This column does not necessarily represent the views of The New Falcon Herald.Pueblo East Hoop Tournament Dec. 16, 2010Falcon 58Widefield High†44†A good way to get into the Christmas holidays is to participate in one of the many†basketball tourneys, and one of the best is the Pueblo East Hoop Tournament held at the Pueblo East Facility. This year, the tournament was held Dec. 16, 17 and 18.Dec. 16Falcon 58Widefield 44On the first night of the tourney, Falcon took on Widefield High School.†The Falcons started off well. At halftime, the Falcons led by 7; in the third quarter by as much as 20 points; wrapping up the fourth quarter winning by 14. Three Falcon players scored in double figures. Leading the way was freshman Chance Matlock with 21 points. Others in double figures were Kendall Godley with 13 and Kalen Link with 11.†Dec. 17Falcon 57Coronado†43In the second game of the tournament, the Falcons again came out strong and got the ball to drop successfully.†Playing strong under the basket on both ends of the floor is usually telling at the end of the game.†Again, Kalen Link and Kendall Godley led the scoring with 19 and 14 points, respectively.†In this game, as in the game against Widefield, the ball was going through the hoop from the 3-point line: six 3-pointers against Coronado and 10 3-pointers against Widefield.†Dec. 18Falcon 61Pueblo East†70†In the championship game the Falcons ran into a strong Pueblo East team, the No. 2 ranked team in state in 4A with one of the best players ñ point guard Jordan Gregory.†Falcon went into the game knowing that the tempo of the game would be set by how well they could contain Gregory.†The Falcons did their best to contain him; however, he still scored 30 points, which was the difference in the outcome of the game.†This was not the game to have an off-night shooting, but it happened to Falcon.†Although Falcon did not shoot well, they still had three players in double figures.†Kalen Link led the way with 20 points and 15 rebounds, followed in the scoring column by Kendall Godley with 14 and Jared Wilson with 10.†They went into the holiday break with a 5 and 3 record.†Jan. 6Falcon 46Cheyenne Mountain†52 †Coming back after the holiday break Coach Doug Ravasdy said his team had some good practices and he felt good about his team.†He didnít count on the difficulty the boys had in getting the ball through the hoop in this game.†Against Cheyenne Mountain, they did not shoot well.†When the outside game is not rolling, the inside game has to pick it up.†The Falcons only scored 5 first-quarter points and only shot 50 percent from the free-throw line during the game.†Still, Falcon had three boys scoring in double figures.†Jared Wilson had 15, Kendall Godley had 12 and Kalen Link had 10.†The record for the Falcons is 5 and 4. Not quite what Coach Ravasdy had in mind for his team at this point in the season, but still respectful. †Jan. 8Falcon 56Mitchell†50†After getting back on the winning side of the score, the Falcons traveled to Mitchell and pulled out a hard-fought ball game.†Again, the Falcons did not shoot the ball well and did not do any better from the free-throw line.†They only made one 3-pointer.†The Falcons played catch up most of the game and trailed by 9 or 10 points for the most part before rallying and finally pulling out a 6-point victory.†Kalen Link led the Falcons with 23 points followed by Kendall Godley with 10.††Jan. 11Falcon 51Coronado†49 O/T†If you wanted to get your cardio system going without working out, Falconís home court was the place to be for the Falcon/Coronado ball game.†This was the team the Falcons had beaten by 14 points earlier in the season, but the scoring was a little bit different in this game.†The Falcons shot better from the free-throw line, but their shooting troubles continued, with just one 3-pointer.†Coach Ravasdy told me they would have to put more points on the board ñ scoring in the 60s or 70s to beat their opponents.†In this game, the Falcons were up by 1 at the end of the first quarter, down by 3 at halftime and up by 2 at the third-quarter break.†The game went into overtime with the Falcons pulling out a 2-point, hard fought victory.†Kalen Link had another double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds, and Kendall Godley scored 12.†This brought the Falcon record to 7 and 4.†If the Falcons can continue to win the close ones,†they will still be in the hunt at the end of the season.
