The Halcones de Ciudad Obregón (English: ''Ciudad Obregón Falcons'') are a Mexican professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team based in

Ciudad Obregón Ciudad Obregón is a city in southern Sonora. It is the state's second largest city after Hermosillo and serves as the municipal seat of Cajeme. As of 2020, the city has a population of 436,484. Ciudad Obregón is south of the country's U.S.� ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

. The Halcones are members of the

Circuito de Baloncesto de la Costa del Pacífico The Pacific Coast Basketball Circuit ( or CIBACOPA), officially known as the Liga Chevron CIBACOPA for sponsorship reasons, is a ten team basketball league based in Northwestern Mexico. The matches take place from March to June. History A leag ...

(CIBACOPA) and play their games in the Arena ITSON.

History

The Trigueros de Ciudad Obregón were founding members of CIBACOPA in 2001, and won three championships until the issue of poor attendance forced the club to abandon the league in 2013. The Halcones were founded in 2016 by a group of local businessmen looking to bring professional basketball back to the city to develop and promote the sport. The team joined the

(CIBACOPA) as an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

for the 2016 season, where they had a seventh-place regular-season finish before getting swept 4–0 by the eventual champions Nauticos de Mazatlán in the first round of the playoffs. Ahead of the 2017 season, the Halcones signed American imports Kevin Capers, Mike Glover and Glen Rice Jr. That year in the playoffs, they defeated the Nauticos in seven games before dispatching the Pioneros de Los Mochis in five. In the finals, they defeated Rayos de Hermosillo 4–2 to win their first-ever championship. Rice Jr. was named Finals MVP after averaging a near-30-point triple double in the series. In 2018, the team added Isaiah Wilkerson, J. R. Giddens and former Halcón Geron Johnson. The Halcones had a poor regular season showing, barely clinching a playoff spot with an eighth-place finish. The team again reached the finals, falling to the Tijuana Zonkeys in a six-game series. In February 2019, Spaniard Pedro Carrillo was hired as head coach, having previously coached the Ángeles de Puebla in the LNBP. He also won a LNBP championship with Fuerza Regia de Monterrey in 2016–17 as an assistant. Although he was selected to coach the North squad at the 2019 CIBACOPA All-Star Game in

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

, Carrillo left the team in June for personal reasons. In the postseason, the Halcones lost in the semi-finals to the Mantarrayas de La Paz in seven games. The Halcones lost game seven at home by a score of 105–92 despite 29 points from José Estrada. American former top high school recruit Tony Farmer joined the team in 2020, as did Jarvis Summers and Reggie Holmes. The Halcones played two games of the 2020 season, losses to Rayos de Hermosillo and

Ostioneros de Guaymas The Ostioneros de Guaymas were a professional baseball team based in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico. The Ostioneros played in the Mexican Pacific League and used the Estadio Abelardo L. Rodríguez as their home ballpark. During its existence, the club wo ...

, before the league announced the season was suspended due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Ahead of the 2022 season, the Halcones hired Ariel Rearte as head coach and announced they were moving their home arena from the Gimnasio Municipal Manuel Lira García to the Arena ITSON.

Players

Current roster

Head coaches

* Eduardo Opezzo (2017) * Ronald Guillen (2018) * Pedro Carrillo (2019) * Martin Knezevic (2020, 2023–present) * Ariel Rearte (2022)

Honours

Domestic competitions

** Winners (1): 2017 ** Runners-up (1): 2018

Notable players

* Israel Gutiérrez * Idris Ibn Idris *

Omar Quintero Omar Quintero Pereda (born 26 September 1981) is a Mexican professional basketball coach and former player. He played the point guard position for teams in Mexico, Spain, Italy, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico. He also played for the Dallas Mavericks ...

* Timajh Parker-Rivera * J. R. Giddens * Glen Rice Jr. *

Greg Whittington Gregory Vernon Whittington (born February 17, 1993) is an American professional basketball player. After a tumultuous college career with Georgetown, Whittington began his professional career by helping the Sioux Falls Skyforce win the 2016 NB ...

References

External links

Official site

Team profile
at Latinbasket.com {{CIBACOPA Basketball teams in Mexico Sports clubs and teams in Sonora Ciudad Obregón Basketball teams established in 2016 2016 establishments in Mexico