The Davenport West boys basketball team played on their home court on Tuesday, December 13th against the Pleasant Valley Spartans. The Falcons lost by only one point in overtime, with the final score being 64-63. 

The Falcons came into the gym with high energy and junior Davante Bradford was feeling very confident.

“We wanted to beat them to show everybody that our team is really better than everybody thinks we are,” said Bradford. 

West came into the game strong, controlled the opening tip and used their athleticism to win the first quarter, as the score was 13-8. They came out strong again and by halftime they were still up 22-18. 

Junior Jermilyn Gardner, along with the rest of the team, was able to follow the set plan against Pleasant Valley.

“Our game plan was to just play hard and play our style of basketball. Also to not fall too deep into the game and to try and stay up the whole game,” said Gardner.

After the half, the game continued to be extremely close. It could have been stressful, but the team kept their composure and supported each other. 

“It’s my responsibility to stay calm on the court and to pick others’ heads up,” said Gardner. 

The Spartans then came back and were up 51-54. Then with less than 4 seconds left of the game, Bradford got the inbound pass and made a 3 point shot at the buzzer to tie the game to go into overtime.

“I felt really good when I made that shot. I just felt like that gave me and my team another chance to win the game,” said Bradford.

In overtime, the Falcons and the Spartans were going back and forth scoring. The energy in the gym was high and the adrenaline was intense. The West student section was cheering on the team to the very last second.

“I love being in the student section and feeling the excitement of supporting our team. It was a really tough loss but a super close game. I wish we would have come out on top,” said senior Gracelyn McCullough.

The Falcons ended up falling 1 point short to lose the game against Pleasant Valley 64-63.