Falcon's Nest - Winter Wins
Lady Falcons Basketball wins the conference regular season for the third consecutive year. Middle School Basketball enters the last week of regular season play with strong standings. Varsity Swim is ready for the conference championship.
Middle School Girls Basketball
Vs. Grace Christian of Sanford Tuesday - 22 January
The O’Neal School 29 Grace of Sanford 14
The O’Neal School 29 Grace of Sanford 14
Vs. Fayetteville Christian School Wednesday - 23 January
The O’Neal School 26 Fayetteville Christian 15
Our Lady Falcons took the court this week in two non-conference matchups against Grace Christian of Sanford and Fayetteville Christian School. In their first matchup of the week and their final home game of the season, the Lady Falcons squared of against Grace Christian. The Lady Falcons used a stifling full court press and strong half-court defense to frustrate Grace Christian and force them into several turnovers early in the game. The Lady Falcons capitalized on the early miscues of their opponent, opening up an early lead and never looking back on their way to a 29-14 win. Ashanti Fox led the way with 18 points while Hannah Saye (6 points), Kayla Brown (3 points), and Reagan Daly (2 points) also scored. As a result of this win, the Lady Falcons pushed their record to 8-1 at home this season with an 8 game winning streak, dropping only their first home contest of the season to Crain’s Creek Middle School.
In their second game in as many days, the Lady Falcons took on the Fayetteville Christian School Lady Warriors. After a tightly contested first half in which the Lady Falcons carried a narrow 10-9 lead into halftime, The Lady Falcons asserted themselves on both the defensive and offensive ends in the second half, led by Ashanti Fox’s unrelenting On-ball defensive pressure and a game high 25 points. Kaylee Crow also got into the scoring column, registering 1 point. The Lady Falcons ran away from the Lady Warriors in the second half, cruising to a 26-15 win.
The Lady Falcons conclude their regular season schedule next week with a road contest against Alpha Academy, who the Lady Falcons narrowly defeated 21-19 earlier in the season.
Middle School Boys Basketball
Victories vs.
Grace of Sanford (21 January)
Saint Patrick’s (23 January)
Our Falcons had two more wins this week. The first was an overtime victory against a much improved Grace of Sanford. The seesaw competition went to extra time after Grace hit a last second three point shot. This did not faze our Falcons. With eight seconds left in overtime we were down by one point. After securing the ball under our own net we called a timeout. The huddle was very calm and business-like. The plan we discussed was a play we’ve been working on all year. The inbound pass was on target. Without hesitation we received the ball, set ourselves and made the shot we’ve been working on since the first day of practice – AND THE CROWD GOES WILD! It was a great win for all of O’Neal. Most impressive were the multiple fans from Grace who came up to the O’Neal coaches after the game to congratulate us on the victory and to express how impressed they were with O’Neal’s class and character. That too is something we’ve been reinforcing since the first day of practice. The second game was impressive from the standpoint that every player spent time on the floor and made a contribution. Every single one of our Falcons are learning to fly.
We have three critical games this upcoming week. The first challenging game is away against Freedom Christian Academy on Monday 27 January. The second game is home on Tuesday 28 January against Village Christian Academy. Both of these teams are in our conference and their outcome will have playoff location implications. The final regular season game is away on Thursday 30 January against Alpha Academy. We beat Alpha at the beginning of the season in a very close game. I’m certain this will be a competitive matchup. Come out and support your Falcons as they demonstrate class and character in their flight to victory.
Middle School/Varsity Swim
Meet on 01/21/20
Meet on 01/21/20
Men's Swimming
Wins over Fayetteville Academy, Village Christian and Carolina Friends
Women’s Swimming
Wins over Fayetteville Academy,Village Christian and Carolina Friends
Another successful meet for the Falcons. The team had lots of fast relay swims and Morgan Lewis made a state qualifying time in the 100 freestyle. The Falcons are ready for the conference championship at Burlington Christian Academy on Monday, Jan. 27th.
Scores:
Friday, Jan 17th at Salem Baptist (Win 76-42)
Monday, Jan 20th vs Ravenscroft (Loss 43-48)
Three- Peat Complete!
Last Friday the Lady Falcons traveled to Winston Salem to take on #4 ranked Salem Baptist in the Tri-TAC conference match-up. A hot start shooting 45% from the floor allowed the Falcons to jump to a 23-6 lead after the first quarter. The Falcons defensive presence held Salem below their scoring averages with stifling pressure creating 11 turnovers on the evening. The Falcons kept their foot on the gas during the second quarter heading into halftime with the 44-14 lead. High energy defensive effort and great ball movement lead to 46 paint points on the evening as the Falcons ran away with the 76-42 victory. The Falcons were led in scoring by a monster double-double from Hadiya Balser (33 points 10 rebounds) and a season high from Kayla Jenkins (15 points and 5 rebounds). The offense was run to precision by point guard Caelan McHarney who totaled a season high 9 assists to go with her 9 points.
The win clinched the Falcon’s Tri-TAC regular season conference championship for the third straight year! More impressively, the Falcons have not lost a conference game during their three-year streak dating back to the 2016-17 season.
Monday morning, the Falcons traveled to Durham to play in the Jordan High School MLK Jr. Classic against #2 ranked 4A Ravenscroft. In a back and forth game, the Falcons used aggressive rebounding to pull down 18 offense rebounds on the day to keep them tight on a poor shooting afternoon. Using their stifling 1-3-1 zone, the Falcons caused confusion for Ravenscroft early on creating 8 of their 12 total steals in the first half. Behind their defense and rebounding the Falcons headed into the locker room at the half up 26-24 against the second-best team in NCISAA 4A rankings. Down the stretch, the depth of Ravenscroft caused issues for the Falcons as they jumped ahead in the third quarter. The Falcons defense and offensive rebounding continued to cause Ravenscroft frustrations while boiled over in the fourth quarter leading to two technicals assessed on Ravenscroft. The Falcons capitalized to bring the game within 2 points heading into the home stretch. In the final minute, Hadiya Balser hit a 3-pointer to bring the gap to 43-45. In the end, the Falcons couldn’t quite pull off the upset losing an exciting and tight game 43-48. The Falcons were led in scoring by Hadiya Balser’s 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 steals, and joining her was Kayla Jenkins with 11 points.
Last week’s results move the Falcons to 18-2 overall and 8-0 in Tri-TAC play with the regular season championship already clinched! The Falcons look ahead to hosting senior night and their Pink Out game on Friday, January 24th against Rocky Mount Academy before closing out regular season conference play on the road at BCA on 1/28 and at Trinity School on 1/31.
Varsity Boys Basketball
The Falcons had a light week on the court. Last Friday the Falcons went on the road and played against Salem Baptist Christian Academy. Salem came out on fire from the arc connecting on 9 three pointers in the first half (going 6-8 in the first quarter) and the Falcons were never able to recover. The loss gets the Falcons to 4-4 in the league, currently tied for 3rd place with Trinity School of Durham / Chapel Hill. The overall record is 8-9 with one home regular season home game and 2 more road games left. The Falcons host Rocky Mount Academy on senior night (1/24) as they honor Joe Dailey, Jackson Martinez and Patrick McMurray for the 6:30 tip and hopefully send them out the right way with the win. O'Neal hits the road next Tuesday heading to play vs. Burlington Christian Academy and then on the road next Friday at Trinity School of Durham / Chapel Hill. The guys continue to work towards to the playoff push and hopefully we can make things happen as the season heads toward post season play!
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