The Foothills Falcons knocked off the defending Foothills Athletic Council champions for the second time this season last week.
Now they would like to serve notice after a long absence from being one of the top teams in the league, they are hoping to vie for the championship.
The Falcons beat the defending council champions, the Highwood Mustangs, 69-63 on Feb. 1 at Foothills Composite High School to improve their record to 5-1 in league play.
“To beat Highwood twice means a lot,” said third-year Falcon Amy Wooldridge. “It means a lot to know that we can actually compete this year. We are learning to actually compete in this league and it feels good.”
The Falcons haven’t won a Foothills title since the days of Marg Brown and Mark Hogan coaching the burgundy-and-white. However, Holy Trinity Academy, Highwood or the improved Oilfields Drillers are not about to concede the title.
“They haven’t swept us yet — we still could play them in the playoffs,” Mustangs coach Curt Colfer said with a smile. “Right now, we don’t match up very well with them, we have trouble with their size.”
The Mustangs ran off with a 16-9 lead after the first quarter. However, the Falcons battled back to take a one-point lead at halftime. They upped their lead to 50-38 by the end of the third quarter.
“We let them back in it, I keep telling the girls they have to play to the buzzer, ” Falcons coach Lana Gwilliam said. “But it was a big win for us to beat Highwood twice… It had been a few years since we beat them.”
It was a successful week for the Foothills Falcons. They finished third at the Bowness girls high school basketball tournament on Feb. 3-4 — the Falcons have not been on the consolation side of a tournament all year.
They opened the tournament with a victory over the William Aberhart A’s on Feb. 3.
“We lost to them in the semifinal at a tournament in Bert Church (Airdrie) so it was nice to comeback and beat them,” Gwilliam said.
They then came up against the Bishop Grandin Ghosts in the semifinal, the ninth ranked 4A girl’s team in the province. The Falcons were able to hang around with them before losing 77-61.
“We were up on them and then they switched to a zone,” Gwilliam said. “We moved the ball well but just missed some open shots. We were competitive for a while and it was nice to play with a team that is ranked.”
Wooldridge was the Falcons’ top scorer with 20 points. The Turbach sisters, Kalli and Madie, had 14 and eight points respectively.
The Falcons clinched the bronze by downing Calgary Christian, a smaller school, 70-37 and Wooldridge was named a tournament all-star.
The Falcons are in a tournament at Chestermere on Friday. They will open against the George McDougall Mustangs — a big game, as they will meet in the 4A South Central Zone playoffs later this season. The Falcons play Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans tonight (Feb. 8) at STS. They then will travel to Holy Trinity Academy for a showdown for first-place in the FAC at 5:30 p.m.
