HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : POWAY HAS ITS OWN WAY IN VICTORY OVER LINCOLN

With the Poway High boys’ basketball team holding a four-games-to-one advantage in meetings with Lincoln since the series began six years ago, one would have expected the Hornets to show up on their home court Friday night with revenge in mind.

But they instead showed up looking rather flat.

Sure, Lincoln opened the game with a press, but as Coach Ron Loneski pointed out, “My sister could have handled our press.”

Poway handled it all right, along with Lincoln’s superior height, and came away with an 81-69 victory.

“We just shot awfully well,” said Neville Saner, Poway’s coach.

And, Loneski said, “Like I told my kids, they don’t take bad shots.”

On the other hand, Loneski was unimpressed with his team.

“It was just a horrible game for us,” he said. “We had no leadership on the floor, and we didn’t do anything we wanted to do.”

That did not sit well with Loneski, seeing that he had told his team exactly what Poway would do to win.

“As soon as I saw the junior varsity game, I knew what they were going to do,” he said. “They have their motion offense and send someone down the middle. You have to clog the middle, or else Poway is going to kill you. They must have had 25 layups against us.”

Center Zeke Awbrey was often the one rolling the ball off his fingertips for those points, finishing with 16, third-best on his team.

Awbrey said afterward that he wasn’t so much concerned with his performance as the fact that Poway had entered the game with a lower ranking than Lincoln.

As it turns out, it wasn’t really Lincoln (5-2) looking for revenge--it was Poway (2-0). The Times ranked Lincoln fourth in the county in its preseason poll and Poway ninth. Another poll put Lincoln at No. 3 and Poway at No. 7.

“We just wanted to beat them so bad after we were ranked seventh and they were third,” Awbrey said. “Plus, last year (after Poway beat Lincoln in Poway), a reporter told us that Lincoln would have won if the game was played here.

“We wanted to prove that wrong.”

Awbrey had some help. Junior forward Frank Garrett scored 20 points, and Greg Sorrell had 18.

Lincoln’s offense was pretty much in the hands of one man--Darryl McMillan. McMillan finished with 31 points, including 13 in the first quarter.

In other nonleague games:

Helix 51, Santana 47--Helix outscored Santana, 13-7, in the third quarter and held on for the victory at home. Henry Lundy had 12 points, and Bill Bodenstadt and Lloyd Lake added 11 apiece for Helix (1-2).

USDHS 79, Clairemont 60--Eric Barajas and Peter Ellis scored 13 points apiece to lead USDHS at home. USDHS (1-2) led, 26-14, after the first quarter and coasted to the victory as four players scored in double figures.

El Capitan 51, West Hills 20--El Capitan held the Wolf Pack scoreless in the first quarter and took an 25-5 lead going into the second half. Brian Holifield had 16 points, and John Duckworth added 12 for the Vaqueros. Mike Campbell scored 14 for West Hills.

Monte Vista 72, Grossmont 51--Joe McNaull and Jeff Polinsky helped sixth-ranked Monte Vista improve its record to 3-1. McNaull scored 25 points, grabbed 17 rebounds and blocked nine shots, and Polinsky had 19 points. For Grossmont, Todd Cady matched his 11 points with 11 rebounds.

Valhalla 78, Granite Hills 61--Tony Lee led Valhalla with 30 points but was outdone by Granite Hills’ Scott Georgens, who had 33. Valhalla’s Bryan Voshell had a career-high 20 points and also came through with 15 rebounds.

Metro Conference

Sweetwater 92, Hilltop 54--Fifth-ranked Sweetwater improved to 6-0 in winning its first conference game. Carlos Campbell scored 33 points, his high this season, and pulled down nine rebounds. Teammate Joe McDowell had 16 rebounds and 14 points. Sweetwater was 26 of 39 from the free-throw line.

Chula Vista 62, Castle Park 55--The Spartans couldn’t stop Castle Park’s Tony Thompson, who had 23 points and eight rebounds, but they held the remaining Trojan starters to under 10 points apiece in their conference opener. Carnell Penn’s 16 points and Derek Chapman’s 10 paced Chula Vista (1-0). Castle Park dropped to 1-4, 1-1.

Bonita Vista 65, Southwest 55--Rope Perry scored 23 points and had 13 rebounds to lead undefeated Bonita Vista (6-0, 2-0) at home. Mike Barnett added 20 points for Bonita Vista.

Mar Vista 67, Montgomery 50--Tim Page led Mar Vista with 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Tim O’Neal had 13 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Jim Gruber also had 13 points for Montgomery.

Lt. Mitchell Tournament

El Camino 80, San Clemente 64--Travis Gilley scored 25 points, including five three-pointers, to lead top-ranked El Camino at Torrey Pines. Shawn Scurry added 19 points and 12 rebounds for El Camino (4-2).

Dana Hills 63, Rancho Buena Vista 41--Jason Spizuoco scored a game-high 20 points, and 12 players scored for Dana Hills at Torrey Pines. Darryl Parker led the Longhorns with 17 points.

Carlsbad 53, El Modena 44--Carlsbad held El Modena to nine third-quarter points to ensure the victory. Mark Tague had 14 points, and Calvin Coleman added 12 for Carlsbad. Greg Gotlieb’s 14 points paced El Modena.

Fallbrook 63, Escondido 55--Travis Teagle and Chris Miller combined for 32 points to lead Fallbrook (4-1) at Torrey Pines. Teagle, who had 17 points, also pulled down eight rebounds. Damien Cephas had 13 points for Escondido.

Valencia 62, Orange Glen 52--The Patriots’ 22-10 fourth-quarter advantage couldn’t make up for their weak first and third, when they were outscored, 36-16. Aaron Adams (13) and Brian Schofield (11) were the top scorers for Orange Glen (0-6).

Torrey Pines 74, Newport Harbor 64--Coach John Farrell got his 100th victory as Torrey Pines outscored Newport Harbor, 25-9, in the first quarter. Farrell is 100-27 at Torrey Pines. Kyle Armstrong scored 25 points and Bart Brandenburg had 21 to lead Torrey Pines (6-0).

Trabuco Hills 105, Vista 85--Vista led, 54-48, at halftime, but Trabucco Hills outscored the Panthers, 29-8, in the third quarter. Randy Kriech had 25 points for Trabucco Hills (5-4) and Bo Hauser scored 20 for Vista (2-1).

Girls

Nonleague

Point Loma 54, Vista 18--Tyeast Brown scored 32 points and had 20 rebounds to lead top-ranked Points Loma (7-0).

Mt. Carmel Tournament

Poway 62, San Pasqual 50--Christy Fortney scored 15 points to lead No. 2 Poway (4-0) in the semifinals.