Team toughness told the tale as the Foothills Falcons hung with some of top squads in the province.
Behind a determined effort Foothills finished fourth at the Falcons Classic invitational senior girls basketball tournament following a 97-81 loss to the Mt. Baker Wild in a barnburner bronze medal match Saturday night at the Comp.
“I was happy with everything we did this weekend,” said Falcons head coach Vince Hunter. “They’re learning to play against big teams, and that’s important. We’re not a very big team, we’re small and we rely on being quick and we’ve got to learn somehow to play under the hole against big kids.
“But we learned a lot about ourselves. We learned how tough we can play.”
Foothills' player of the game in the bronze-medal match and its tournament all-star exemplified that toughness.
Jadie O’Bray, sporting a face-mask while fighting through a facial injury, quickly returned to the court after briefly being sidelined against the Wild.
“Jadie, our tournament all-star, broke her nose again,” Hunter said. “There’s just no quit in them.”
Player of the game Victoria Want showed the will to win after a tough game earlier in the day, Foothills’ 69-49 loss to Calgary’s Joane Cardinal-Schubert Ravens in the semifinal.
“Vic’s a girl we hold accountable and have high expectations of and last game was rough,” Hunter said. “What was amazing was the school was empty, the team has all gone home to sleep and eat, and all of a sudden Vic comes walking through 20 minutes after her game into the small gym.
“She was in there for two hours working on her game, because she cares and she’s committed. Then she goes out and has that kind of a game (against Mt. Baker).
“I don’t have enough words to explain how proud I am of a kid who recognizes it didn’t go great and instead of feeling sorry for herself, she came back and held herself accountable and it showed and her teammates saw that and they’re proud of her.”
Want’s extra work in between games paid off in the final as she knocked down three three-pointers in the first-half alone against the Wild.
Wild swings of momentum saw the Falcons stay close to the Cranbrook school for most of the game with Mt. Baker rallying in the late going for the 16-point victory.
“We hit a few big shots, get a steal or two and feel really good and energized,” Hunter said. “We make a mistake and we become tentative really quick instead of understanding that mistakes are okay, but they get worried and I think a big part of it is they really hold themselves accountable.
“We’ve just got to get past that and we will.”
The Falcons opened the tournament by downing Edmonton’s Holy Trinity Trojans 90-36.
Medicine Hat’s McCoy Colts won the tournament, knocking off the Ravens in the championship match. The fifth-place consolation match saw the Chinook Coyotes edge the Chestermere Lakers.
“We know what we need to get better at, but the girls are unbelievable, their character is unbelievable,” the coach added. “We’ve really proud of them and we’ve just got to learn how good we are and when we settle and recognize that, we’re in a good place.
“We don’t want to peak yet, we’ll take this as just another stepping-stone.”
