SoCal High School & Prep Report

Arroyo Tournament: Bell-Jeff
Loses to Mid City--(December 14,1997)

Here's a shocker for those who follow Bell-Jeff basketball, and their star point guard who's been forced to move to shooting guard, Ruben Douglas. While there seems to be a total news blackout on the Championship Game, which was played last night at Arroyo High (there was nothing about the game in either the LA Times, Pasadena Star News, the LB P-T, or the Orange County Register), word has gotten out who won.

It wasn't Bell-Jeff.

Nope. A team of virtual unknowns from Mid-City, an LAUSD Magnet High School, defeated the Bell-Jeff Guards 82-73.

Even though Ruben Douglas (6'-5" 180 lb. Sr. SG) scored 35 points, and Mike West (6'-6" 200 lb. Sr. C/F) scored 33 points, it wasn't enough. In fact the only other scorer for Bell-Jeff was Chris Jones (6'0" 160 lb. Fr. PG), with 5 points. Talk about 5 on 2. Ok, well maybe 5 on 2 ^1/8th.

Mid City featured very balanced scoring, with Ramesh Graham (6'-4" 182 lb. Jr. F) hitting for 29, Barry Fortune--is he related to Kelon?--(6'-0" 170 lb Sr. G) for 16 points, Kelon Wade (6'-3" 189 lb Sr. G/F) for 14, Robert Turnbull (6'-4" 178 lb. Jr. F/C) with 17 points, Cedric Lilly (6'-4" 186 lb. Sr. G/F) with 2 points, and Devon Davis 6'-3" 180 lb. So. G/F) for 4.

Another clue to this game can be found in the old saying "you can't teach height". Or size. Or speed. Or 5 on 2. A look at the Mid City roster, and a comparison with Bell-Jeff's suggests a little bit about the game result.

While Bell-Jeff has some big guys, there are a bunch of juniors and at least one sophomore tall guy who probably didn't even play, and Bel-Jeff usually starts Douglas, Equia, Thornell, West and Jones, and Jones is probably also the only freshman who saw any time in this game. By comparison, Mid-City has only one player under 6'-0", and can throw together a pretty good sized lineup both in the front and back court. 5 on 2.

Douglas (6'-5" Sr. SG) has signed to play for Arizona next year, and Bell-Jeff figured to do very well in tournament and season play behind a very large front line, including Kent Dennis, a 6'-3" forward who transferred to Cleveland, Kenny Esteves (6'-7" Jr. C) who moved to Washington, and Lawrence Jenkins a 6'-4" forward who was not on the team roster but was expected to be there.

As a result, the only truly large starters are Douglas and Mike West (6'-6" Sr. C/F).

5 on 2.

What else do we know about Mid City? They returned three starters from a team that went 10-6 in league play. All League junior Robert Turnbull leads the team in the post and junior guards Ramesh Graham and Jimmie Penn also returned from last year. In comparison, from the little we've been able to glean from our minimal conversations with coach Eli Essa of Bell-Jeff, most of his team consists of last year's jv players, many of whom might not have been moved up had the transfers and defections not occurred.

In the game played last night for the Championship, Bell-Jeff actually led at the end of the first quarter, 20-16, and held on to that lead at the half as both teams only shot twelve points each during the second half. In the third quarter, Mid City regained the 4 point deficit to tie the score at 48-48. But then when crunch time came, Ruben and West were simply not enough against the other five, and Mid City outscored Bell-Jeff 34-25, to win 73-82.

So what else do we know about Mid City?

Nothing.

Except that they are the 40th Annual Arroyo Invitational Tournament Champions.

Congratulations to both teams, and especially to the Tournament Champs.

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