village Christian guys came out of the locker room, the "good" team we've been hearing so much about.  We know a lot of teams and a lot of coaches who might have said, "Well, it's over," and given up facing an 18 point deficit.   A lot of coaches would have just used the game as an excuse to played everyone on the bench, and get it over with as quickly as possible because there was no chance of coming back.  But that's not what VC's coach, Pat Hamblin had in mind.  What we saw was a good high school coach using all the talent on his squad in the best way possible, and continuing to motivate his players to believe that it was still possible to pull out the win.  And they almost did it.    Almost.

Coming from an 18 point halftime deficit, Village Christian steadily and slowly cut into the Bell-Jeff lead.  The first signs of life for VC came when they scored on the opening play of the third quarter off a basket by Bryan Gonzales who drove the lane for a layup.  Then Clint Hamblin managed to come back to life, running the baseline relentlessly, hitting the first of his three three pointers in the quarter, followed by Paul Gilmore's own three consecutive three-pointers from the top of the arc in the quarter.  Even Darryl Ellis, who probably had the worst game of his life in the first half (we won't give the total number of turnovers he had, but let's just say they were significant), came back to life with a driving layup, something he'd been unable to do up until that point.

And each time Bell-Jeff would score a two pointer, or simply come down and rush a shot, Hamblin or Gilmore would hit a three, force a turnover, and bring VC back just that much closer, and by the time the quarter was over, VC had crept back into the game, and was just within 6 points.  At the end of the third the score stood at 51-45, Bell-Jeff, and, as they say (who are "they" anyway?) we had ourselves a ball game.   And as in the first half, only one thing kept Bell-Jeff from complete collapse and that was the third quarter scoring of Casey Markovic (10 points, including two high arcing, rainbow threes).  A few others managed to score in the quarter for the guards, including Romel Cabrerra (2) and Carlos Arroyo (4) (at least that's the count that we had keeping our own scoring, not from the book).

And then, in the fourth quarter, something remarkable happened: Not only did VC realize that they could play offense, they also began to play some defense, in fact some pretty good defense, throwing their own full-court press and half-court trap on the Guards, and whether it was just the fast-paced nature of the game, or VC's relentless second half defense and their stunning offensive comeback, Bell-Jeff seemed somewhat dazed, and managed to score just 6 fourth quarter points. Of course VC didn't exactly set the house on fire either with it's fourth quarter scoring, which was just 11 points in the quarter, but those 11 were enough to bring them to within a single digit, and then eventually give VC their first lead of the game with just 23 seconds left in the game.

In the fourth quarter, Bell-Jeff used its full allotment of timeouts to try to get the game back under control, calling one with 5:18 to play with the score at 53-48, clinging to a 5 point lead.  The break really didn't change things, and again, Bell-Jeff didn't score on the possession.  With 4:34 to play, Paul Gilmore hit a three pointer to bring VC to within four points, at 55-51, and then with 3:17 to play, Ezra Stanton hit a two pointer in the lane to bring VC to within two points, 55-53.   Bell-Jeff used its second timeout of the quarter with 1:10 showing on the clock after Darryl Ellis hit one of two free throws (he missed the second attempt, and a chance to tie the game), which brought the score to 55-54.  The Bell-Jeff offensive play off the timeout didn't result in any points, but it did result in a turnover (and an interesting "no call" when Chris Gopez dove out of bounds--or was shoved--and came down hard and had to leave the game momentarily).  VC got the ball back, and then with just 23 seconds on the clock, Darryl Ellis hit what might have been the shot of his life,  making the sweet little back-to-the-basket turnaround jumper in the lane to give VC it's first and only lead of the game.

Bell-Jeff could have panicked, but they didn't.   Bringing the ball up court, Bell Jeff was trapped in the backcourt, and forced to use it's third timeout as Mike Yildiz was falling out of bounds on the bench sideline. This time though the timeout was just what the Guards needed to settle themselves down and run a play, and whatever Bell Jeff coach Eli Essa told them, it worked.  Running some time off the clock,  Romel Cabrerra fed the ball to Casey Markovic, and Cabrerra then faded toward the right corner baseline;  after drawing the defenders, Markovic kicked the ball to Yildiz who started to drive the lane, and when he kicked the ball to Cabrerra in the corner, with no defenders between him and the basket,  Romel drove to the basket and hit the wide-open layup with just 8 seconds remaining on the clock, to give Bell Jeff the lead at 57-56,  one which the Guards wouldn't surrender.  On the ensuing inbound, after Bell-Jeff's third and final full timeout, Mike Yildiz managed to redeem himself for a first half missed dunk which went off the heel of the rim, and a third quarter missed layup, when he intercepted a crosscourt pass thrown to Hamblin from Ellis to secure possession and the game.  And while VC still got the ball back somehow with just 2 seconds remaining in the game, but in the backcourt, there was just not enough time for VC to do anything other than get the ball inbound and fire a length of the court shot, which missed completely.  Bzzzz. Game over.

For Bell-Jeff, it was a hard-fought and narrow escape.   For VC it was one of those "almost" games.  Coach Pat Hamblin, obviously pleased with the heart his guys had shown in the second half, smiled and said, "Well, it would have been a better game if we'd been able to put two halves together like that last one."  Indeed.  At least though we got a chance to see the real Village Christian team that we've been reading a lot about.  And for Bell Jeff, they proved that they really are more than just a one-dimensional team, with either a perimeter shooter, or a post man, but usually not both.  Tonight, they also showed that they could play at both ends of the court and that their young guards, particularly Kealy and Cabrerra could drive the lane and hit the big shots when it counts most.

Here's the final scoring for Bell-Jeff:  Sanchez 2, Tyler Kealy 2, Mike Yildiz 4, Casey Markovic 20, Romel Cabrerra 4, Chris Gopez 4, Andy Bunning 3, and Carlos Arroyo 17. We're sure we didn't get all the rebounds, but this was a tough game, and we only counted 6 rebounds for Arroyo and one blocked shot. 

For Village Christian, Clint Hamblin finished with 12, all three pointers;  Paul Gilmore had 12 also all three pointers.  Bryan Galdos had 3, Jeremy Gonzales had 6, Ezra Stanton 12 (all twos), Darryl Ellis 9, and Jerry Hall 2.

Scoring by quarters:

This was a great game, exciting at the finish, and we can honestly say we're glad we didn't leave early.  Great crowd, excellent fans. . .  and that's something that deserves special attention:  These were great kids and parents, and it was a real surprise to see folks just coming out to support the players without any of the trash-talking and baiting that we've seen at some of the "bigger" schools in the region.   If you don't get out to many D-V or D-IV games, you really ought to.  The ball is the same, the court is the same, and generally, the kids are just about the same size and of the same ability as many of the "bigger" D-I programs out there.  Don't take our word for it.  Go check it out for yourself.

See you soon.

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