Poway Knows How to Byrne You : There’s More to Titans Than Stars Buechler and Johnson

The names Jud Buechler and Dominick Johnson are prominent in any talk of Poway High School’s basketball team.

They should be. They are impossible to overlook, physically and statistically. Buechler is 6-feet 6 1/2-inches; Johnson is 6-6. Buechler led San Diego County in scoring (23.4 points per game and Johnson (22.9) was No. 2. Together they averaged more than 46 points and 20 rebounds per game.

The forwards are big reasons why Poway will be playing for its third straight San Diego Section 3-A championship Saturday night against Serra at the Sports Arena. But the Titans have more than Buechler and Johnson to boast about.

Try Andy Byrne, Gary Anderson and Aaron Silveyra, Poway’s lesser known starters.

“Jud and Dominick are two of the best,” Coach Neville Saner said. “But we can’t make it with those two alone. The other players are very good and very important to us.

“Without Buechler and Johnson, those other guys’ statistics would be a lot greater. But our record wouldn’t have been as good, either. The key is, they have specific roles and they’ve filled them very well.”

Byrne and Anderson are three-year starters. Byrne was named to the Coaches’ All-Palomar League first team, along with Buechler and Johnson.

Still, he’s better known for his football accomplishments. Byrne, a 6-2, 200-pounder, was Poway’s quarterback, and will attend Colorado State next year on a full-ride scholarship.

In basketball, he plays in the middle. Although not a true center, he plays high post on offense. On defense, he guards the opposition’s best player.

“He takes on the other team’s best offensive player because we look at Andy as being our best defender,” Saner said. “He has a nice shot and he hits the boards well. He doesn’t get a lot of rebounds because of Jud and Dominick, but he gets his share.”

Byrne averages more than 13 points and nearly seven rebounds per game, putting him third on the team in both categories.

“Certainly Andy would have had a much a higher profile if he had played on another team, but I don’t think anybody has overlooked what he’s done for us,” Saner said. “He’s a most valuable asset to our success this season.”

Stopping Byrne is the key to beating Poway as far as Sweetwater Coach David Ybarra is concerned.

“Buechler and Johnson are going to get their points no matter what you do,” he said. “But Byrne is the key that can kill you. I think a team’s best shot at beating Poway is stopping him.”

Anderson, a 5-10 junior, has started for the Titans since his freshman year and is the only true guard in Poway’s offensive scheme. He’s their main ball-handler, the one who sets up the offense and breaks the press.

“Gary’s had a very good season,” Saner said. “He gets the ball inside to our big people and he takes percentage shot when he gets it.”

Anderson is averaging eight points a game, a bit less than his 9.6 last season. But there’s a good reason for that.

“Teams didn’t sag on us as much this year so the shot wasn’t there as often and he had more opportunities to pass the ball inside,” Saner said. “But his scoring doesn’t reflect the kind of season he’s had. We don’t depend on him to score a lot of points. His job is to help us set up the offense and play good defense.”

Silveyra, a 6-4 senior forward, is averaging four points per game, and hasn’t made the impact he’d hoped. He was slowed early in the season after severely spraining an ankle.

“He did have a slow start,” Saner said. “We were running three different guys at his position when he was hurt and when he got healthy, Aaron had to win his job back.

“But he’s played well of late. He’s a good, solid player. He plays fine defense, takes the open shot when he gets it and looks for the open man.”

When the season began, Saner expected to see a lot of trick defenses such as a diamond-and-one and triangle-and-two to combat Buechler and Johnson.

“We saw a few different things, but not as often as I thought we would,” he said.