Unbeaten Bell-Jeff Defeats Poly Despite Shaky 4th Quarter

Bell-Jeff High played like the undefeated team that it is for the first 3 quarters of Thursday night’s first-round game against Poly in the North Hollywood tournament.

However, the Guards played sloppy, uncontrolled basketball in the final quarter before prevailing, 83-77.

“We didn’t control the tempo of the game in the last quarter,” Bell-Jeff Coach Joe Dunn said. “We had a big lead after three quarters and instead of controlling the tempo in the fourth quarter, we hurried up our offense.”

Bell-Jeff (6-0), runner-up in last season’s Southern Section 1-A Division, held a commanding 63-46 lead after the third period and led, 78-60, with 2:30 to play following a layup by Nick Sanderson.

Sanderson (25 points, 10 rebounds) fouled out shortly thereafter, however, and the leaky North Hollywood gym roof began to cave in on Bell-Jeff.

Art Ricardi came off the Poly bench to score 9 points in the quarter and Scott Cooper scored 10 of his game-high 29 in the fourth period. Cooper’s second 3-point shot of the game narrowed the Parrots’ lead to 79-75 with 25 seconds left.

That was as close as Poly (1-4) came, however, as Chris Dyer (16 points), made 4 of 4 free throws down the stretch.

“These kids have got to learn to play with a big lead.” Dunn said. “We’ve got to learn to keep our intensity up when we’re ahead.”

Dunn’s son, Greg, and teammate Ray Witt each added 13 points for Bell-Jeff, which plays Chatsworth tonight in the semifinals.

Juan Estrada and John Bruner scored 18 and 12 points, respectively, for Poly.

In other first-round games:

Granada Hills 89, Birmingham 87--Aaron Lattimore’s 3-point play with 59 seconds to play broke an 84-84 tie and gave the Highlanders a lead they never relinquished.

Granada Hills (5-1) held an 81-68 lead with 4:56 left in the fourth period, but Birmingham tied the score on Tyrone Craig’s layup with 1:14 left.

Craig (17 points) was fouled on the play and had a chance to give the Braves the lead but missed the foul shot. Lattimore scored seconds later.

Danny Larson scored a game-high 23 points for Birmingham (2-3) and teammate Glenn Sucich added 20. Granada Hills was led by Alvin Brown’s 17 points and John Johnson’s 16.

Grant 68, Reseda 48--Leading, 37-30, at halftime, Grant held the Regents to 5 points in the third quarter to take a 50-35 lead at the end of 3 periods.

Nate Conner led the Lancers with 17 points. Jamey Ekerling added 11 and Sean Watkins had 10.

Chatsworth 69, North Hollywood 66--Rick Garrick scored a game-high 22 points as Chatsworth (5-0) held off a late North Hollywood rally. Trailing by the final margin with 19 seconds left, North Hollywood set up a 3-point shot for Duane Braxton, but it was blocked by Dominic Desantis.