There’s nothing like the combination of defence and some help off the bench to help a basketball team — and some hot shooting from the outside doesn’t hurt either.

The Foothills Composite High School Falcons won the consolation side of the Bert Church Senior Boys’ Basketball Classic in Airdrie on Saturday when they beat Edmonton’s J. Percy Page Panthers 77-61.

“We were only ahead by five points at the half,” Falcons coach Amron Gwilliam said. “We played a lot better defence in the third quarter. When you play good defence that creates more offence and we took advantage of that.”

The Falcons shooting machine Kai Rasporich took full advantage of his offensive opportunities leading Foothills with 17 points mainly from beyond the three-point arc.

“He is our best pure shooter,” Gwilliam said.

Branden Heslip proved to be a lifesaver for the Falcons, but this is one Lifesaver without a hole in the middle. The Falcons’ post Lee Campbell was forced to miss the consolation final due to illness and Heslip ably filled in. He had 12 points but more importantly filled the hole left defensively by Campbell’s absence.

Ryan Derochie also provided some scoring depth coming off the bench to score 10 points for the Falcons in the consolation victory.

The Falcons advanced to the consolation final by beating the John Diefenbaker Chiefs from Calgary in the semi-final.

Gwilliam said Diefenbaker was missing some players due to the holidays that could have resulted in the lop-sided victory.

He said Foothills played well but struggled with turnovers.

Foothills opened the tournament by losing to the Medicine Hat Mohawks 90-70 to put the Falcons on the consolation side of the tournament.

“They (the Mohawks) had a kid who must have hit eight threes,” Gwilliam said. “We just couldn’t shut him down.”

The Falcons will take a break for Christmas before heading south for one of the toughest basketball tournaments in Alberta. Foothills will play in the Sugar Bowl at Raymond High School, which starts Dec. 28.

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