Catalina Foothills improved to 2-0 on the year after holding on to beat Ironwood Ridge 49-36 at home Friday night. The Falcons beat Casa Grande 60-44 on Wednesday but the victory over the Nighthawks proved more difficult as the game went on due to a late run that almost turned the game.

The Falcons took an early 15-2 lead but the Nighthawks battled back to cut the deficit down to 20-15 thanks to a 3 from Amy Senkerik to end the first half and a bucket from Keelie George to start the third quarter. That first surge was turned back with a shot from Allie Cartier and six straight points from Katie Burns. As the quarter was coming to an end, Reilly Clark stepped to the line and made two free throws and the Falcons regained a commanding 32-18 lead.

Ironwood Ridge could have folded at that point but the team had two more runs in them with the first fueled by a couple of bombs from Aspyn Nelson and the Nighthawks narrowed the margin down to 32-29 with 5:14 left. Clark pushed her team back up 36-29 but George forced the issue and the lead was cut back down to 37-34 with 3:18 left.

Clark was the Southern Arizona Freshman of the Year last season for a reason and she took control the rest of the way and scored eight of her game-high 21 points down the stretch to save the night and the Falcons ended with the 49-36 victory.

Clark averaged 15.4 points a game last year and her freshman partner added 8.5 a pop, this year, Clark is pouring in 24 a night and Burns is at 11.5. Clark is currently No. 3 in Arizona based on scoring average.

The 2010-2011 team started out 19-0 and finished the year 28-2 with a quarterfinal finish but it’s been seven years since the program started out 2-0 and there’s a great feeling about the squad under first-year head coach Eric Nelson who replaced legendary basketball coach Sue Darling. Darling guided the program to a 17-11 record last year but the team had the misfortune of being seeded opposite power-program Shadow Mountain in the first round of the 4A playoffs but it was a sign of good things to come, even though the program was bumped up to the 5A level this winter.

The team lost three contributing seniors from last year in Bryn Callie, Emily Seifert and Sophie Carrier but current senior Syerra Perez, junior Allie Cartier and senior Alya Castellanos have filled some of those roles. In the game against Ironwood Ridge, Clark poured in her 24, Burns scored 12, Perez had 9 and Carrier added 4.

The Falcons will travel to Marana (1-4) on Tuesday in another 5A Sonoran game but it’s important for the Falcons to keep on winning regardless because only the top 16 teams in the 5A Conference will make the playoffs

For Ironwood Ridge, George scored a team-high 17 points, Nelson scored 6 and Lili Vigil German added 4. The program fell to 1-2 on the year with Mountain View Marana (1-2) visiting next Tuesday so that will be a match with two teams trying to turn defensive effort into scoring at the other end of the court.

Former Tucson High boy’s coach Daron Cross is in his second year with the Nighthawks and he is in the process of rebuilding a program that finished 18-10 three years ago.

Reilly Clark (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)