The Fountain Hills High School girls basketball team celebrated senior night and battled for a well-earned win in last week’s pair of games.

On Jan. 29, the Lady Falcons had a rematch against Gilbert Christian and pulled off a win in a close game, 38-31.

FHHS’ next game, on Jan. 31, was against Coronado and also was their senior night celebration. Fountain Hills was able to pull off a commanding victory at 46-13.

The Lady Falcons have two more games in the regular season this week with the first one being this past Tuesday, Feb. 5, against Arizona College Prep.

The next game is Thursday, Feb. 7, against American Leadership Academy Gilbert beginning at 6 p.m.

Gilbert Christian

Head coach Mandy Baca saw a difference in how her team played the first time they took on Gilbert Christian compared to this time.

“I think we were a little more cohesive on the defense end,” Baca said. “We knew sort of who we had to stop, so we stacked the paint a little more to put more pressure on the guards looking for an easy pass to the middle. Overall, I think it was a defensive team effort.”

Baca pointed out that Falcon Mia Renner did a solid job offensively, scoring in both games.

“The past two games she (Renner) has been scoring more and more,” Baca said. “She had seven in this game and me and coach have been telling the players who are not seniors that stepping up and scoring even four points is going to make all the difference.”

Coronado

Senior night brought about some complex feelings for Baca and her team.

“It was definitely an emotional night,” Baca said. “I have had the three seniors since the sixth grade, so they have played up through the system. It was a good night with tears, but happy tears.”

In the game itself the Lady Falcons did get a chance to practice on the fly change-ups to their game plan when Coronado came out with a different defense than what they were expecting.

“We saw a lot of zone defense the first time we played them,” Baca said. “But this time they came out and played more man to man, which was good for us because, in the moment, we had to get into a man to man mindset.”