Glendale battled to the best of its ability, never slowing down — but ran out of time in the final seconds and lost to the Kickapoo Chiefs 52-50 in front of a packed house at Drury University on Feb. 5.

Instead of a yellow versus blue-and-red crowd, the gym was painted white with T-shirts that symbolized the tragic end to four boys’ lives exactly one month ago.

Harnessing the energy of the rival crowds nearly brought the Falcons back from a late nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

“Everyone was really pumped up, I could barely hear,” junior Lauren Burwell said.

Turnovers and dropped passes were a problem in the first half. Sometimes indecision caused confusion and wasted possessions.

“It might have been nerves,” junior Matt Swan said. “We corrected them and made a run.”

Down by five points with 35 seconds left, junior point guard Casey Goss made a quick steal and took it in for a quick two.

A few timeouts later the Falcons were down by one with 22 seconds on the clock and needed a quick steal or foul on Kickapoo.

“We got the three and made a run,” Swan said.

“We stayed too far back from them.”

The steal didn’t happen and the gym was so loud no whistles could be heard. Kickapoo point guard Kyle Vaughn was smothered by the defense and a foul must have been assumed.

“We had on a press and we should have fouled way earlier than we did,” junior guard Chris Deines said.

As the clock showed one second left, anti-comeback feeling set in.

The Falcon faithful kept their cool and didn’t respond to any Kickapoo taunting.

“It was a class act, I’m proud of Glendale, they did a great job,” Assistant Principal Teresa Wise said.

“They stayed very positive and helped the team, it was also a great way to honor our students, and both schools are connected in that way.”