A Foothills Falcon had no problem reading the fine print on the school’s fourth consecutive Foothills Athletic Council Senior high school boys championship thanks to a new pair of contacts.

Foothills Falcon Lee Campbell scored a team-high 26 points in the Falcons’ 73-43 victory over the surprising Notre Dame Collegiate Timberwolves Saturday in the final in High River.

Foothills Falcon Landon Pitcher drives for a lay-up during the Falcons’ 73-43 victory over the Notre Dame Collegiate Timberwolves in the Foothills Athletic Council Senior boys basketball final Saturday.

“This is just the second time I have played with contacts and now I can see the basket so much better,” Campbell said.

Being six-foot-seven and having the shooting touch of a point guard doesn’t hurt either.

The Timberwolves had taken a 6-4 lead in the first two minutes of the game, but then Campbell’s new 20-20 shooting vision kicked in for Foothills.

Campbell would have 14 of his 26 points in the opening 10 minutes of the game as Foothills built a 21-9 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The Falcons practically shut the Timberwolves down in the second quarter holding Notre Dame to four points en route to a 32-13 lead going into the locker room at halftime.

The T’Wolves had trouble handling the Falcons’ big guys including Campbell and six-foot-three Branden Heslip who finished the game with 10 points.

As the lone 4A school (more than 800 students) in the Foothills Athletic Council, Heslip said it puts added pressure on the Falcons to win. This is a big deal for us, especially since it’s my last year,” Heslip said. “What our coach (Amron Gwilliam) tells us at the start of the year is since it is a Foothills League and we are Foothills, we should win it.

“Because we are a bigger school, it would have been a much bigger deal if we had lost it.”

Notre Dame Collegiate (NDC), which has an enrolment of approximately 150 students, is the first 2A school to make it to the FAC final since Siksika High School won the championship in 2000.

“Defensively, the first half I thought we played pretty well,” Timberwolves coach Kevin Fahlman said. “Offensively, we shot 18 per cent. There were times where it seemed we had four or five offensive rebounds and couldn’t put the ball through the hoop.

“Realistically, for us to beat a talented team like Foothills we have to shoot around 50 per cent.”

NDC advanced to the finals by stunning their High River rivals, the Highwood Mustangs, 64-61 on Friday night. It was the first time in history NDC had beaten the Mustangs in senior boys

basketball.

Gwilliam said he was surprised to see Notre Dame in the final.

“As well as Highwood has been playing, I expected to play them,” Gwilliam said. “I didn’t know until I walked into the gym before the game that we were playing Notre Dame.

“Notre Dame is a good team, we played them in

December and we only beat them by 14 points. If they shoot well they would give us a tough time.”

He said the Falcons were able to stop the T’Wolves from driving to the basket and then dishing the ball off to their posts.

“Our wing guys collapsed well enough that they didn’t get too many baskets,” Gwilliam said.

He said Campbell dominated in the first half for the Falcons.

“The ball is starting to go in for him now,” said Gwilliam, who reiterated the new contacts story.

The Falcons downed the Holy Trinity Academy Knights 72-45 Friday night at Foothills Composite to advance to the final.

The Knights were like that Jimmy Breslin gangster novel from the ‘70s: The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

“We were getting good looks at the basket but we just couldn’t score,” Knights coach Sam Aiello said. “Initially, we were holding Campbell off the glass and playing well defensively, but you can only keep Foothills down for so many trips before they start scoring and hitting threes.

“That’s exactly what happened. We were down by two in the second quarter and then boom. We’re down by about 19 at halftime.”

Gwilliam said the Falcons learned a lesson from their previous game against HTA.

“We were able to slowly build a 19-point lead at halftime, but the last time we played them we had a 17-point lead at the half and they cut it down to three or five,” Gwilliam said. “This time, I told the guys at halftime, that it’s now zero-zero, we have to put it to them.”

The Falcons put it away by outscoring the Knights 15-5 in the third quarter.

“Give HTA credit, they played hard and they stayed with us for the first quarter,” Gwilliam said. “We’re just a little bit deeper and have more experience.”

The somewhat lopsided scores in both games allowed Gwilliam to give his role players some valuable minutes as they prepare for zones this week against Airdrie’s Bert Church Chargers.

Falcons reserve point guard Ryan Derochie is out for the season with an injury. Jordan Rapp and MacKellar Wilkie saw a lot of action in the victory over NDC and HTA. They will be needed to fill-in for starter Landon Pitcher in case he needs a breather or gets in foul trouble against Bert Church.

FAC girls

The Strathmore Spartans captured the FAC title when the downed the host Highwood Mustangs 72-70 in the final Saturday.

The Mustangs advanced to the finals by downing the Foothills Falcons on Friday night at Highwood.

Strathmore downed the Holy Trinity Knights in the other semifinal Wednesday.

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