By the time you read this section, a lot will have happened on the boys’ basketball court. The Falcons have played eight basketball games, with only three games played on their home court. Their first four games were played on the road, three in the Rampart Tip Off Classic, which is always a fun tourney to start the season.The Falcons won their first game at Pueblo Centennial by 10 points – 47-37. Since I was gone for the first four games, about the only thing that I have for you is the box score and individual stats. Make sure that you keep the following for your personal knowledge, as this is the only time I will run it in the paper. It is the abbreviation that is used for the individual statistics. For those of you who are basketball literate, I am sure you know them, but for those not quite sure what they mean, maybe it will help.GP-Games Played; PTS-Total Points; PPG-Points per Game; FG-Field Goals (Made/Attempted); 3PT-3 Point Shots (Made/Attempted); R-Rebounds (Offensive/Defensive); A-Assists; T-Turnovers; S-Steals; B-Blocked Shots; PF-Personal FoulsFALCONS vs. PUEBLO CENTENNIALDec. 1BOX SCORE:
| † | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
| Falcon | 8 | 6 | 20 | 47 | 47 |
| Pueblo Centennial | 8 | 8 | 8 | 13 | 37 |
FALCONS vs. PINE CREEK AT RAMPART TIP OFF CLASSICDec. 3BOX SCORE:
| † | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
| Falcon | 19 | 13 | 7 | 12 | 51 |
| Pine Creek | 11 | 14 | 16 | 8 | 49 |
FALCONS vs. RAMPART AT RAMPART TIP OFF CLASSICDec. 4BOX SCORE:
| | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
| Falcon | 8 | 11 | 4 | 16 | 39 |
| Rampart | 15 | 23 | 21 | 14 | 73 |
FALCONS vs. SAND CREEK AT RAMPART TIP OFF CLASSICDec. 5BOX SCORE:
| † | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
| Falcon | 8 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 43 |
| Sand Creek | 20 | 22 | 27 | 11 | 80 |
CORONADO vs. FALCONDec. 9BOX SCORE:
| † | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
| Falcon | 7 | 10 | 9 | 18 | 44 |
| Coronado | 12 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 57 |
FALCON vs. PUEBLO EASTDec. 11BOX SCORE:
| † | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
| Falcon | 15 | 14 | 6 | 17 | 52 |
| Pueblo East | 19 | 19 | 15 | 14 | 67 |
PUEBLO CENTRAL at FALCONDec. 15This was the first home game I had the opportunity to attend and golly was it a burner. I know that I have watched some exciting basketball in my life, but this was as good as it gets.While Central started with a lineup of five seniors and stayed with them for most of the game, Falcon had one starting senior, Paul Rotering.The first half was pretty much give and take, with Central holding a 1 point lead – 10-9 – at the end of the first quarter and Falcon coming back to hold a 23-18 halftime lead. Central put up 19 shots, while Falcon had 18. The Falcons shot 41 percent from the field for the first half; Central shot 37 percent.The third quarter turned out to be low scoring for both squads, as Central put on a half-court pressure defense that caused the Falcons to turn the ball over too many times. They held the Falcons to just 7 points for the quarter. However, the Falcons tightened up their own under the basket defense, and Central was held to only two field goals in the third quarter.Things really started to get interesting in the fourth quarter, with the Falcons putting in 20 and Central 19. The Falcons were put up against a full-court press, which caused them to turn over the ball more than they wanted. They were still hanging on to a 2-point lead.With just under a minute to play, both teams put a total of 12 points on the scoreboard. With 50 seconds showing on the clock, Paul Rotering fired in a field goal, but three seconds later Centennial came right back with two of their own. With 37 seconds showing on the clock, the Falcons hit on two of two free throws. Over the next 14 seconds, Central missed on a field goal and was 0-2 for free throw tries. At the 6.6 second mark, Central came down the floor and launched off a 3-pointer that brought them within 2, but Jared Wilson was put on the line for two shots. With the pressure on, the junior calmly sank both ends of the charity tosses for the 4-point margin of victory. It really was an exciting game to watch.For those of you who read this column in the December issue of The New Falcon Herald, you read about good sportsmanship and how the crowd can let their emotions enter into the flow of the game. This game was a good example of what can happen when those emotions get the best of the crowd.With a couple of minutes left in the game, during a time out, two or three people from Central evidently thought they could do a better job of officiating and started harassing the regular officials. The official closest to them walked over and pointed his finger in their direction. He probably said something like “one more word out of any of you and you will be watching this game from the outside.” The officials are only doing their job, whether you think it is good or bad. I have officiated high school basketball in the past and am aware of the grief some people can cause. Even if Central had won, I thought the officiating was darn good.The last home game before the Christmas holidays was against Canon City on Dec. 18.
CANYON CITY vs. FALCONDec. 18BOX SCORE:
| † | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
| Falcon | 6 | 10 | 14 | 13 | 43 |
| Canyon City | 5 | 13 | 7 | 12 | 37 |
This column does not necessarily represent the views of The New Falcon Herald.
