HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP : Pressure Continues to Build for Streaking Torrey Pines

The pressure has been building with every game for Torrey Pines. The Falcons are the Times No. 1 team, and with one game remaining before the playoffs, they still have not lost to a San Diego team.

Torrey Pines (22-3, 13-0) kept that string alive Wednesday night at Mt. Carmel with a 79-63 victory over the seventh-ranked Sundevils (15-9, 8-5). The triumph gives the Falcons more league victories than any other team to wear a Palomar League crown. The 1989 champion Falcons and the 1985 Poway teams went 12-0.

Now, in a league that has five teams ranked in the top 10, Torrey Pines is one game away from perfection.

“(The pressure’s) always in the back of your mind,” said Torrey Pines forward Craig Brown. “You just have to play hard and take it one game at a time.

“I think there would be pressure on any team that was unbeaten. All we can do is play our hardest and hope everything will fall into place.”

Everything fell into place for the Falcons in the third quarter. After trailing by as many as 11 points in the second quarter, 28-17, they whittled away at the deficit until they tied the game at 46 on Steve Lemery’s fast break basket after Eddie Montalvo’s steal. Mt. Carmel answered with a basket by Chris Goode (14 points), but Brown drilled a three-pointer to put Torrey Pines ahead for good.

Twelve seconds later, Brown and teammate John Allred, and Mt. Carmel’s Scott Schoenwald wrestled for the ball while on the floor. Schoenwald, at the bottom of the pile, began jerking the ball around. It was nothing, really, but both benches stood and Mt. Carmel’s Jason Payne--at 5-8 the smallest player in the gym by two inches--made his way onto the floor from the bench. Technical foul. There was no foul called against Brown, Allred or Schoenwald.

Brown made both free throws, and Peter Bates scored on the ensuing possession to make it 53-48. Lemery added another basket 23 seconds later--with 1:07 left in the quarter--before Mt. Carmel’s Jason Sammons (11 points) answered with a three-point basket. When the period ended, Torrey Pines had the lead (57-53), the ball and the momentum. They opened the fourth quarter with a 13-2 scoring advantage.

“We were down by three and all of a sudden we were down by seven,” Mt. Carmel Coach John Marincovich said. “We were psychologically screwed up.”

Torrey Pines Coach John Farrell had some nice things to say about Mt. Carmel’s effort, but nicer things to say about his own team.

“I’m real proud of this team tonight,” he said. “We got in a sling early, we executed well and we got back in it. We played good defense there for about a 10-minute stretch (to tie the game).

“Ever since that Vista gut-check game (a 71-69 victory after trailing by 13 in the third quarter), I’ve known this team has character. They’re not going to fold--you have to beat them.”

Scot Pollard led all scorers with 22 points and Bates had 16. They had 12 and eight rebounds, respectively. Lemery finished with 15 points.

In addition to Goode, Derek Wessel scored 14 for Mt. Carmel.

Torrey Pines held a 35-33 rebounding edge against the Sundevils, who match up well against the Falcons, the league’s tallest team.

Farrell said his team has taken the season one game at a time, and that has kept the pressure from being too much to bear.

“We tried to focus on whatever our next game is,” Farrell said. “We just want to win the Palomar League and to win the (section title). You don’t win those by worrying about losing.

“In the playoffs, you’ve got to be focused on every game or you’re out.”

Now, Torrey Pines has a chance to do something no other Palomar League team has done--win 14 games.

“Coach told us no team in the Palomar League has ever won this many games,” said Pollard, Torrey Pines’ 6-11 junior center. “We just try to take it one game at a time and play each game like it’s our last.”