The BCCHS Boys’ Basketball Team had a big final game of the regular season against their fierce rival, the Taft Toreadors. The game did not disappoint with excitement and close scores for the majority of the game but Birmingham fell in an 87-71 loss. The Patriots knew coming in that it would be a tough game due to Taft being undefeated in league games. Birmingham  boy’s basketball now has a 19-7 record.

The first quarter started off explosively for the Patriots with a three pointer on the first possession of the game to take an early lead. Birmingham later started to fall behind in the quarter, but Devante Doutrive (23) tied the game 11-11 with a big dunk on Taft’s defense. Birmingham led at the end of the first quarter 21-19. However, the second quarter did not go favorably for the Patriots. Taft started to rally in the second quarter and this rally was helped with a dunk by Kesean Davis (13) to take a 36-32 lead. This leaded was extended shortly after the dunk with a three pointer made by Brandon Thomas (15) to up the lead to 39-32. However, at halftime, Taft was leading Birmingham 45-36.

The Patriots knew they needed to chip away at the lead quickly in order to have a chance in the game. Birmingham did a repeat of what they did in the first half by scoring again on the first possession of the second half. The boys had a strong rally in the third quarter and were able to tie the game 46-46 with 5:52 remaining in the quarter. Unfortunately, the Toreadors began to dominate and were leading 65-56 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Birmingham was trying to put up points in the fourth quarter, but were struggling against Taft’s strong defense. Taft continued to put up more and more points throughout the quarter and the score was 87-71 as the buzzer sounded to bring the game to a close. Despite the loss to Taft, Birmingham still made playoffs and have their first playoff game against Narbonne on Saturday, February 20th.  Birmingham lost this first round playoff game by a score of 76-69 to set up another playoff game against George Washington Prep High School on February 26th at BCCHS.