Eagles Must Warm to Big Gym to Win

SANTA ANA —  Kevin Falconer and his Calvary Chapel teammates have walked through the lower doors of the Bren Center, through a cold concrete tunnel and emerged on the hardwood floor there several times before. Each time the experience has been chilling.

The Eagles, who meet Santa Monica Crossroads at 6:15 tonight in the Southern Section Division IV-A boys’ basketball championship game, shoot the lights out almost everywhere else. They’re averaging between 15 and 25 three-point shots per game and making nearly 40% of them.

But when they play at the Bren, where they say the shooting background behind the glass backboards is dismal, the Eagles go into a deep freeze.

“I hate the place,” said Falconer, a senior guard. “I have never had a good shooting game there.”

A good shooting performance is essential if Calvary Chapel (25-4) is to upset defending champion Crossroads (26-3).

The Roadrunners, who have won six section titles since 1982, defeated Calvary Chapel, 70-53, in last year’s semifinals. Crossroads outscored the Eagles, 24-9, in the fourth quarter. Falconer was held to five points in that game.

The Eagles’ scoring problems at the Bren Center date back to Jan. 3, 1996, when they played a nonleague game against Mater Dei. Calvary Chapel opened sluggishly and the Monarchs jumped to an eight-point lead. The Eagles never caught up, losing, 62-52.

In this year’s rematch with the top-ranked Monarchs, the Eagles were just plain frigid. Calvary Chapel made only three of its first 18 field-goal attempts and finished by making only three of 17 three-pointers. Mater Dei won, 77-43.

Falconer and teammate Joe Ortiz each scored nine points and combined to shoot seven for 25 from the field. For the season, Falconer has made 43.5% of his three-point shots, so his difficulties shooting at UC Irvine have been especially frustrating.

“We just didn’t show up for that game,” Falconer said. “We didn’t play hard and they jumped on us.”

Coach Craig Falconer, Kevin’s father, turns a cold shoulder to the notion there is anything about the Bren Center that bothers his players. But he does admit that after this season’s game with Mater Dei, it took more than three weeks for the Eagles to thaw out.

“We really lost our confidence,” Craig Falconer said. “Some guys just were not thinking. It was not only embarrassing but painful.”

Nevertheless, Calvary Chapel swept through the Olympic League and brings a 13-game winning streak into tonight’s game.

Each team returns four starters from last year, and Crossroads’ strategy figures to be the same: Trap Falconer, who averages 9.1 assists, and prevent him from distributing the ball to Ortiz, the team’s leading scorer, who averages 18.7 points.

“They’ll try to take the ball out of Kevin’s hands, no doubt,” Craig Falconer said.

Indeed, that was the plan last year, Roadrunner Coach Daryl Roper said.

“We knew we had to wear down [Falconer] because he handles the ball so much, and then play some defense,” Roper said.

The Eagles will concentrate on slowing down senior guard Baron Davis. Davis orally committed to attend UCLA last fall, but now says he’s reconsidering his options. He scored 19 points against the Eagles last year.

“Obviously, we have to stop Baron Davis,” Kevin Falconer said. “I don’t know if he can be stopped, but we will try.”