Cal Signee Jovani Ruff Scores 51 Points in a High School Game

Ruff, who will join the Bears next fall, played less than three quarters but still broke the Long Beach Poly single-game scoring record
Cal head coach Mark Madsen
Cal head coach Mark Madsen / D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

Long Beach Poly senior Jovani Ruff, who has signed to play for Cal next season, scored a school-record 51 points in less than three quarters in his team’s 112-54 victory over Compton on Wednesday.

Ruff left the game with three minutes left in the third quarter with the outcome decided, so there is no telling how many points he could have scored if he had been left in the game in the fourth quarter. Setting a school record at Long Beach Poly is a special achievement because the school has produced nine NBA players.

This is only the second time in his high school career that Ruff has scored more than 30 points in a game, yet he is less than 100 points from the school and city career scoring record.

The 6-foot-5, 175-pound Ruff is rated as a four-star prospect by 247 Sports, while Rivals rates him as a three-star recruit. He had offers from Kansas, LSU, UCLA, Oregon, Texas A&M, Arizona Sate and USC, among others, before choosing Cal.

Cal freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson has had surprising success as a first-year college player for the Bears this season, averaging 13.1 points.

And Cal may have another freshman next season who will play significant minutes in Ruff. 

Cal coach Mark Madsen has relied on transfers to fill his roster the past two seasons, but Wilkinson and Ruff may be a sign that Madsen is looking more toward high school recruiting. 

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.