Erin Slinde is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Scottsdale Christian Academy for AZPreps365.com 

The Scottsdale Christian Academy boys basketball team came out with an intense defense that could not be matched by 3A opponent Fountain Hills Monday as the Eagles posted a 59-44 win on Senior Night. 

“I seem to be spot on. Our goal was to keep them under 44 points,” SCA coach John Anderson said. “When they knocked down that last free throw, that was a little disappointing on our end.”

Anderson knew Fountain Hills (12-4) was going to be more physical than some of the other teams SCA (13-1) has faced this season.

“We knew Fountain Hills was a solid team,” Anderson said. “Whether we shot well tonight or not, we were going to be in the game with the defensive scheme we had.”

SCA started the game with a lineup full of seniors. 

“They’re quiet leaders, but they’re all great guys that just want the best for the team,” Anderson said. “I’m excited, as seniors, they get this opportunity because it is a pretty great group of kids that have all been here since junior high and lower. They’ve been playing together for a long time.”

Senior guard Matthew Fan led the Eagles with 16 points.

“I just felt like I needed to score,” Fan said. “I just focused on my game and helping these guys get the victory.”

Although neither team was able to score in the first two minutes of the game, the Eagles didn’t let it faze them.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game from the start,” said senior shooting guard Jacob Ekre, who contributed 15 points and two steals. “We just needed to get a groove going. It was just buckets from there.”

The Eagles started the game with a full-court press that the Falcons had trouble breaking.

“They shook us,” Coach Jeffrey Bonner said. “They shook us coming out of the gate and from there you could tell we just never clicked together.”

The Eagles led the Falcons 14-7 after the first quarter. 

Junior shooting guard Garrison Sherman slammed two dunks in a row in the second quarter. Sherman led the team with four blocks and scored 15 points. 

The Eagles ended the second quarter with a steal and buzzer-beating halfcourt shot from Ekre to give SCA a 35-21 lead at halftime. The Eagles took a 48-31 lead into the fourth quarter.

“Our coach always tells us to be leaders for the young guys,” senior shooting guard Ryan Ohlinger said. “I thought it really showed out there. We were all leading and came out with the win.”

In the fourth quarter, the crowd cheered as many of the seniors on the court were replaced by some of the younger players. 

The Falcons weren’t able to recover from the Eagles' lead and lost steam towards the end. 

“We never found a real rhythm offensively or defensively,” Bonner said. “We couldn’t make the stops we needed to.”

Because of the Eagles' full team effort on both offense and defense, they were able to come out on top for the seniors. 

“These kids, they can go as far as they want to go,” Anderson said. “It’s a matter of going out, executing, and giving full effort. As long as I know that we did what we were supposed to do and we played as hard as we could, I can still hold my hat up at the end of the game.”

SCA will end its regular season when it faces No. 2 Phoenix Country Day (12-1) for the 2A Metro region championship on the road at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

“We’re going to see a lot of tough teams in the playoffs,” Ohlinger said. “We have another game tomorrow against another good team, so that's definitely going to help us when we go to the playoffs.”

Fountain Hills (12-4) now will start preparing for the playoffs.  

“We have to take these nine days and regroup,” Bonner said. “If we don’t have everyone playing basketball, then it’s kind of hard when just three or four people are on and everyone else is trying to figure it out.”