Prep Basketball BOYS : Bell-Jeff Can’t Quite Make It Back

Daniel Murphy High School of Los Angeles held off a furious fourth-quarter rally by Bell-Jeff Thursday night to win its first Santa Fe League game, 48-45.

Murphy, 7-6 overall, used a full-court press for three quarters to build a 40-28 lead, but when Nobles’ Coach Jim Tinker called off the press, Bell-Jeff came back with 10 straight points.

“I think that was their big mistake,” Bell-Jeff Coach Joe Dunn said of the decision to remove the press.

“You wonder whether you should or shouldn’t (pull the full-court press), but they were beating the press,” Tinker said after the game.

With three minutes left, Murphy’s Kenyatta Kalisana drove down the right baseline, scored with a bank shot off the backboard and drew a foul. The free throw gave the Nobles a 43-38 lead.

“That was the big play of the game,” Tinker said.

Bell-Jeff, 10-2, had some early trouble with Murphy’s 6-8 junior center Arthur Phillips. The Guards don’t have anyone taller than 6-2.

“When you have a team like us, you’ve got to get a good start,” Dunn said. Unfortunately, the Guards didn’t get the start they wanted and fell behind, 13-6, by the first-quarter buzzer. “The key in the first quarter was that we didn’t attack the boards enough,” he continued.

Bell-Jeff’s Steve Dontanville was the game’s high scorer with 19, most of those on baseline jumpers.

“Early on we went to him (Dontanville) too much. Once we started to execute, we started to score,” Dunn said. Eric Brown, Murphy’s only senior starter, had 14 points to lead the Nobles.

Phillips and Lance Malvauex both had 10 points. Andre Gougis, a 5-4 guard, added nine for the Nobles.