Big First Half Helps RBV Defeat Poway

Rancho Buena Vista played only a few non-league games against local competition. The No. 5 Longhorns opted for tournaments in Orange County and their record took a beating.

They entered Wednesday night’s Palomar League opener against No. 3 Poway with a 5-6 record. But as Coach John O’Neill said before his team took the court, “Our record doesn’t matter now.”

The Longhorns built a 24-point first-half lead, then withstood a furious Titan comeback for an 89-83 victory.

Poway dropped to 6-3, 0-1.

“We saw so much quickness up there (in the tournaments), it had to help us,” O’Neill said.

Also helping was that RBV, considered by most to be a two-man team, came out with a balanced, nearly perfect, first half.

“Against this team, that’s too much of a deficit,” Titan Coach Doug Wealch said. “Give (Darryl) Parker and (Brad) Grubaugh credit. Give the other kids credit. It seemed like more than one guy was shooting out there. It seemed like there were a lot of guys shooting out there.

“They shot like crazy.”

Wealch wasn’t imagining things. By halftime, when RBV held a 53-39 lead--they had led 51-27 with 2:35 to go--five players had scored eight or more points.

“Abe Ajlouny is an excellent three-point shooter,” Parker said. “Mike Ross relieves some of the pressure on me and when teams converge on me, I can dish off to him. And James VanderVeur can penetrate.”

All were in abundance in the first half. Ajlouny had eight points, VanderVeur and Grubaugh nine each, and Ross 11. Parker had 13.

Parker, who finished with 20, and Grubaugh (19) entered the game averaging 26.9 and 25.0 points, respectively. “We did what we do in practice,” O’Neill said. “When we get to games, that doesn’t always happen. But we expect our three man (Ross or Bond Schoeffel) to average 15 points a game. They haven’t been doing that, mainly because (Parker and Grubaugh) have been doing so much scoring.”

Ross finished with 15 points, Schoeffel with two points, plus a steal of a court-length pass with 10 seconds left and RBV leading 87-83, the closest margin since midway through the first quarter.

A big second-half run by Poway couldn’t make up for RBV’s nearly perfect play in the first half. Matt Fletcher and Kyle Milling scored 24 points apiece. Fletcher had seven three-point baskets and a three-point play.

Bill Rarity added 19 points.

Fletcher hit two three-point baskets and Rarity another in the final 2:35 of the first half, and the duo did the same midway in the third quarter to cut RBV’s margin from 15 to eight.