Falcons Rally to Beat Vista

Torrey Pines brought its inside game, Vista delivered its outside game, and their meeting Wednesday night nearly turned the gym upside down.

Top-ranked Torrey Pines overcame a 13-point third quarter deficit and squeaked past sixth-ranked Vista, 81-79, in a game that had everyone in attendance but the county fire marshal.

Torrey Pines (16-3, 7-0) has not lost to a San Diego team all season. The Falcons have nine players over 6 feet 2. Vista (12-6, 6-1) doesn’t have a player over 6-2 and lives and dies by the three-point shot.

While Torrey Pines has had a share of the league title the past four years, Vista had been taking it on the chin until their tiny team became seniors. Thousands of three-point practice shots later and with a cheering section called “The Bomb Squad,” they nearly delivered a blow for the little guy, sinking 15 of 36 from long range.

An 19-6 run to open the second half, the result of five three-point baskets and five turnovers, nearly put the Panthers on Easy Street.

“One or two more possessions,” Vista Coach Greg Lanthier said, “and I thought we would have rammed it down their throats.”

In the long run, Lanthier said his team probably spent itself during the stretch.

Falcon Coach John Farrell couldn’t call a timeout fast enough. He changed the offense, moving 6-11 Scot Pollard to the high post, then cut another post player down low. Torrey Pines broke the press. It broke the defense. It got three-point baskets from Steve Lemery (seven points), Eddie Montalvo (seven points) and Craig Brown (21), the latter with three seconds left in the third quarter, and pulled to within 60-57.

Then Peter Bates got in on it. He scored all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter to help Torrey Pines build a 75-68 lead with 2:43 to go. But Vista rallied behind three three-pointers, two by Dave Dillon (six points) and another by Shane Jager (25 points). Jager’s free throws with 21 seconds tied the game at 79, but Brown--who assumed responsibility for the game on his shoulders in the second half--countered with two free throws with 19 seconds left.

Vista got the ball to its most dangerous player, Jason Barnes (21 points), but he got tangled with Montalvo and was whistled for traveling with 11 seconds remaining. The next time Vista got the ball, one second was on the clock.

Pollard, who had 18 points in the first half, finished with 24. Vista’s Nils Michals had 16.

“We still hold our destiny in our own hands,” Lanthier said. “We don’t need help from anybody.”

They nearly proved it.