The Fountain Hills High School boys basketball team clinched its region championship with a 62-50 victory over No. 10 Scottsdale Christian Academy (15-8) last Thursday, Feb. 2. The Falcons improved to 23-0 and have two more opponents in the way of an undefeated regular season at the time of writing.

The Falcons unofficially won the region crown after handing Scottsdale Christian Academy (SCA) their second region loss. If Fountain Hills lost their last two regular season games to No. 15 Northwest Christian on Tuesday, Feb. 7, and No. 23 Bourgade Catholic on Thursday, Feb. 9, they would still have the tiebreaker over SCA and be named 3A North Central champions.

The No. 2 Falcons have been preparing for a state title run ever since their last attempt fell short in the 2022 semifinals in the form of a 64-52 loss to Valley Christian. The Trojans have the No. 1 seed and are trying for a second straight state championship and a third since 2019, but the Falcons aren’t backing down from them or any other challengers this year.

“Our goal is to be undefeated, be region champs and then state champs after that,” head coach Jeffery Bonner said. “We’re not going easy on nobody. We hope no one takes it easy on us. Handle business next week and we’ll secure the region championship.”

The Falcons had a slow start against SCA, and they fell behind 11-1 early. Bonner called a timeout at 4:36 in the first quarter down 9-1, and senior Luke Bloedel had the first and most points of the evening. Bloedel scored 25 points on 71% shooting and grabbed seven rebounds and two blocks.

Bloedel didn’t miss any free shots after his first trip to the line and made five of his six free throws. As a team, the Falcons made 11 of 16 free throws at 69% and were 50% from the field. The Falcons were careful with their shot selections, and they didn’t get many fast break opportunities against the reigning 2A state champions.

Two other Falcons were in double figures. Junior Keaton Ort had 14 points, eight rebounds and two assists, and senior Aiden Logan scored 11 points. Seniors Tyler Cosman and Napherious Doka-Johnson rounded out the scoring with five and seven, respectively.

Senior Deisel Giger contributed five rebounds, a team-high four assists and one charge call on defense. The Falcons were nearly even at half, only up 30-29, but they outscored SCA 18-7 in the third quarter and won by 12.

The Falcons relied on their top six players more than any other game this season, and that could be a trend in the playoffs. Bonner said their responsibilities remain the same, which is to play as hard as they can.

“Play for them to get them in the game,” Bonner said. “It probably will be a lot of the load handled by those six, but we hope to sprinkle in some of those other guys and get them some experience, especially for some of the sophomores.”

The Falcons have a senior-heavy roster, and Ort is the only junior on the varsity team. Sophomore Matthew Heaney has been on varsity all year but only played in reserve, and fellow sophomores Sam Barnard and Lucas Grieco have joined him on the bench. Barnard saw his first varsity time in the holiday tournaments, and Grieco was elevated to varsity in recent weeks.

The Falcons were unphased earlier in the week when they were without Ort, their leading scorer. Ort rested for a nagging leg injury and the Falcons won 69-32 over No. 38 Wickenburg (4-20) behind Logan’s performance of 21 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Cosman scored 17 points on 80% shooting, and Bloedel had a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Ort, Logan and Bloedel all have playoff experience from last season, but the rest of the Falcons are still seasoned players. Bonner and his coaching staff trust the players and their preparation process completely and won’t switch up anything when playoffs roll around.

“Our big thing is when we get to the playoffs, it’s keep everything the same,” Bonner said. “With every game we try to keep everything the same. It’s hard on away games, obviously. We have a nice facility, we get warmed up and do a lot of stuff here and even in this first quarter came out a little antsy [against SCA], but just kind of making sure the guys are used to what they are doing so they don't have any additional nerves based off on new things going.”

SCA’s freshman Elijah Williams did not play when the Falcons won the first match 56-34 on Wednesday, Dec. 14. The 6’6” son of the Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams led the Eagles in the losing effort with 20 points on the road.

The Falcons played at Northwest Christian (10-12) yesterday, and they finish their regular season at Bourgade Catholic (11-12) tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 9, at 7 p.m.

As the No. 2 seed, Fountain Hills will host its first playoff match. They get a first-round bye and will host the winner of No. 18 and No. 15 on Saturday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m.