Bell-Jeff Falls to Garces

Bret Selby wore a smile of relief after watching his Garces Memorial High team defeat Bell-Jeff, 69-63, in a Division IV quarterfinal of the Southern California regional playoffs in the state basketball tournament at Highland High on Tuesday night.

“Honestly, we’re a much better team than that,” he said said with a shake of his head. “We were pretty terrible tonight.”

Perhaps, but the Rams (20-4) will get a chance to redeem themselves in the semifinals Thursday night against Southern Section 2-A Division champion Banning, a 97-55 winner over Holtville of the San Diego Section in another quarterfinal.

Bell-Jeff (19-8), the Southern Section 1-A runner-up, will wait until next year.

“We just weren’t into the game tonight,” Bell-Jeff Coach Joe Dunn said. “I don’t know why. It seems to me that you shouldn’t have to say much to pump your players up when they’re playing in the state playoffs.”

Whatever the reason, the Guards may have played their worst game of the season. It was definitely their worst effort in the past 14 games.

Bell-Jeff made only 21 of 59 field-goal attempts, and, more importantly, the Guards were outplayed in the facets of the game--rebounding and defense--in which they pride themselves.

“Guys were missing their assignments all night,” Dunn said. “On offense and defense. At the start of the second half, I called two plays in the huddle and then they went out there and ran something completely different.”

Despite their mental lapses, however, the Guards led, 26-25, at halftime. Dunn’s son, Greg, had scored 9 of his 16 points and the Bell-Jeff defense was forcing several turnovers.

Garces, however, adjusted to the press in the second half and continually made one layup after another upon breaking down the Bell-Jeff defense.

“We weren’t getting back on defense,” Dunn said. “And we were playing too much as individuals on offense.”

Garces was led by 6-5 forward Jason Webster and Kevin Beed, who combined for 43 points against a Bell-Jeff defense that was out of sync. Webster led Garces with 22 points and Beed added 21.

After leading, 33-30, early in the third period, the Rams outscored Bell-Jeff, 15-9, and led, 48-39, at the end of the third quarter.

“I guess we just wanted it more than they did,” Selby said.

Beed, in particular, wanted the ball in the final period, scoring 12 of the Rams’ 21 points.

Bell-Jeff was 2 for 11 in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter and missed 7 of 8 field goal attempts during one stretch.