A pride of mountain lions pounced on some falcons from the outside on the weekend.
The Foothills Falcons were handed a 102-84 defeat by Lethbridge’s Catholic Central Cougars in the St. Mary’s Senior boys classic consolation final on Saturday in Calgary.
The Falcons took a 10-point lead early in the second quarter when Adam Pahl, hit a soft-touched jumper to make it 26-16. But the Cougs would claw back to a 46-43 lead into the locker room at half-time.
“We built up that lead and LCC changed their defence and we didn’t adjust quickly enough,” Falcons head coach Amron Gwilliam said. “We missed some shots and they came down and hit some threes. It seemed like they didn’t miss for the rest of the game. No matter what we did they were able to find a guy to make a shot.”
Cougars coach Denver Corbiere said his team doesn’t just live by threes.
“We were able to adjust defensively and we started rebounding better,” he said. “All season we’ve had guys who can shoot hot and cold, fortunately today it was hot.”
The Cougs were also able to handle the Falcons press in the second half. Corbiere said Foothills gave LCC all they could handle.
“They are big and very organized — stiff competition. Exactly what we want to face this time of year,” he said.
Falcons forward Tyler Ziehl was named a tournament all-star, but he said there is room for improvement for him and the team.
“We competed very hard tonight, the effort was there,” Ziehl said after the loss to LCC. “We weren’t fundamentally sound. We let their shooters get hot and that killed us.
“It’s an easy fix, just grinding down on defence.”
He said the young Falcons squad has had trouble finishing games.
“We are so close to being a very good team,” Ziehl said. “Just a couple of things we need to smooth over and we’ll be ready for provincials.”
Adam Pahl led the Falcons in scoring with 23, while Ziehl finished with 18.
Gwilliam agreed the Falcons are making progress.
“You are always disappointed when you lose,” Gwilliam said. “There are times when we are looking good and we are making small progressions. I think we are heading in the right direction. We just have to get back to work.”
The Falcons opened the tournament with a hard-fought loss to Edmonton’s St. Francis Xavier Rams – the no. 3 4A school in the province.
“St. FX is a very good team — the boys played their hearts out,” Gwilliam said. “The difference was they executed more than we did. They are the no. 3-ranked team in the province for a reason.”
The Falcons were able to trim the lead down to eight points in the third quarter, before ST. FX rammed their way to the 78-52 victory. Pahl once again led Foothills in scoring with
Foothills advanced to the consolation by downing the Balfour Bears from Saskatchewan by more than 20 points.
“Balfour may not have been the strongest team, but our boys played well,” Gwilliam said. “We worked on our offensive execution. There were some sets that we wanted to run and it was a good chance to do that.”
Pahl poured in 29 points for the Falcons, while Josh Derochie contributed a dozen.
The Falcons will play in the Western Canada Redhawks tournament this weekend.
The Falcons Classic is Feb. 17-18. Foothills will open against the Holy Trinity Academy Knights on Feb. 17.
