It’s towards the end of the fourth quarter, only two minutes left. Everyone in the gym has their eyes on the baseline as one of my teammates waits for the referee to hand her the ball. With possession under the basket, we’re down by four points. We were finally coming back after being down most of the first half.
Tossing her the ball, the referee puts his hand up to signal when the clock should start again. The girl under the basket calls “triangle”, the play that we went over hundreds of times in practice the week before. As I walk up to the half court line, I stand so that I am in line with the girl on my team passing in the ball. The referee hands her the ball. As she says break, I count to myself, “One..” Running up from the bottom of the key, my teammate goes up to the girl at the center of the foul line and sets a pick block the girl from the other team that was guarding her. “Two.. three..” The girl who was at the top of the foul line goes down and sets a pick on the girl standing ball side at the bottom of the key. “Four..” the ball still hasn’t been passed in. I run down the court next to the sideline, looking for the pass. The girl passing the ball in sees me completely open, and passes the ball into my hands. Standing a little bit in from the three-point arc, I catch the leather basketball in my hands as I’m stepping in. Right foot, then left, I think to myself as the light grey soles of my black sneakers hit the floor. Just as quickly as I catch it, I release the ball from my grip. It rolls off the tips of my fingers on my right hand, brushing against my left. After rotating through the air for what seems like forever, it finally starts to fall. It lands right in the center of the red metal rim, the net jumping around as the ball travels through it.
Two points get put onto the scoreboard as our coach calls a timeout, and we all run over to the bench. As she slams her finger tips against the white eraser board, she tells us to pick up right away and try and get a steal or turnover, and if we don’t to foul right away. Because both teams were in bonus, we knew that if we fouled, they would get to shoot foul shots, but then we would regain possession of the ball. The buzzer goes off, and we go back onto the court, and call out the white number that is on the dark blue uniforms of the girl that we’re guarding.
As they come out of their huddle, the players from the other team rejoin us on the court. The referee hands the girl out of bounds the ball, and they start setting picks, blocking our players from being able to stop the ball. When the ball gets inbounded, I quickly slapped the girl with the ball on the arm. They call a foul on me, my fourth, as we walk down to the other end of the court so she can take her free throws. Down by only two now, there is less than 30 seconds on the clock. We line up, one of my teammates standing across from me in the top slot of the key. I call out that I’ll cover the shooter so she doesn’t get the ball back, and the referee throws her the ball so she can shoot. If she makes the first shot, she gets another, but if she misses, we play. She pounds the ball against the polished wooden floor a few times and lines up the toes of her sneakers with the foul line. Bending her knees, she then comes back up, releasing the ball, rolling it off her fingertips. It arcs towards the basket, hitting the hoop a little too much towards the right, and falls to the ground. Someone on my team grabs the ball, shortly followed by someone from the other team.
They fight for possession and after three seconds; the referee blows the whistle and calls it a jump ball. We had possession after the last jump ball, so they get this one. It’s under their basket. As soon as the ball comes in if it does, we have to foul again. They set up a play, and a girl from the other team runs to the corner and gets the pass. I’m following behind her, and bump into her as soon as she gets the ball to get the foul call. The foul is called on me, and I’m out of the game with my fifth foul.
I walk over to the bench on the other side of the court and wait for my coach to put in another player to take my place. Her black high heels click against the floor as she walks around looking up and down the rows of dark blue cushioned chairs to figure out who was going to take my place. She finally picks, and the girl runs out onto the floor to join the rest of the team, lining up for the foul shots. I get my water, and sit down onto the blue cushioned chair, watching the game.
All eyes in the gym are on the girl who is shooting her foul shots. She shoots, and the ball bounces off of the back of the rim. Our team gets the rebound, and the girl who got the ball dribbles down the court, on the side that the rows of chairs where we sit are. Everyone is watching her as she dribbles down the court, seconds quickly ticking away on the clock. She is now just inside the three point line. Tossing the ball towards the basket, it flies through the air, and bounces around the rim. Watching the ball, everyone is silent. The buzzer goes off and the ball hits the floor with a loud thud, and then bounces a few more times. As our team walks over to the bench with their heads down, the players on the other team all cheer. The time on the scoreboard read 0.00, the home team with two more points than us.