The Foothills Falcons caught a comet by the tail in a Senior boys basketball tournament in Calgary.
The Falcons won one game and lost two en route to losing the consolation final at the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs tournament on Feb. 3-4.
However, the Falcons’ one victory lit up the sky — a 95-77 victory over the Raymond Comets in the consolation semifinal on Feb. 4.
“The Comets aren’t as strong as they usually are, but they do have an honourable mention in the (4A provincial) rankings,” Falcons head coach Amron Gwilliam said. “We came out and played really hard and it looked like we had shaken all the rust off. We played really well.”
He called it the most important win of the year — so far — for the Falcons.
“To beat a team who is a perennially in the top 10 and has won several provincial championships that was really good for us,” Gwilliam said. “It was an all-around solid team effort, All of our Grade 12s stepped up and played really well. Joss Engen didn’t get a lot of points but he played really well defensively.”
Grade 10 point guard Jamie Derochie had one of the best games of his young career. He dished out 11 assists to go along with 16 points. Tyler Grigor also pitched in 16 points.
Engen didn’t do too badly on the offensive side of the floor either. He had 11 points in the victory over Raymond. Noah Wilkie contributed 12 points.
The rust Gwilliam spoke of was exposed by the powerful Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs in both teams’ tournament opener on Feb. 3. The Falcons were harshly bitten by the host Churchill Bulldogs 86-61.
“It was basically the first game we have played in about a month and we just didn’t play well,” Gwilliam said. “I could see that we were rusty. Our execution wasn’t good and our defensive rotation was slow.
“We just didn’t have that competitive continuity that you need to have.”
The Falcons especially needed that continuity against the Bulldogs who are the sixth-ranked 4A team (more than 800 students) in the province.
Grade 10 student Austin Orr was the Falcons’ top scorer who, along with captain Tyler Grigor, finished with 10 points against the Bulldogs. The Falcons’ lanky post Ray Goff contributed nine points and dominated on the boards with 13 rebounds.
The Falcons closed out the tournament by losing the consolation final by a 79-73 margin to the Western Canada Redmen on Feb. 4.
“The game went back and forth,” Gwilliam said. “They had one guy who got hot from the outside. We got back within four and they hit some free throws at the end and we ended up losing by six.”
Derochie had the hot hand for the Falcons as he finished with 20 points.
The Twin Gees, Grigor and Goff, both finished with 16 points in the loss to Western Canada.
The Falcons are in Edmonton this weekend for the Bishop O’Leary Tournament. They will open against the J. Percy Page Panthers.
“We lost to them in the Ross Sheppard final by two,” Gwilliam said. “So it will be nice to have a rematch with them.”
The Falcons travel to Holy Trinity Academy to take on the Knights at 7:15 p.m. on Feb. 13 in league play.
