Bell-Jeff’s Girls Run Out of Gas

A weary, emotionally drained Bell-Jeff High girls’ basketball team had its historical season come to an end Saturday in a 58-43 loss to St. Bernard in the Southern California Regional Division IV final at the Pond.

The Guards (31-2), playing on heart and emotion since they won the Southern Section Division IV-A championship a week ago Friday, simply were not the same team that put together a 30-game winning streak--10th on the all-time Southern Section list and second only to Buena among area teams.

That team plays with a fiery intensity and an unrelenting desire to win. It also makes 60.2% of its shots and averages fewer than 11 turnovers a game.

The team that lost to St. Bernard was flat, made 15 of 49 shots (30.6%) and turned the ball over 27 times--11 in the first quarter.

Last week’s Southern Section championship was the first in any sport in Bell-Jeff’s nearly 53-year existence but it may have cost the Guards a run at the state title.

“We are an emotional team,” Guard Coach Jim Couch said. “We were so high when we won the Southern Section title and it’s tough to keep your emotions that high for the next two weeks. It’s hard to keep that going.”

St. Bernard (25-6) employed a man-to-man defense, something Bell-Jeff had not seen since early in the season, and the Guards could not get their offense going.

“We were a little confused,” said guard Felicia Flores, who had 11 points and seven rebounds. “We were running the offense and we didn’t know where to go.”

What little fight the Guards had left after a draining come-from-behind 71-59 victory over Santa Ynez on Thursday was used up overcoming a 16-7 first-quarter deficit and cutting the Viking lead to 23-20 by halftime.

The Guards rallied to tie the game twice in the third quarter and pulled to within a point twice more. But Jaclyn Johnson, Jennifer Thornell and Cheryl Flores combined to miss eight shots that would have put Bell-Jeff ahead.

“If we could have gotten past that point there is no doubt we would have won the game,” Couch said. “We had open looks but dropped passes and missed layups. Those are the types of things that cost you games.”

The Guards were still within 33-31 when Cheryl Flores picked up a loose ball raced for layup with 3.4 seconds left in the third quarter. But Flores was called for charging, nullifying the basket. The Guards never recovered.

St. Bernard opened the fourth quarter with a 13-5 run and led, 46-36, with 5:00 to play.

“I was surprised with the call,” St. Bernard Coach Lori Pawinski said. “That was huge. Any time someone takes a charge it fires up a team and that gave us motivation going into the fourth quarter.”

Teri Holmes had eight points and 11 rebounds, and Tonda Williams had seven points and 10 rebounds for the Vikings, who outrebounded Bell-Jeff, 46-31, and scored 14 second-chance points on 19 offensive rebounds. The Guards had only two second-chance points on 10 offensive rebounds.

“We wanted to keep playing but how can you complain when you have a season like this one,” said Johnson, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds. “We had a very good season and everyone deserved to get here.”