The Fountain Hills High School boys basketball team crushed region opponent Chino Valley 62-21 last Friday night at home. Last Tuesday and Thursday were the first time all season the Falcons lost back-to-back AIA-scheduled games, but the 41-point victory over Chino Valley was a much-needed reset.

“Today was definitely a breath of fresh air,” head coach Jeff Bonner said Friday night. “Helps us get back on track, especially when we’re talking about winning the region."

The Falcons finished just short on Tuesday, Jan. 25, at home, falling to region opponent Camp Verde 63-62. Camp Verde hit two free throws to take a one-point lead with seven seconds left, and the Falcons failed to convert a buzzer-beater for the win.

Senior Xavier Mike led the Falcons with 20 points, but sophomore Keaton Ort and junior Aiden Logan made splashes in the fourth quarter. Logan scored 10 points, and eight of them came in the final quarter. Ort had the second most team points with 12, and he scored five of them within a matter of seconds in the fourth. After making two technical free throws, Ort snuck out to the corner, received a crosscourt pass from senior Jared Reichler, and then Ort made the catch and shot a three-pointer.

“He’s in the gym every day and he works hard,” Reichler said about Ort. “He’s one of the best listeners on the team. I think he looks up to all of us, and we really appreciate it. Our hard work in practice every day pays off, and when I threw him that pass, I knew it was going in. There was no chance he was missing it. I really appreciate everything he does for us.”

The Falcons had one day to practice before they traveled to Eastmark on Thursday, Jan. 27, and they experienced another close loss, falling behind 50-46. The Falcons had not lost multiple games in a row since the beginning of the season, when they lost to Valley Christian in the season opener and fell to Notre Dame Prep in the first game of a tournament three days later.

“Our team is very young, we continue to say that [Mike] is our only returner from last year,” Bonner said. “When you go into close games and close battles without battle-tested guys necessarily, the outcome can be one where you don’t come out on the receiving end, and you just hope that it happens early rather than later, when it’s tournament time.”

Bonner doesn’t want to count on Camp Verde losing any region games, so the only way the Falcons can still win their region championship is if they beat Camp Verde on the road for the last regular season game on Friday, Feb. 11. If each school only has one region loss to each other, then they’ll be co-champions, and both advance to playoffs. Northwest Christian stands on the outside looking in right now, with a 4-2 3A North Central record, compared to the Falcons’ 4-1 region record.

The Falcons have high goals for the postseason, and they’ve talked about it since last summer. Bonner said it’s important that they can’t take anything away from the process it takes to achieve those goals, especially since so many players are new to varsity this season. Bonner said that learning how to win close games was going to take some time. They still need to work on skills to keep their confidence up, but practices were few and far between in a week with three games over four days.

“Fatigue-wise, I think we were fine,” Bonner said. “I think our energy was fine. The hard part is when you have a young team, those practice days are the only way to get through to them the importance of cutting to a specific spot and cutting fast to a specific spot. Without having days of practice to reinforce the things you have to do being part of varsity, that is where we lacked more than anything.”

The Falcons have five games remaining. They traveled to Bourgade Catholic this past Monday and they host Northwest Christian this Friday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. Next Tuesday, Feb. 8, the Falcons host Wickenburg at 5:30 p.m. and next Wednesday, Feb. 9, the Falcons host Bourgade Catholic at 7 p.m. for the last home game of the regular season. Then the Falcons will finish off their schedule at Camp Verde on Friday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m.

“We came out and just wanted to win the game,” Reichler said of Friday’s big victory. “We were kind of mad we lost those two games. We’ve been working all summer. We’ll get them back. We’re just going to work hard in practice and focus.”