The Way Bell-Jeff Is Going, Opponents Need Guardrails

For Camino Real League opponents of the Bell-Jeff girls’ basketball team, this is the eve of destruction.

The Guards (14-1) open league Thursday night.

And judging by the way the Guards have rolled to victory in three tournaments, winning 13 consecutive games, things could get ugly for the rest of the league.

St. Mary’s Academy of Inglewood, defending league champion, lost in the second round of last weekend’s Bell-Jeff tournament, in which the Guards won four games by an average of 46 points.

St. Anthony of Long Beach, a team that defeated Bell-Jeff last season and finished third in league, lost three starters.

To make matters worse, the Guards, who finished second, have a chip on their collective shoulder.

They played most of last season without 6-foot-2 forward Jaclyn Johnson, arguably the best player in the region, who had a stress fracture in her shin.

Included in the 15 games Johnson missed were losses to St. Anthony’s and St. Mary’s Academy.

“If we have anything to prove it’s in those two games,” Guard Coach Jim Couch said.

A half-strength Johnson returned in time for the Southern Section playoffs and led the Guards to the Division IV-A semifinals, where they lost to Village Christian, 50-48.

Johnson, playing at full-strength, has averages of 25.6 points, 15.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 3.5 steals and 3.9 blocked shots per game.

She has been most valuable player in all three tournaments the Guards have played in and makes the Guards not only league favorites, but the odds-on favorite to dethrone five-time Division champion Cerritos Valley Christian--which Couch has been plotting since his 1992-1993 team lost to the Crusaders in the final.

“That’s been the main goal since the last visit,” Couch said. “We know what it feels like to be runner-up, now we want to win the title.”

Including Johnson, all five Guard starters return for a team looking to win the first Southern Section championship in any sport at Bell-Jeff.

Point guard Cheryl Flores, a 5-7 senior, is averaging 12.5 points, 5.1 assists and 4.5 steals. Off-guard Felicia Flores, a 5-8 senior, is averaging eight points.

Six-foot junior center Veronica Cobb is pulling down 10 rebounds a game and is capable of scoring in double figures if the regular scorers falter.

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AT A GLANCE

* THE PROVEN: Bell-Jeff returns all five starters, including all-league selection Cheryl Flores at point guard. Jaclyn Johnson was a second-team all-league selection even though she missed more than half of the team’s games. Felicia Flores, Veronica Cobb and Karen Canani round out a lineup that Jim Couch calls the best five players in the league. Rinda King returns at center for league champion St. Mary’s Academy. Center Cassie Redding, St. Anthony’s leading scorer a year ago, returns for her senior season.

* THE PROMISING: Fayad Garcia and Amanda Cardenas have cracked a talented Bell-Jeff lineup as freshmen. Six-foot center Nancy Sandoval will be a force for St. Anthony’s.

* FAST FACT: The completion of a new gym allows St. Genevieve to play home games on campus for the first time in school history.