DIVISION I BOYS’ BASKETBALL : Poway Handles Rancho Bernardo for 6th Title in 9 Years

It has been almost habit, and Saturday night at the Sports Arena, it became easy: Poway High won its sixth San Diego Section Division I championship in nine years, 69-48.

And beause the county has been unsuccesful finding a worthy opponent for Poway, this time the section offered a bunch of former Titans to try to end the reign, the Rancho Bernardo Broncos, a second-year school that drew half its student population from Poway.

The Broncos, however, were no clone. When it came down to it, they simply couldn’t handle their former teammates on defense.

“Hey,” said Rancho Bernardo Coach Chris Carter, “they outscored us by 10 in the second quarter. And that means what we were trying to do wasn’t working so well.”

What they were trying to do was keep the ball away from 6-foot-7 center Kyle Milling. Milling tried harder. He finished with a game-high 27, most of which came in a personal battle with Rancho Bernardo’s 6-6 center Kirk Hipple.

“Kirk’s a good player,” Milling said when asked to explain Poway’s superiority inside. “I’ve played with him for a lot of years. I know what he can do, he knows what I can do, but I’m a lot bigger than he is and I can overpower him down low.”

Hipple, who transfered from Poway to Rancho Bernardo before the school year for a chance to start instead of back up his friend, didn’t argue the point.

“They’re a machine,” he said of his former teammates. “They all have the same goals--they know how to play well as a team.”

Early on it wasn’t as one-sided as the final score indicated. In fact, the Broncos took an early 6-2 lead, extended it to 11-4 midway through the opening quarter, then clung to a five-point advantage when the buzzer sounded, 15-10.

The key was hustle. The underdog Broncos simply out-worked Poway and played selflessly.

As a result, in that initial quarter all five starters contributed to the scoring.

The beginning of their downfall came early in the second quarter when point guard Bill McMahon was charged with his third foul. He disappeared to the bench for the rest of the half.

And so too, it seemed, did the Broncos’ spirit.

“That hurt us,” Carter said of McMahon’s third foul. “He’s like a small forward. He’s our second-leading rebounder and our second leading scorer. He’s like a quarterback when we’re on defense.”

It wasn’t only Milling who found easy paths to the basket. Andrew Davs, a 6-6 forward, was a favorite target of Poway’s guards, too. They fed him for 13 points, most of which came off dunks.

For the game, Poway outshot Rancho Bernardo, 63% to 40%.

“But,” Carter pointed out, “a lot of their second-half points came on dunks.”

Poway improved its record to 24-8; Rancho Bernardo was 28-11.

“If you had told me at the beginning of the year we would have been in the (section) finals,” Hipple said. “I would have laughed in your face.”