The Foothills Falcons' electric provincial playoff run has ended in the Elite Eight.
Foothills Composite's senior boys and girls teams advanced past the Sweet 16 to the South Central regional final where their bid to make the Final Four came one game short on Saturday, March 15 in the Alberta Schools' Athletic Association 4A Basketball Championships.
In the senior girls ranks, the host Foothills was downed 66-56 by the Spruce Grove Composite Panthers in the regional final in a seesaw battle with the visitors punching their ticket to the final four held next weekend at Calgary's WinSport.
The Panthers earned an early advantage with strong play from the gritty Falcons allowing them to claw back into the game, highlighted by the interior and rebounding presence of Savanah Sommerfeldt and outside shooting and points in transition from fleet-footed guard Ashleigh Baker.
Foothills eclipsed the Medicine Hat High Hawks 66-59 in the round of 16 the day prior while Spruce Grove got the better of Raymond.
On the senior boys side of the bracket, Foothills saw its championship pursuit halted in a 80-67 defeat to a physically imposing and talented Archbishop O'Leary Spartans in the regional final.
Led by 6-foot-5 point guard TJ Wal, a member of the Canadian U17 team, the Spartans jumped out to an early advantage with Foothills battling its way back through its characteristic outside shooting presence from the likes of Jerry Baker and Drew Byam and key transition buckets from Grant Godfrey.
The Spartans carried a 15-point lead into the half and scored 15 of the first 20 points in the third quarter to limit the momentum of a Falcons team with an ability to score buckets in a hurry.
Foothills beat Winston Churchill 105-94 in the round of 16 while the Spartans got the better of Medicine Hat.
Elsewhere, the Holy Trinity Academy Knights senior girls were defeated 80-61 by the L.C.I. Clippers, a team that has spent much of the season as the top-ranked squad in the province. in the round of 16 at the South regional tournament in Lethbridge.
The final four girls teams are L.C.I., Spruce Grove, Strathcona and Centennial. On the boys side, the quartet is made up of Archbishop O'Leary, St. Mary's, Strathcona and St. Francis Xavier.
