douglas1

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Hart Tournament: Ruben Douglas Is A
Scoring Machine--(December 31, 1997)

Before you check out what happened in the final last night at the Hart Tournament, there was another game, for 13th place, which deserves some special attention.

Who would have thought Bell-Jeff, a team that many would have picked to be a Southern Section finalist, and potential State Champion, would be vying for next to last place in this tournament.

Ruben Douglas (6'-4" Sr. PG/SG/SF/PF/C/Impresario) managed to score 56 points, by himself in a loss for Bell-Jeff to West Bakersfield.

It wasn't so much that he wanted to do it.

He had to.

The final score, West Bakersfield 93, Bell-Jeff 79.

Douglas was actually forced to pick up his usual 30+ points per game pace after the only other truly big varsity player for B-J, Mike West (6'-6" Sr. F/C) went down with an ankle injury in the first quarter. Douglas scored 37 points in the second half, and 21 in the fourth quarter.

We have just one question: Can't somebody, anybody, on the Bell-Jeff squad help him out? Give the guy a hand, and we don't mean some applause, because he's getting plenty of that already.

Surely someone else on the B-J squad can score more than 8 points. We've even heard rumors that Kent Dennis, after losing two games in a row now at Cleveland might even be willing to come back. . . Seriously, if Douglas was previously playing 2 on 5, he must be absolutely desperate playing 1 on 5.

If we were Eli Essa, the Bell-Jeff coach, there are only two things we'd be thinking about now:

1) Praying. Really hard. For someone to step up besides Ruben.

2) Human growth hormone. Really. We don't think it's illegal, and maybe there's enough time left in the season to get some of those 5'-9" guys to grow about a foot.

Bell-Jeff is a team now in serious trouble. The next highest scorer after Douglas' 56 was Mike West with 8, and he went out in the first quarter. Jones had 6, Jenkins had 5, and Thornell had 4. That's only 15 points in 32 minutes from the rest of the whole team.

We don't know whether West's injury is serious, or if he'll be back right away. But if he's out for more than a short time, Bell-Jeff is a team that's going to go nowhere fast.

Oh, well, it can only get better.

'Cause it sure can't get much worse.

Right?

Start praying.