(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
FALCON — Don’t look now, but noteworthy basketball is being played just east of Colorado Springs.
Not since the 2014-15 season have the Falcon Falcons won more times than they’ve lost. They’ve been tied up in the shuffle of the extremely competitive Pikes Peak Athletic Conference. They’ve had to deal with Air Academy, a state champion in 2015. They’ve had to deal with Lewis-Palmer, a state runner-up in 2017.
Vista Ridge came at the Falcons with Hunter Maldonado. Sand Creek came at them with D’Shawn Schwartz.
The Falcons have just kind of been there through it all. Last season, they returned to the playoffs after a one-year absence. In 2015, they were taken down by Sierra, one of three Colorado Springs-area teams to advance to that year’s Final 4.
“How far we’ve come,” coach Mark Watley said.
The Falcons are no longer just there. They’ve gotten better. They’ve gotten so much better that they aren’t thinking about what they can do from a league standpoint, but from a state-wide standpoint.
Wednesday’s 61-51 win over Palmer Ridge was the ninth-straight victory for the Class 4A No. 8 Falcons. They’ll face a big challenge on Friday when they head to Monument where No. 2 Lewis-Palmer awaits. Falcon isn’t scared. Quite the opposite. With each win during this streak, they gain more and more confidence and are anxious for any challenge that stands in front of them.
“We’re playing for each other,” Watley said. “We’ve started to share the ball. It’s become a team thing rather than worrying about individual stats. They don’t even ask for them.”
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
If there’s one thing that stands out when watching them, it’s that the team as a whole has the ability to score and in a variety of ways.
Noah Martinez quietly scored 14 points in the win over the Bears. He did it with fast break layups in the first half and a couple of dagger 3-pointers in the second.
“We’re not selfish with the ball and we don’t care about stats,” Martinez said. “If we see the open man, we’re going to hit him.”
Perception is that the open man will often be Reece Warren. The senior guard has the ability to create space and knock down his jump shots.
When Martinez is also getting looks and big man Brendan Larose is dominating the paint, it makes Falcon a nightmare for opposing defenses.
“It helps our team to just have a flow,” Warren said. “We all just have to step up and play our game.”
Their game is being explosive on offense and having pride in their defense. At first glance, the Falcons appear to be a shoot first and ask question later type of team, but the overall success this year didn’t start until an emphasis was placed on the defensive side of the ball.
“We let defense take the lead,” Watley said. “That’s the biggest thing.”
They’ll need every bit of that defense on Friday in their showdown with LP. The Falcons have two league losses on their hands, dropping an overtime heartbreaker to Vista Ridge and then getting beat by the same Rangers team they face in less than 48 hours.
But LP has shown this year that they are beatable after dropping one last week to the Bears. And after Wednesday night’s game, coach Nick Mayer will be the first to say that Falcon shouldn’t be taken lightly.
“They’re very good,” Mayer said. “They’re very disciplined and they have scorers all over.”
Friday will be a big one as far as control of the PPAC goes. This isn’t the same team that the Rangers handled three weeks ago.
The Falcons are going to give it everything they have come Friday. When asked about it, a big smile came across Warren’s face. He’s excited. He’s going to have some fun.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)