The Fountain Hills High Schools boys basketball team broke even over the winter break, going 2-2 at the Coyotes Basketball Invitational.

The Falcons spent three days playing in the invitational with their first game on Jan. 2 against Wickenburg. FHHS won the game 66-29.

The next day, Jan. 3, Fountain Hills played two games. The first matchup was against Northwest Christian, which the Falcons lost by a score of 62-53. The second game that day was against Lake Mead, which the Falcons also lost, 47-45.

Finally, on Jan. 4, FHHS went head to head with Leading Edge and won the game, 75-58.

Fountain Hills boys basketball only had one game this week. It was Tuesday, Jan. 7, against San Tan Foothills. Results from that game will be posted in the next edition of The Times.

Looking back at the tournament, head coach Jeff Bonner said he believes it served as a good benchmark for the team.

“With all the tournaments, you hope that your team learns something from it,” Bonner said. “I think that we can definitely learn something from this set of games.”

The Falcons began the tournament with a rematch against Wickenburg, a team FHHS has already defeated in regular season play. Bonner said he was happy to see his team do even better this time around.

“We sort of knew what to expect going in, so we held them below what they scored in the last game and we scored the same, or just a little more, than we did in the first game.”

Fountain Hills’ next game required the Falcons to get an early start on the day. Bonner said he thinks that may have played a role in the way his team performed.

“The second day we had a little bit of an earlier game, which can be tough on the kids,” Bonner said. “We came out (to the Northwest Christian game) and right away, it was just a different type of game than the Wickenburg game.”

Bonner said that Northwest came out and set the pace of the game while the Falcons “almost stopped fighting.”

It was Bonner’s goal to keep his teams spirit up after that loss and, while he didn’t see the full amount of effort he expects during the next game, the Falcons’ effort against Lake Mead made for a much closer game.

“We battled, battled, battled all the way up to the last minute, where we actually had a chance to win the game,” Bonner said. “It was a tie game and we had two free throws.”

But the final minutes of play didn’t bounce the Falcons’ way.

The next day, the Falcons were once again able to find their groove and win the final game against Leading Edge, despite being short a few players.

For Bonner, the big difference between the two games his team won and the two they lost was the consistency of the team’s effort.

“My biggest lesson to the guys is that offense and defense are translatable,” Bonner said. “You have to play hard on both and do what you want as a team, from the start to end. It can’t just be little here and there.”