Final Winter Storm

Middle School Girls Basketball
vs. Thales Academy (Away) Tuesday - January 26
The O’Neal School 29
Thales Academy 30

In their only game of the week, our Lady Falcons dropped a heartbreaker on the road to Thales Academy of Apex.  The Lady Falcons were attempting to avenge their only loss this season but came up just short, falling to the Lady Titans 30-29.  As with the first game against Thales, this game went all the way to the wire and was again decided by the margin of a single possession.  Although the final tally on the scoreboard was not what the Lady Falcons hoped for, there was much to be proud of.  All Lady Falcons played in this game and maximized every second they were on the court.  The perimeter defense of the Lady Falcons once again proved to be a strength as Ava Vonderkall, Kennedy Moore and Kennedi Hamner turned several steals into numerous breakaway scoring opportunities.  Charlotte McGill, Sarah Meggs, Lindsey Havenstein and Callie McHarney also provided a huge spark, coming off the bench to keep the pressure on the Thales backcourt.
Additionally, the interior defense of Kaylee Crow, Reagan Daly, Justice McNeil, and Audrey Hunter proved to be crucial against Thales’ front court players during a very physical and hard fought game under the basket. These four, along with reinforcement from Lily Stanley, Cameron Groner and Harper Hairston served to keep this game close to the very end.  Ava Vonderkall led the Lady Falcons with 13 points while Kennedy Moore was right behind with 12 points.  Kennedi Hamner (2 points) and Audrey Hunter (2 points), also scored.  The Lady Falcons return to the court next week and will take on Cape Fear Christian in their final regular season home game.

Varsity Girls Basketball
Monday night the Falcons hosted Lee Christian for Senior Night. Prior the game, the Falcons honored lone Senior Kayla Jenkins and all of her contributions over the past four years to the basketball program. 

A back and forth first quarter saw the Falcons take an 11-9 lead using their defense to create fast break opportunities. This continued through the night, as the Falcons turned their 12 steals into 22 points off turnovers. Through continued ball pressure and team rebounding the Falcons headed into the halftime locker room with a 22-15 lead. The second half saw foul trouble plague the Falcon posts, as quick rotations helped the Falcons maintain their lead heading into the fourth quarter. Lee Christian made a push down the stretch capitalizing on their tremendous post size. The Falcons fought all night long getting timely baskets and knocking down key free throws. The closing seconds saw the Falcons take the 41-40 lead and with just under 5 seconds left, Lee grabbed a defensive rebound off a missed free throw pushing it the length of the court. Lee missed the contested 3 pointer at the buzzer, sending the Falcons into celebration after a scrappy and hard fought victory.

The Falcons were led by Ashanti Fox’s 19 points and 8 rebounds, and Caelan McHarney’s stat stuffing night of 9 points, 7 steals, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Joining the scoring was Kayla Jenkins adding 11 points and 7 rebounds and Talayah Baldwin’s 2 points and 5 rebounds. The victory moves the Falcons to 10-1 overall, and 3-0 in conference play. Sitting as the #2 seed in the latest MaxPreps NCISAA 2A rankings the Falcons look to close out the week as they travel to Burlington Christian Friday night for a Tri-TAC conference match up.

Varsity Cheer
Varsity Cheer started off the week strong as we celebrated our 3 seniors and performed our senior night routine that they choreographed. The girls did amazing and it was a performance that we could have taken to competition! As we wind down the season, we are starting to focus more on conditioning, tumbling and form and will have a dodgeball tournament this Friday!

Middle School Boys Basketball B Team
The Middle School Boys Basketball B team travelled to Ascend Leadership Academy this week for what may end up being our final game of the season.  This was a team we had only scored five points against in our first meeting, and the boys were up to the challenge.  Even though the final score wasn’t close, we more than doubled our point total from the first game and had lots of personal victories.  We had guards boxing out their big guys and getting a rebound, some excellent interior passing, and created about 20 shooting opportunities in the paint.  It showed the growth of the team and their maturity to ignore the scoreboard and instead compete for every possession.  We are proud of them both as a group and as individuals.  We will continue to have intrasquad scrimmages during the last couple of weeks of practice and there is a small chance that a previously cancelled game could get rescheduled.

Middle School Boys Basketball A Team
This week, our boys had practiced every day from 2:30 to 4:15.  They scrimmaged with JV boys and worked on passing, shooting and defense. Their game with Fayetteville Christian school which was to be held on Thursday was postponed.  They will return to the court on 2/3/2021 for an away game with Fayetteville Academy at 3 pm. 

Varsity Boys Basketball
The Falcons have had a good week! We continue to show a lot of improvement since winter break. After having three games canceled the Falcons returned to the court vs. Salem Baptist Academy on Friday evening. In the earlier contest Salem Baptist prevailed by an 82-43 score. On Friday, the Falcons fought, clawed the whole game, and showed how far they've come this season. O'Neal held a six point lead at halftime and kept the lead going into the fourth quarter up by one point. The game went back and forth in the last quarter and had the lead until about twenty seconds left to go in the game. Salem Baptist stole a ball and went in for the layup to get the bucket and keep the lead for the rest of the game. It certainly was a devastating loss, but a game that we showed the progress. As a staff, we were very encouraged!

The Falcons took to the court on Monday evening for senior night. The plan was to honor Jack Daly and Sam Turner and then go out and replicate the same energy and progress shown from Friday evening. The game plan was followed, and the senior got a big win on "their" night. The Falcons played well and stayed disciplined against a very tough opponent in Lee Christian Academy. Thank you Jack and Sam for your dedication and commitment to our program. 

The Falcons take to the road tomorrow evening to take on Burlington Christian Academy.