Peaking for provincials.
The Foothills Falcons are heading into the provincial finals playing their best basketball of the year, after beating the Holy Trinity Academy Knights 82-46 in the 4A South Central zone boys basketball final Thursday at HTA.
“Our guys have battled all year long and we have come a long ways,” said Falcons head coach Amron Gwilliam. “They played their butts off all year. Our schedule, playing some of the tough teams all year, was excellent in being prepared for tonight.”
The Falcons made a statement early, jumping out to a 15-0 lead in the opening minutes.
Knights coach Sam Aiello admitted his team was never in the game.
“What can you say? When you get down 15-0 all of a sudden you have to work your way up,” Aiello said. “We couldn’t match their physicality, we couldn’t match their shooting.
“They deserve to go to provincials.”
The Knights will be pleased to see Falcon Peter Baker cross the stage for graduation this June. The sharpshooting senior burned the Knights for 22 points earlier this year and was hotter than a crossed-bun coming out of the oven in Thursday’s zone final.
Baker was unconscious from beyond the arc – he had 24 points, which included seven three-point shots from various points of the Knights gym floor.
“Before the game I was super, super nervous, I took some shots in warm-up to try and get in the zone,” Baker said. “When I hit my first shot in the game, I knew I was going to have a good game.”
Jumping out to a 15-0 lead didn’t hurt his or the team’s confidence either.
“We knew we had to play well early because the Knights are a good team,” Baker said.
The Falcons won the game despite ‘only’ 12 points from team-leader Adam Pahl.
That’s perfectly fine with the easy-going UNBC-bound Pahl – better to be on the no. 1 team than no. 1 on the scoresheet.
“It’s been a long year, we have had a tough schedule and it’s been a grind – we have all grown together,” Pahl said. “I’m just happy with the win.”
Falcon David Kent-Canalejo and Tyler Ziehl also finished in double digits with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Jesse Ralph, playing in his final game as a Knight, led HTA with nine points.
Both the Falcons and the Knights had advanced to the final due to victories over the Chestermere Lakers.
The Knights disposed of Chestermere 77-66 on March 7.
The Falcons then set up the HTA-Foothills showdown by eliminating the Lakers 73-48 on March 8.
The Falcons proceed to the 16-team 4A provincial final this week in the Lethbridge area as the 12th-seed. They open with the fifth-seed Magrath Zenith in Magrath.
The Falcons go into provincials flying under the radar lower than a Stealth bomber.
They hadn’t cracked the top 15 in 4A provincial rankings all year, despite beating the ninth-ranked Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs on Feb. 18 and losing to the third-ranked Bishop O’Byrne Bobcats by a whisker 79-77 a week later.
Although Gwilliam would love to be a higher-seed, the Falcons won’t shy away from anybody.
“We have played a number of the top teams and played right with them,” Gwilliam said. “We have beaten a couple of teams that will be there. We have a chance to do some good things down there… We are going to be an underdog going in but we are used to that.”
One fallen Falcon-foe believes Foothills will hold its own at provincials.
“If they shoot the ball like tonight, I think they can beat anybody,” Aiello said. “Their starting five is as good as anybody’s.
“I wish them well.”
For more information about the upcoming provincials, go to asaa.ca and click on the championships link.
