Both of the St.  Philip basketball teams couldn’t quite bring home the winner’s trophy from their weekend tournaments. Girls Varsity lost both of their Sunday games, while a surprisingly tough Sunday morning victory for Boys Varsity foreshadowed a loss in the championship game. Some of the tournament struggles have continued. Girls Varsity lost to Assumption and Holy Angels, and Boys Varsity barely pulled out close games against Holy Family and St. Rita.

Girls Varsity won their first two tournament games on Saturday (1/17), with victories by scores of 25-17 and 40-8. Then, during the middle of the next game of the tournament, team leader Ryan Dubb landed on someone’s foot, and sprained her ankle. With Dubb out, the Falcons lost by a score of 18-17 before the third place game, when the Falcons lost to St. Therese 18-15, just three days after the Falcons had won a thrilling double overtime over St. Therese in a league game.

Dubb was out again for the next game, in league games, on Tuesday (1/20) in a league loss to Holy Angels, 36-31. On Thursday, Dubb re-injured her ankle, and Girls Varsity struggled without Dubb for most of the game and also without another key player, Helen Schaefer. The Falcons were able to keep the game at Assumption close, but they ultimately fell 23-20. The Falcons now have a 4-3 record, with two of those loses coming by five or fewer points, and all three to teams above them in the Foothill League standings. They are fifth in their league, and finish their regular season this week with a game Tuesday (1/27) and on Thursday. Their record places them in 50th place in all of CYO. There are 64 teams that make the end of season tournament.

While Boys Varsity went farther than Girls Varsity in their tournament, they ended with the same result: a loss. The Falcons opened with a blowout victory over Grandview, then let St. Robert Bellarmine stay close until the end, with the final score of 45-38 not reflecting the closeness of the game. In the semifinal, the Falcons struggled against a team that they looked to be much better than. Then, in the finals, the Falcons ran into St. Charles Borromeo, a team that last year’s team defeated in the second round of the playoffs. Both last year and this year, the Grizzlies’ leader was the same knockdown shooter, who led St. Charles to victories over St. Rita and Holy Family in the St. Francis tournament. The shooter scored 44 of their 45 points, despite the Falcons’ attempts to stop him. The game never quite was over, but the Falcons trailed throughout, and ended with a 45-37 final.

After the tournament, Boys Varsity had two games in the following week. The first was a 47-45 win over Holy Family, in a game in which the Falcons never trailed, and were only tied once after the opening basket. The Falcons, without forward/guard Kento Deneapli, never built up a very substantial lead, and had a 22-17 lead at halftime. In the second half, the Knights trimmed the lead, and pulled an even score with less than two minutes left. With just under a minute left, the Falcons got the ball, and, after a few passes, found Kevin Parada for a layup to take the lead. On Friday, the Falcons beat St. Rita in a scrimmage at St. Rita’s, 45-39.