Prep Basketball BOYS : Bell-Jeff 71, St. Genevieve 61

Bell-Jeff Coach Joe Dunn worried about his standout forward Steve Dontanville before the Guards played St. Genevieve at Harvard High School.

Dontanville had been ill and running a temperature before the game. But soon after Dontanville stepped onto the floor, with two minutes left in the first quarter, the only thing burning up were the nets as the 5-11 senior scored 20 points and grabbed 8 rebounds to lead Bell-Jeff in a Santa Fe League game.

“I don’t think we played too well,” Dunn said, “but Dontanville was the key. He came off the bench and hit three straight and that got us going.”

Bell-Jeff, 6-2 in league and 16-3 overall, had 15 turnovers in the first half and had trouble from the foul line. But it managed to take a 30-26 lead at the half.

St. Genevieve’s Mo Guardado scored six straight points and junior Steve Escobar added a field goal to put the Valiants up by two with five minutes left in the third quarter.

St. Genevieve never regained the lead as it fell to the Guards’ pressure defense, which forced 11 turnovers in the second half. The Valiants hit only 9 of 23 field-goal attempts in the final two quarters, while Bell-Jeff made 52% of its shots and 11 of 19 free-throw attempts.

Guardado had 18 points for the Valiants, while Nate Obispo and Arnold Durazo each scored 11 points. The Valiants are 2-6 in league, 8-10 overall.