Falcons Win Quality Inn Showcase Tournament

The first ever Quality Inn Men’s Basketball Showcase at Davis College was a big success for the Falcons as they won two games in the tournament over the weekend.

In the Friday night match-up, the Falcons took on the Christendom College Crusaders from Front Royal, Virginia. Last year the teams played at Christendom in a game won by the Crusaders when the Falcons missed a shot at the buzzer. This year the Crusaders returned most of their roster but added a 6’11” transfer in Luke Shultz. Falcons coach Dan Rathmell referred to Schultz as “one of the best true big men we have ever played against.” But coach Rathmell added “I give a lot of credit to Titus Geday, Josiah Waterman, and Kendrick Breton for not backing down against him. They worked hard and the rest of the guys paid close attention to our game plan to make it uncomfortable for him in the post.” Offensively the Falcons jumped all over the visitors with a balanced approach that included a season high 24 assists. 7 players from Davis scored between 8 and 14 points led by Corban Usry (Statesville, NC) who had 14 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals. Kelvin Tompkins (South Miami, FL) and Jackson Henri (Miami, FL) both put in 13 and Josiah Waterman (Savannah, NY) came off the bench to net 4 three pointers en route to his 12 points.

In the championship game, the Falcons faced off against conference rival, SUNY ESF. The Lumberjacks took a last minute victory over Penn State New Kensington in the first round after trailing most of the game. Davis and ESF are familiar opponents and limited one another on the offensive end. With both teams shooting under 40% for the game neither team was able to make a big run to separate themselves. Fortunately for the Falcons, Tompkins was on fire from the outside. He connected on 6 of 10 threes in the game including what turned out to be the game clinching 3 with under a minute to play to put Davis up 68-64. The Lumberjacks had an opportunity to cut into the lead, but AJ Holmes (Macon, GA) jumped into a passing lane and tipped a pass out of bounds. On the next play, Henri sank two free throws to seal the victory.

Tompkins finished with a game high 26 points and Henri contributed with a great all-around game with 19 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 assists. As a team, Davis College shot 13-14 from the free throw line and only committed 12 turnovers to offset the poor shooting performance.

Davis College (4-4) will look to continue their solid play before Thanksgiving break as they head to Jefferson Community College on Tuesday in a game that tips off at 7:00 p.m.