POWAY PUTS ITS SIZE TO USE
No. 6-ranked Titans emphasize defense, hitting the boards
They aren’t exactly giants, but five Poway basketball players stand 6-feet-5 or taller.
And they play with a common goal.
“We want to be monsters on the boards,” said 6-6 senior forward Tanner Swindall. “And we want to defend like crazy.”
Friday afternoon, the Titans bigs — Swindall, 6-9 junior Cole Stephens, 6-7 junior Aidan Parsons and 6-5 seniors Lucas and Logan Shepard — were too much for Brentwood, knocking off a team ranked 113th in the state 69-59 in the quarterfinals of the American Division of the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic at Cathedral Catholic High.
Poway 69, Brentwood 59
The win pushes the Titans — 11-2 and ranked No. 6 in the San Diego Section and No. 45 in the state — into a 7 p.m. semifinal game today against Alameda St. Joseph Notre Dame, a 57-54 winner over Clovis North, which entered the game 11-1 and ranked No. 10 in the state.
Brentwood (8-6) boasts a large lineup of its own in 6-10 Brayden Thomas, 6-7 Thomas Oosterbroek and 6-5 Christian Moore. That trio helped the Eagles rout Bakersfield 75-37 on Thursday.
Friday, they were neutralized by Poway. Brentwood’s big men were outscored 31-23 and outrebounded 17-6.
Thomas, a particularly skilled player with size, scored eight in the second quarter but was otherwise ineffective.
“All five of my guys have size and versatility,” said Poway coach Scott Fisher.
“All five buy in on defense.
“We know from experience we have to defend. They know what they’re capable of.
“We definitely defend at a high level.”
Guard Garrett Pyle led Poway with 22 points — 21 coming on seven 3-pointers.
Point guard Adam Sevier added 12 points and had several nice passes to the big guys for easy buckets.
Stephens finished with 11 points and five rebounds. Parsons and Swindall each had eight points while Swindall grabbed five rebounds. The Shepards both scored two. Lucas Shepard had five rebounds.
“Stephens played really well,” Swindall said. “We can put a big lineup out there, and in this tournament, against top-notch teams, we need that.
“There are a lot of great teams in San Diego, but it seems San Diego teams are 3point-shooting teams.
“We’ve all played together
Scores and schedules for the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic are at theholidayclassic.org
for a while, and we have great chemistry.”
Poway trailed 43-39 with 2:25 to play in the third quarter, but a pair of Sevier buckets and a buzzer-beating 3pointer from Pyle had the Titans in front 48-45 at the end of the period.
Poway pushed the advantage to 62-50 with 2:22 to play before the game deteriorated into a free-throw-shooting contest.
“We have a pretty good combination of players,” Fisher said. “We have a great playmaker and leader (Sevier). We have a 3-point shooter (Pyle) and we have defenders.
“When you guard as hard as we do, you have a chance to win some games.”
john.maffei@sduniontribune.com