The Foothills Falcons girls’ basketball team squared off against some of the most elite teams in the province and upped their rankings in the process.
Anytime a team finishes ahead of their pre-tournament ranking in a championship it has to be considered a success.
The 13th-ranked Foothills Composite Falcons finished in 11th place at the 4A Senior Girls Provincial Basketball Championship, March 15-17 at Cardston and Raymond High School.
Grade 12 forward Amy Wooldridge said the Falcons went into the 4A championships wanting to place higher than their regular season standings.
“We wanted to get that goal for sure and finish higher than last year,” Wooldridge said. “Top 10 would have been nice, but it obviously didn’t happen. I think we played really well. We had some ups-and-downs in the tournament, we played well, we fought hard in our last game and we just left everything on the court.”
The Falcons were matched up with Calgary’s Bishop Grandin Ghosts on March 16 with a spot in the consolation final on the line.
Falcons head coach Lana Gwilliam said the turnaround from their 57-46 afternoon win over Lethbridge Collegiate Institute (LCI) to their evening matchup with the eight seeded Ghosts was a taxing schedule to deal with. The Ghosts would go on to beat the Falcons 62-52.
“That’s a lot of energy to exert and the girls came out strong (against Grandin) as well for just playing a game, but we just missed some shots,” Gwilliam said. “It was close throughout the whole game.”
Falcons guard Courtney Fox led the team with 16 points, while Noelle Reboul poured in 13.
The Falcons opened the tournament with a 77-47 loss to the fourth-ranked Raymond Comets.
“We played (Raymond) before at the LCI tournament so we knew they were fast, were quick and we were able to stop them at the beginning of the game,” Wooldridge said. “Once they got going they were quite hard to stop on their fastbreaks and we weren’t able to keep up with them there.”
Only two Falcons hit double digits in scoring versus the Comets, Reboul led the offensive surge with 12 points and Wooldridge added 10 points.
The Falcons’ second game in the tournament, the victory over LCI, was their most complete team performance, explained Wooldridge who was sidelined with a knee injury in the first half.
“We had a lot less turnovers, we worked better as a team in that game,” Wooldridge said. “We weren’t just running up and down the court chucking up shots. We ran our offence more effectively and we just finished and rebounded hard.”
Forwards Angie Minue and Haley Jensen shot the ball well for the Falcons versus LCI, finishing with 17 and 14 points, respectively.
As winners of one game in the tournament, Foothills finished ahead of the three winless clubs. The first seed Western Canada High won the provincial gold medal via a 74-63 win over the Centennial Coyotes.
The provincial tournament marked the culmination of successful high school careers for several graduating Grade 12 Falcons, including Wooldridge, Reboul, Minue, Fox and Dannica Robertson.
Gwilliam said her seniors can be proud of the final season they helped produce.
“They were all disappointed I guess you could say, no one wants to lose their last game, but I told them after we’ve had a great season, they won the league, they won the zone and they got to go to provincials again,” Gwilliam said of her seniors. “We won some games that we probably wouldn’t have won.”
Wooldridge credited her coach for the successful 2011-12 varsity season.
“It has been really good the last year and I’m really glad that Lana (Gwilliam) came along and helped coach and got us to where we were and I’m proud of everything we accomplished over the years.”
The 2011-12 incarnation of the Falcons was a much improved version from years past with a Foothills Athletic Council league title to their credit, the school’s first since 2005.
“We worked really well as a team, we had good dynamics, we never quit and reached all of our goals and it was just overall a really good season,” Wooldridge said.
The Falcons seniors are leaving the team in the safe hands of half a dozen returning players and the graduates of the league champion JV squad.
“We’ve got a few girls from our team coming back and with the JV’s winning their league and the zones this year as well that’s always a good thing,” Gwilliam said. “You don’t want to count your chickens before they hatch, but from looking at it now it looks like we should be competitive again and start getting this girls program on track.”
