Mt. Carmel Overcomes Milling-Powered Poway

It’s crunch time in the Palomar League boys’ basketball race. With four Division I teams in the top 10, and already conceding the league title to top-ranked Torrey Pines--a Division II team--the four others are jockeying for position for the playoff seeding meeting next Saturday.

“Playoff leverage,” Mt. Carmel basketball Coach John Marincovich called it.

Marincovich’s team flexed its muscle and might have squeezed to the top of the pack Friday night in front of 1,600 as the seventh-ranked Sundevils knocked off sixth-ranked Poway, 71-66.

Mt. Carmel (15-8, 8-4) now has beaten fifth-ranked Vista (15-8, 9-3) and Poway (18-8, 7-5). No. 10 Fallbrook (17-7, 7-5), following the pattern of winning at home, also fits into the equation, having beaten Mt. Carmel earlier this week. But the bottom line, regardless of seeding, is that if Mt. Carmel competes in the playoffs the way it did against Poway, San Diego Section Commissioner Kendall Webb might as well start engraving the championship plaque.

“(Poway’s Kyle) Milling had about as good of a game as he can have,” Marincovich said. “If we can beat Poway with Milling playing that kind of game, I think we we can beat anybody. I’ve felt that way all year.”

Milling, bound for UC Santa Barbara, looked every bit the Division I college prospect. He scored 32 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked three shots. But his team still fell short against an inspired team shaking off the earlier loss to Fallbrook.

“The one thing we did very well was we went to the hole,” Marincovich said. “That probably cost us the game against Fallbrook (a 67-62 loss). . . . I’m real pleased to see our kids rally after that loss because that game hurt bad.”

Mt. Carmel, which lost earlier this season to Poway, committed only 10 turnovers Friday.

“We have a strong front line and when our guards handle the ball, we’re tough,” Marincovich said. “Our guards did a real good job, they took care of the ball and they handled the press.”

Each of those guards contributed mightily. Derek Wessel scored 21 points, including 12 in the second quarter.

Dan Kirby, who scored 11, keyed a 10-4 run in the fourth quarter with a three-point basket and another off the fast break, which stretched Mt. Carmel’s lead from 56-52 to 64-54 with 3:49 remaining. And Aaron Harmon, who scored only two points, made two free throws with 20 seconds left to ice the game, 71-66, after Poway’s Todd Fortney nailed two three-pointers in the final minute.

Their play complemented that of their big men--and they are big. Robert Treahy (6-foot-6) scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds despite missing most of the second half with four fouls. Jason Sammons (6-6) scored 12 points and grabbed four rebounds. Chris Goode (6-6) had seven points and eight rebounds.

“I think (the victory) gives us a real good chance to be among the top three seeds in the playoffs,” Marincovich said.

Spoken like a man with leverage.