The Fountain Hills High School girls basketball team lost 57-31 to Northwest Christian last Tuesday, Jan. 18. The girls were supposed to play two more games last Thursday and Saturday, but the Falcons did not have enough available players.

The Falcons traveled to Northwest Christian with five players, but they finished the game with three. Junior LJ Holland injured her wrist during the game and freshman CC Smith fouled out with three minutes left to play. Holland was “50%” after the game according to head coach Amanda Baca, but she didn’t want to risk her player’s health on Thursday, Jan. 20, against Wickenburg.

The Wickenburg game was postponed until Tuesday, Feb. 8, and the Lady Falcons will play two games at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. then. The Falcons forfeited their game with Blue Ridge that was scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 22, so they will not get any power points for playing the out-of-region team.

The lack of depth has been a constant factor for the Falcons for the past two years, though the Falcons did grow their roster by two players this season, and freshmen CC Smith and Shania Rivera added some youth to the program. The two freshmen had a strange transition from last year, when their middle school team went undefeated and won a championship.

“We don’t have all the players we had last year, and I didn’t know we were coming in with so few players this year,” Smith said.

Smith has been a much-needed spark for the Falcons in her first year. The freshman leads the team in several categories, and she is second behind her sister, senior Soliel Smith, in most other categories. For transparency, these averages were taken from seven games, which do not include four tournament games or the recent region away game victory at Chino Valley and away loss to Northwest Christian.

CC Smith is making 21.2% of her three-point shots and 50% of her free throws, which are both team highs. Smith also leads the Falcons in steals, with 3.7 per game, and rebounds with 7.9 per game. She is second with 10.3 points per game, only behind Soliel who is scoring 11.9 per game. Soliel leads the Falcons in assists with three per game, and CC dishes out 1.4 assists per game.

Smith plays club basketball and practices with her family whenever she can. Baca said that she and her sister play hard, and the Smith siters have carried the Falcons to victory several times this season. But because of her play style, CC also leads the Falcons in fouls per game with 3.3.

“Playing as a small guard is kind of hard,” Smith said. “It’s kind of hard, but I like challenges when it comes to tall people. Sometimes I’ll take the tallest person, and then sometimes I’ll go low and play post. I just do what I can.”

The Falcons are nearing the end of the season and they are focusing on their region schedule. They are 1-1 in 3A North Central as of Monday, Jan. 24, but they play two region games this week and their last non-region game of the year. On Tuesday, Jan. 25, the Falcons hosted Camp Verde after publishing time. On Thursday, Jan. 27, the Falcons will travel to Eastmark, and this Friday, Jan. 28, the Falcons will host Chino Valley at 5:30 p.m.

“We’ve got to try to scrap together what we have and try to win out in the region, or at least get second,” Baca said. “If we don’t do the things we know how to do, we’re going to get beat by everyone in region. That’s what it comes down to right now. Instead of focusing so much on film of what they do, we’re focusing on what we do and what do we not do.”

Currently 5-8, the Falcons have six games after this week. They will travel to Bourgade Catholic on Monday, Jan. 31, and their next game after that will be Friday, Feb. 4, against Northwest Christian. The Falcons have four games from Tuesday Feb. 8 to Friday Feb. 11 to close out the regular season.