The Falcons dug in from a tough start for a strong finish at the Cougar Classic.
Foothills earned its first two victories of the young senior boys basketball season with triumphs over Stirling and Notre Dame to claim the consolation title at the famed Cougar Classic tournament, Dec. 10-11 in Cardston.
“That was not the two strongest teams that we’ve played, but those were some good wins for us,” said Falcons head coach Amron Gwilliam. “Those were actually our first two wins of the season. We’ve played some really tough teams this season so far so it’s been a bit of a slog on the scoresheet anyway.
“But we’ve definitely improved a ton already and we’re excited about the direction we’re headed in.”
The Falcons were defeated by Magrath, the eventual tournament champions, to open the competition, keeping it tight in the second-half after the Zeniths took control in the opening two quarters.
“Our first half, we turned the ball over a lot and weren’t quite ready to play against a very top team at the 4A-level,” Gwilliam said. “We got down early, but I really like in the second-half how our guys competed, we made a lot of adjustments, were able to control the pace a bit more and play at our pace.”
With just eight players available, the Falcons made good on their second match-up by knocking off the Stirling Lakers 78-59. Foothills' Jack Oliver and Owen Christensen contributed 17 and 16 points, respectively.
“We were rotating guys through and just trying to keep guys as fresh as possible,” Gwilliam said. “We were able to build a 20-point lead going into halftime.”
Foothills then overpowered Red Deer’s Notre Dame by an 85-60 count with the consolation final on the line. Evan Fitzner paced the Falcons with 24 points with Tyler Olson adding 16.
“Guys played well, we were making adjustments with less turnovers and taking some good shots,” the coach said. “And starting to learn to play at the pace we want them to play at.”
This season, Foothills has three seniors, just one of whom played for the varsity team dating back to the 2019-20 season in Beynon Gwilliam, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard/forward with outside shooting range, along with Jon Stephan and Kashton Payne.
“We’re a very young team,” the coach added. “Much like a lot of the other teams around the province, in talking to other coaches, there’s a lot of young teams with limited experience and most teams don’t have any guys who have played at the varsity level before. It’s definitely a steep learning curve for a lot of us.”
The Falcons boast a half-dozen Grade 11 athletes and three Grade 10s, all of whom have made an impact in the early going, the coach added.
“We’re like everybody else in the province without having a season last year, we were kind of unaware who would be coming to tryouts,” Gwilliam said. “We were excited by the fact we had 62 kids tryout for our two boys basketball teams this year and so we made our way through the process giving everyone a fair shot to make the team.
“It took us a few weeks to pick our teams and to get that narrowed down, but we’re quite excited by the group that we have now.”
This week, the Falcons have exhibition games versus the Edge School prep squad and against All Saints, one of the top teams in Calgary. In tournament action, the Falcons will be looking for the sweet taste of victory at the annual Sugar Bowl in Raymond held after the Christmas weekend on Dec. 27-28.
