Haskin’s 58 Break Down Bell-Jeff, 80-66

All season long, Bell-Jeff High had relied on its scrappy, trapping defense to key its offense, but in Friday night’s Southern Section 1-A Division championship game at Yucaipa High, the Guards were defenseless against 6-foot, 10-inch Scott Haskin of Beaumont.

Haskin scored a career-high 58 points to lead the Cougars to an 80-66 victory and their first Southern Section title.

“I really wanted this game,” Haskin said. “I wanted to redeem myself after the Cathedral game.”

Haskin was held to a season-low 18 points in Beaumont’s 51-46 semifinal victory over Cathedral on Tuesday. But fourth-year Beaumont Coach Alex Boyd was not worried.

“I knew there was no way in the world that Scott would have two bad games in a row,” Boyd said. “He’s just too tough mentally. . . . Truthfully, I’m not surprised he scored as many as he did.”

Said Bell-Jeff Coach Joe Dunn: “He’s 6-10. It’s hard to defend against someone like that when your biggest guy is 6-2.”

Bell-Jeff (19-7) packed the middle with 6-2 Henry Polee, 6-1 Nick Sanderson and 6-0 Chris Dyer, but Haskin had no trouble with that alignment. He scored 13 points in the first quarter on 6-of-8 shooting as Beaumont (23-5) took a 15-14 lead. With Haskin connecting on 12 of 17 first-half shots for 28 points--he made 26 of 36 in the game--the Cougars led, 38-24.

“It seemed like there was nothing we could do,” said Polee, who scored 15 points in his final high school game.

In addition to his offense, Haskin was also a force on defense. He grabbed a game-high 19 rebounds and blocked 7 shots.

Despite Haskin’s domination inside, Bell-Jeff closed the deficit to 28-24 with 2:55 left in the second quarter when Ray Witt (12 points) made two free throws and a pair of 18-foot jump shots.

But the Guards did not score again and Beaumont ran off a 10-0 streak to take a 14-point lead at halftime.

In the second half, Nick Sanderson started to heat up as Bell-Jeff intensified its defensive pressure, but the Guards never seriously threatened.

Haskin scored 20 points in the final period as Bell-Jeff, the Santa Fe League co-champion, drew no closer than 11 points.

Chris Dyer scored a team-high 17 points for Bell-Jeff and Greg Dunn added 12 points.