San Diego High School Basketball : Mt. Carmel Clinches League Title, 39-35

Mt. Carmel High School’s second-ranked basketball team clinched the Palomar League title Tuesday night with a 39-35 victory over 10th-ranked San Dieguito at Mt. Carmel.

San Dieguito (8-3, 14-8) has used a patient, passing offense all season to combat its lack of height--Chris Bahr is the tallest player at 6-feet 4-inches--and its defense leads the county.

With the score tied, 10-10, in the second quarter, Mt. Carmel (10-1, 19-3) stalled to bring out the San Dieguito 2-3 zone defense. The tactic originally worked, but stalled nearly two minutes in the final quarter while protecting a 33-27 lead.

“When we got to six minutes left in the fourth quarter,” Mt. Carmel Coach John Marincovich said, “the clock was our enemy, not (San Dieguito).”

In the second half, Mt. Carmel’s height took its toll. Tim Coleman, Mt. Carmel’s 6-8 center, forced Bahr to miss on a second-quarter attempt and Bahr did not test Coleman again as San Dieguito was forced to rely on the outside shooting of Paul Chan and Jack Minger.

Mt. Carmel held San Dieguito without a rebound in the second and third periods, using the inside game of Coleman and the outside game of Mike Wasserburger to surge to third-quarter leads of 26-19 and 31-25.

Coleman had nine points and six rebounds to lead Mt. Carmel, which outrebounded San Dieguito, 19-13. Wasserburger had 12 points and Eric Olander, who hit four straight fourth-quarter free throws, added 10.

Chan and Minger had 10 points each for San Dieguito, which is tied for second place with Torrey Pines.