HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP : Referee’s Call Halts Fallbrook Rally as Poway Wins

For all intents and purposes, Alan Yang did foul Mark Wuchner.

The problem for Fallbrook was that the official called it--an intentional foul--and Poway survived in the Warrior gym, scoring a 72-63 Palomar League victory.

Fallbrook (11-8, 4-3) entered the game in a three-way tie for second place and was hoping to make No. 5 Poway (11-4, 5-2) its third high ranking victim in the past two weeks.

The Warriors were in position to do it, having pulled to within three points on Chris Miller’s 11th point of the fourth quarter to make it 60-57.

But Wuchner spoiled the comeback when the official made the unusual ruling, calling Yang for an intentional foul while Wuchner was bringing the ball up court with 1:47 left.

Wuchner, a senior guard, converted both free throws, then the Titans’ Kyle Milling scored on the automatic possession that comes with an intentional foul to make it 64-57.

That sealed the outcome. Poway made eight of 10 free throws in the final 56 seconds, Wuchner making six of eight.

“We wanted to make them beat us at the line,” Fallbrook Coach Russ Keith said. “We were trying to foul and Wuchner had just missed a one-and-one. We knew they were going to go to that spread (offense).”

The foul happened right in front of Keith: “I thought (Yang) reached and got the foul and then his momentum carried him into the guy.”

Wuchner: “He was totally grabbing me.”

Official Dick Gloaty, to a disbelieving scorer’s table: “It was intentional foul: He grabbed his pants.”

That Fallbrook would begin fouling with 1:47 left was surprising, “especially with the way they play defense,” Poway Coach Doug Wealch said.

In addition to the big call, it was defense--Poway’s--that determined the outcome.

Frank Garrett held Miller scoreless in the third quarter as Poway stretched a 33-31 halftime lead to a safer 46-40 margin. Miller had scored 13 in the first half and finished with 24. His average is 22.6 points per game.

“(Miller’s) going to get his points and we’re just going to make it as difficult as we can,” Wealch said.

They did that by trying to keep the ball away from Miller. By shutting out Miller in the quarter, Poway effectively took away one-fourth of Fallbrook’s offense. Only four Warriors scored. Bob Nolan had 23 points, Yang 10.

Poway had more balance. Five players scored in double figures, led by Bill Rarity’s 17. Matt Fletcher and Wuchner had 12 each, Milling and Garrett 10 each.

“They got more balanced scoring,” Keith said. “We were kind of two-dimensional.”

Poway had eight players score; Fallbrook had eight players suit up.

Poway moved into a first-place tie.