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SoCal High School & Prep Report

Bell-Jeff v. Providence: First Round of Playoffs Tonight--(February 18, 1998)

Well, when we told you all that the first round of Southern Section Playoffs started Friday and that only the "wild-card" games would be held on Wednesday, that was only partially true. It turns out that the CIF-SS office decided to schedule a bunch of first round games today, Wednesday February 18, 1998.

So who's playing? Well, we're not completely sure about this but this looks like today's schedule:

First Round Games:

Division IV-A:

St. Bonaventure at Serra, 7:30 pm
Village Christian at Whittier Christian, 7:30 pm
Providence at Bell-Jeff, 7:30 pm
LA Baptist at Brentwood

Division V-A:

Southwestern Academy at Santa Clarita Christian, 7:30 pm

Wildcard Games:

Division I-AA:

Crescenta Valley at Fountain Valley, 7:30 pm

Division V-AA:

Holy Martyrs at Cate, 7:30 pm
Lone Pine at Glendale Adventist, 7:30 pm
Armenian General Benevolent at Thacher, 7:30 pm
Villanova Prep at Ribet Academy, 7:30 pm

There are a couple of games which are more than worthy of passing interest. There's the "Battle of the Valleys" between CV and FV in Division I-AA, and then of course there's Bell-Jeff and Ruben Douglas against cross-Burbank "rival" Providence.

Aside from showcasing the region's highest scorer and consistent stats leader Douglas, who will attend Arizona next year and who is averaging 34.4 points per game, this is also an unusual game in that the two private Burbank schools, which are about two miles apart, have not played each other in 15 years.

As Providence coach Paul Sutton told the LA Times this morning, "It's kind of strange that we're so close and we haven't played each other. It's one of those games that haven't taken place that everyone has talked about."

Bell-Jeff once was much larger than Providence, but its enrollment has been shrinking for years. Each school has about 520 students. Tonight, Providence (13-9), which finished third in the Liberty League (Buckley, Avalon, Holy Martyrs, Providence, is the underdog to Ruben Douglas and No. 3-seeded Bell-Jeff (15-12), which finished tied for second place in the Santa Fe League and has won six of its past seven games.

Arizona-bound Douglas' teammate Mike West is averaging 21.1 points, and Sutton, anticipating a playoff with Bell-Jeff, scouted the Guards five times during the regular season and is focused on giving Douglas and West plenty of attention. "We're going to do what we can to slow the pace down," Sutton told the Times. "We're looking for a tight game, a real emotional game."

We don't know that much about Providence, but we're willing to bet that Bell-Jeff survives this one.