mens-basketball

Falcons Earn Number One Seed in Bible College Nationals

The Davis College Falcons remarkable season will continue this week as they head to Mount Hope, West Virginia to participate in the Bible College National Invitational Tournament.

Thanks to an 18-7 overall record and closing the season winning 16 of their last 19 games, the tournament committee has given the Falcons the number one seed heading into the tournament. This will be the 6th appearance for the Falcons in the national tournament but their first since they won it in 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. In all, the Falcons have 3 Bible College National Championships under current head coach Dan Rathmell as they won it in 2011 and 2013 to go with the 2015 title.

The Falcons are led by two-time HVIAC All-Conference wing Jackson Henri (Miami, FL). Henri does it all as he averages 16.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 1.8 steals per game. Junior and HVIAC All-Conference sharp shooting guard Kelvin Tompkins (South Miami, FL) averages 16.6 points and leads the team with 71 three pointers on the season. Sophomore Corban Usry (Statesville, NC) had a breakout season as he put in 12.1 points on 50% field goal shooting and a team-high 3.4 assists per game. Senior point guard and team captain Ernestas Puzaras (Kaunaus, Lithuania) steadied the Falcons all season while ranking fourth in the HVIAC in assists (76) and second in assist to turnover ratio (2.1) to go with 8.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 3 assists per game. Fellow senior Titus Geday (Toronto, Canada) has stepped up as the emotional leader and the team’s second leading rebounder on the season. The Falcons boast one of their deepest benches in recent program history which is led by transfers AJ Holmes (Macon, Georgia) and Duke Guo (Tang Shin Hebai, China). Holmes is the team’s defensive specialist but also shoots 52% from the field while scoring 7.8 points per contest. Guo is a gifted playmaker that contributes 6.9 points a game.

“We have a great group of guys this year that really care about one another and have a lot of fun playing the game,” said HVIAC Coaching Staff of the Year head coach Dan Rathmell. “They have definitely gotten better as the season went on and we have a lot of depth on the roster so I’m excited to see what they will do at the NIT this year.”

The Falcons tip-off on Thursday afternoon against the number eight seed Word of Life, NY, at 2:00 p.m. The tournament concludes with the championship game at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday. All tournament games will be held at Appalachian Bible College in Mount Hope, West Virginia.

Photo Credit: Jeff Miller – DNJ Sports Photography