St. Bonaventure Has No Defense for Bell-Jeff, 83-62

Bell-Jeff was ahead by 22 points in the fourth quarter Tuesday night, but that didn’t stop Steve Wahl from calling a timeout.

“We weren’t playing defense,” the coach said. “We were just chasing people around.”

Apparently the Guards caught a few, because they defeated St. Bonaventure, 83-62, in a Division IV-A second-round playoff game. Forward Brian Lee scored 23 points and had four three-point baskets.

Center Joe Bunning helped with 16 points and point guard Bryan Camacho had a whopping 17 assists.

The San Fernando League champions have won 13 games in a row, and St. Bonaventure Coach Marc Groff came away impressed.

“When you have a point guard as good as Camacho and a shooter like Lee, and then you throw in there a big guy like Bunning,” Goff said, “that is a deadly combination in IV-A.”

Wahl thinks the Guards (20-4) are peaking at the right time. In calling timeout with 7 minutes 3 seconds remaining, he hoped to keep that momentum going.

“We urgently needed a game where we put a team away, especially having 10 days off,” said Wahl, whose team had a bye in the opening round. “In the beginning of the year, we couldn’t put teams away.

“I wanted to get our other players in. They hadn’t played much all year.”

Bell-Jeff led, 44-31, at halftime and increased the lead to 63-39 by the end of the third quarter.

But after a five-point run by the Seraphs (13-12), Wahl called time out and inserted his “other players.”

One of those players was Luke Barrett, a little-used sophomore forward. He scored seven points in the fourth quarter, making a three-point basket at the buzzer.

Lee can relate. He was a little-used freshman for the Guards the last time they won a playoff game, in 1989.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this win,” Lee said.

He scored 14 points after intermission, and his basket midway through the third quarter sent Bell-Jeff on a 19-4 run that culminated with Bunning’s dunk in the final minute of the quarter. Bell-Jeff led, 63-39.

Chris Cattanach scored 19 points for St. Bonaventure, which played without second-leading scorer Grey Hubbard, sidelined with a broken right foot.