The No. 3 Falcons cruised to their second region victory, 61-20, over Chino Valley last Tuesday, Jan. 3. The Fountain Hills High School boys basketball team remained undefeated through winter break and they have now won 14 games in a row to start the season.

The Falcons won the Coyotes Basketball Invitational on Dec. 30 after beating Highland Prep 61-51. The Falcons averaged 65 points per game over tournament, and they held their opponents to an average of 35 points through the four games they played.

The Falcons have been winning with defensive effort, a lack of turnovers, and true team basketball. Nearly every starter is having a career season with higher stats than ever, but that’s been the product, not the goal of these Falcons.

“The guys have done a good job of making sure their conversations are ‘we’ and team driven, and not ‘me’ and stats and individual conversations,” head coach Jeff Bonner said. “Up until this point, I think the success we’ve seen has been because we have not had those individual conversations.”

Junior Keaton Ort is leading the team with an average of 20.1 points per game and two steals per game. Ort’s stats are more than twice as good as last season, and senior Luke Bloedel is second in points scored, with 12.8 per game. Bloedel averaged 5.1 points last year, and his rebounding has gone up by an average of three per game.

Senior Aiden Logan is third in points with 9.1 per game, and first on the team in rebounds with 6.6 and assists with 4.1. His numbers are up as well, but the Falcons get contributions from everyone.

Two of the biggest contributors are seniors Deisel Giger and Ty Cosman. Giger is averaging 7.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game, when last year, he averaged 1.7 points and 0.7 rebounds. Cosman is averaging 5 points, 3.8 rebounds and nearly two assists and steals per game, when last year, he averaged 0.6 points.

Giger and Cosman hardly played during the regular season last year, but they have started every game this year. During the lopsided games early in the tournament, where Fountain Hills beat Valley Lutheran 75-12 and Heritage Academy 63-34, Bonner let the next crop of young players get more playing time.

Sophomores Matthew Heaney and Sam Barnard have been working hard in practice and are earning more minutes. Bonner sat his starters and Heaney and Barnard helped control the game until the final buzzer. Heaney also hit a three-pointer against Chino Valley and ended the game with five points last Tuesday.

“In the past, Deisel Giger and Ty Cosman, they’ve had to come in without seeing much experience on the varsity level,” Bonner said. “They just had to jump in [over] the summer and be ready to go, which is a testament to how good they are, because they didn’t get this experience as sophomores. So for those sophomores to be able to come in and play and hold their own, it’s a testament to the hard work these kids are putting in here.”

It’s hard for underclassmen to find playing time on the Falcons’ roster because they are so outnumbered. There are 10 seniors on the team, and several weren’t even on varsity last year. Thanks to help from assistants Brent Olsen and JC Collins, Bonner’s basketball programs keep reloading with skill and talent.

“For us, it’s making sure our head doesn’t get too big,” Bonner said. “Making sure they do the little things that got us here and remembering that it wasn’t anything this year, but it’s the work we put in all the years previous.”

The Falcons played at Camp Verde after press time yesterday, Tuesday, Jan. 10. The Falcons will have six home games in a row starting tomorrow at 7 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 12, against Wickenburg. Including that match-up with Wickenburg, the Falcons have 10 games left in the season, and next Monday will be the last non-region game. The Falcons will host Phoenix Christian on Monday, Jan. 16, at 4 p.m. before closing out their region schedule.

“The approach doesn’t necessarily change,” Bonner said. “The focus, I would say, is being established in the kid’s minds more than anything. I say that because we have to make sure we don’t lose sight of what our goals are. That doesn’t change. We’ve been saying we wanted a state championship every year I’ve been here, and this team, obviously, is no different.”