Bell-Jeff Fortunate It Didn’t Have to Take a Shot in the Dark

There was no way for Bell-Jeff High to shoot the lights out. They were already out.

The Guards showed up for a boys’ basketball game at Cathedral last week only to find that the electricity had been zapped because of a rain storm.

“We went there, but there was just no way we could play the game,” Coach Eli Essa said. “The refs were there, the teams were there. They had a couple lights from an emergency generator, but it was very dim.”

The junior varsity game, however, was played.

“They were using somebody’s stopwatch as the game clock,” Essa said. “A guy at the table kept on yelling out the score. Of course, it was a triple overtime game.

“By the time our game rolled around, both athletic directors and coaches agreed it was no condition to play a varsity game.”

The game has been rescheduled for Monday.

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If he were paid a dollar for every basket he made, Keilon Fortune would be living up to his name.

The senior guard is averaging a region-best 35.2 points and has led Kilpatrick (17-1, 3-0 in league play) to one of its best starts in school history.

Fortune, who played for Compton Dominguez last year, used to play second fiddle to Tyson Chandler, a 7-foot senior who might enter the NBA draft.

The 5-foot-11 Fortune, who plays either point or shooting guard, is making his own headlines.

“He can do everything,” Kilpatrick Coach Alvin Brown said. “If we need some defense, he steps it up there. Offensively, he’ll run the point and distribute or, if we need to score, he’ll do that.”