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Okotoks' Foothills Falcons come up just short

Basketball: Foothills nine-man roster takes Aberhart Orange to double OT in final
Basketball Falcons 8384
Foothills Falcon Liam Gunning looks for the open man in the team’s victory over the Aberhart Orange on Jan. 6. The Orange would get a taste of revenge by downing Foothills 104-101 at the Ernest Manning tournament final Jan. 11 in Calgary. (Bruce Campbell, Western Wheel)

It’s hard to battle an Orange Crush when you’re down a few good men.

The Foothills Falcons were down to nine players when they took on the William Aberhart Orange in the final of a basketball tournament on Jan. 11 and they didn’t quite have enough as they were downed 104-101 in double overtime.

“I was happy with the heart that our boys showed,” said Falcons coach Amron Gwilliam about Foothills’ effort at the Ernest Manning senior boys tourney. “I wasn’t happy with the loss, but we had some opportunities to win the game, but just weren’t able to capitalize.”

Foothills went into the tournament final short-handed as Sam Simard was lacing it up with the Bow Mark AAA Midget Oilers and Hunter Romeril and Jamison Strilchuk were at Football Alberta tryouts and Beynon Gwilliam had an injured wrist.

It got worse. Connor Oliver and Preston Layton were playing with injuries.

The Foothills 9 never said die. They were down by seven with about two minutes left in regulation time.

“It came down to two big shots, Cley (Perrett) hit a three, Scott (Mathieson) hit a three and then we got a turnover and Ethan (Doering) went in for a layup to put us up by one with 15 seconds left,” Gwilliam said.

The Orange put up a game winning shot, which missed, but the player was fouled. He hit one foul shot with .4 seconds to force overtime.

In the first overtime, the Falcons had a last second shot by Perrett, which just missed to break the tie.

Foothills went down by seven early in the second overtime, but was able to battle back to within three.

A three-point shot for the tie by the Falcons went off the backboard and off the rim to give the Orange the victory.

Cam Boriskewich led the Falcons in scoring with 33 points. While Perrett had 22, Doering, 16 and Layton 16.

Mathieson led the team with 12 rebounds.

The Falcons had whitewashed the Orange by 30 points just five days prior.

“I have known their coach for many years and he was shocked and I was shocked at how poorly they had played that Monday night,” Gwilliam said. “I was worried on Saturday night, knowing that we would meet a different team – one that was much more focused.”

The Orange delivered.

“We got down 17-8 after the first quarter and didn’t play particularly well,” Gwilliam said. “We turned it around in the second quarter and were able to claw back into it at half-time.”

The Falcons advanced to the final by beating the host Manning Griffins in the semifinal.

“They had won a big tournament up in Edmonton and they have been playing really well all year,  so we knew that we would have a tough game,” Gwilliam said. “But our guys came out and played extremely well.”

The Falcons led by as much as 15 and sat in front  throughout the game.

“They (Ernest Manning) pulled to within four in the fourth quarter and then we went on and 8-0 run to kind of put it away,” Gwilliam said.

Foothills went on to win 89-78 .

“Our defence was excellent and our rebounding was really good, we have seen really good improvement there,” Gwilliam said. “And offensively, everybody contributed we shot the ball really well.”

The Falcons’ rebounding was a result of hard-work. Not only were the Falcons short-manned, they are short. Hawk Edey is their tallest player at around 6-foot-3.

“Liam Gunning, even though he isn’t the tallest guy, has been fantastic,” Gwilliam said. “Preston Layton has done really well. Clay has rebounded really well from the guard position. It’s been a whole team effort.

“We all have to box out and we’ve done a much better job of everybody being that as part of their focus.”

Layton led the Falcons with 10 rebounds, while Gunning had eight.

The eagle-eyed Perrett went six for nine from beyond the arc to lead the Falcons’ with 20 points. Foothills had five players finish in double digits for scoring, Boriskewich had 14; Mathieson, 13; Doering and Layton finished with 10 each.

Foothills started the tournament by downing the Centennial Coyotes 87-74.

Boriskewich finished with 24 points, while Perrett and Mathieson had 17 each.

The Falcons have a rare home game on Jan. 16 when they take on the Bishop O’Byrne Bobcats at 7 p.m. at the Comp.

The Falcons JV squad will play beforehand at 5:30 p.m.

Foothills may be hosting the Chinook Coyotes on Friday. However, details of the game had yet to be ironed out as the Western Wheel went to press.

 

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