Dyer Is Bell-Jeff Big Shot in Win Over No. 1 St. Bonaventure

Chris Dyer of Bell-Jeff High admits that he is not a take-charge type of guy. The 6-1 junior guard would rather make the big pass or play good defense than take the big shot.

But on Friday night, it was Dyer who took control in the third and fourth quarters, leading the Guards to a 59-51 quarterfinal victory over No. 1-seeded St. Bonaventure in a Southern Section 1-A Division playoff game at Ventura High.

Bell-Jeff’s 11th consecutive win snapped St. Bonaventure’s 13-game win streak. The Guards advanced to Tuesday’s semifinals against L. A. Baptist, a 55-40 winner over Brentwood.

Dyer, who averages 10 points a game, scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half.

His six points in the third quarter kept Bell-Jeff even with the Seraphs and his seven in the fourth helped Bell-Jeff (18-6) stretch a 40-39 third-quarter lead into a 52-43 advantage with 2:19 remaining.

“I’m usually the last one to step forward,” the soft-spoken Dyer said. “But tonight, the other guys’ shots weren’t falling in the third quarter, so I decided to take charge.”

Dyer scored two of the Guards’ first five baskets in the fourth period and threw a perfect pass to Henry Polee for an assist on another as Bell-Jeff surged to a 48-43 lead with 3:30 left.

“We needed his offense tonight,” Bell-Jeff Coach Joe Dunn said. “Some of the other guys weren’t hitting their shots so I was glad to see him do well.”

Nick Sanderson, in particular, was clanking more bricks than he would care to remember. The 6-1 junior forward averages 18.7 points and scored 22 in Bell-Jeff’s 79-66 first-round playoff victory over Orange Lutheran. but he struggled and scored only seven points Friday.

“The shots just weren’t falling for Nick,” Dunn said. “But the other three guys made up for it.”

Dunn’s son, Greg, scored a game-high 18 points and made 3 of 4 free throws in the last 1:27. Polee added 15 points.

Polee, a 6-0 senior, also did an outstanding defensive job on Andy Wagoner, St. Bonaventure’s 6-6 1/2 senior center. Wagoner, the Tri-Valley League player of the year who was averaging 15.5 points a game, struggled for 12 points against Bell-Jeff’s hawking zone defense.

On three separate occasions, Wagoner appeared to have easy inside layups, only to have Polee or Sanderson swat the ball away. Polee had 4 blocked shots and 9 rebounds.

“We felt like we could take advantage of their slowness, both defensively and offensively,” Greg Dunn said.

It helped that St. Bonaventure was frigid from the field.

“They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect,” St. Bonaventure Coach Marc Groff said. “We just weren’t hitting our shots.”

St. Bonaventure (21-3) made only 5 of 22 shots from the field in the first half and 16 of 45 overall. Frustrating St. Bonaventure was Bell-Jeff’s half-court trapping defense, which simply wore down the Seraphs in the final period.

“I’m really surprised we didn’t cause more turnovers,” Joe Dunn said.

Despite its cold shooting, St. Bonaventure trailed, 21-19, at halftime and led, 39-37, with 22 seconds left in third period.

But Sanderson’s three-point shot with seven seconds left in the third gave the Guards a lead they never relinquished.

“We struggled in first half,” Dyer said. “We weren’t being patient and our shot selection was terrible. But we felt it was only a matter of time before things started going our way.”

And Dyer made sure it stayed that way.