A GREAT Game

All I can say is we anticipated that game for weeks.  All the sixth graders were good friends.  Some had been neighbors since birth, many had been in school together since Kindergarten.  They played on the same baseball team, they played football together.  But  too many wanted to play basketball, so they were split up.  Best friends, now split into teams.  This was the game where one sixth grade team played against the other.
 They talked trash for weeks, so that the coaches tried to put a stop to it.  They wanted bragging rights for ever, but still spending most of their time in school together, on the playground together, and playing video games together.  Rivalry, yet best friends.  It was electric in that gymnasium when we entered.

Neighbors greeted each other, smiling, listened to the cheerleaders, "Rah!Rah!"  a cheer  for BOTH teams.

"Yeah, Finneytown!", one parent shouted, laughing.
"We'll have to cheer, Red, or White, today!", another neighbor added.
"Where do we sit?  We're all friends?"

"Do you throw AirHeads on the court when the referee makes a bad call?", I asked one Dad.
"Oh, he behaves when he's holding a baby, " his wife responded, and we laughed.

We estimated the heights of the players, some of the sixth graders had not had their growth spurts yet, some had.
"I think they are evenly matched," we agreed.  Some pretty wicked mind games began on the court.  Coaches were running some tricky drills, sprints, fancy runs, to show what the teams could do.  "Psych'em out" was the game,  before it even began!

The players were on each other, from the first.  Mitch tapped the ball, but Michael got it, and Mitch tapped it again.  Even that first moment was exciting.  The red and white ran up and back several times before Brazeil made the first basket for white.  White made several more baskets. and was ahead at the end of the first quarter.  The second quarter they worked even harder.  Yet, the white inched out the red for the lead, while the red kept inching closer and closer.

The foul shots that Mitch and Joel made on the red team just swooshed through the net.  I had to cheer, even though I had a son on white.  Wes hit the ground and lay motionless for about 8 seconds.  He had hit his head, no one stopped the action, no one saw him lay there, but I DID!  Why weren't they stopping the game?  He arose slowly, he rubbed his head, his arm hurt, too, he walked to the other side of the court, he looked around, stunned. I think everyone was so engrossed by the excitement on the other end of the court, they did not see one player was missing.  I did!

Wes does nothing slowly.  He did not know which player he was guarding.  He was confused.  In fact, for the rest of the game, he seemed confused, and off his game.  He scored no points, which is unusual for him, and he made a lot of fouls.  I checked him later.  He did not recall most of the incident.

Back to the action:  the score was tied.  The white team went ahead again.  Even though Brazeil is short stature, maybe even the shortest on the court, he and Michael made a dynamite team,  just kept making great shots, and paying very well.  From the foul line, Joel and Mitch were sure fire.  Mitch sure could jump for the lay ups.  From the back, Brazeil could get them in.  It was neck and neck, until the end of the fourth quarter.  With the score tied, Joel had a free shot, and the MP erupted in cheers as Joel made the winning point.
Five seconds left in the game, the coach for white called a time out.
How could this game possibly change in FIVE seconds?

Michael and Brazeil have the ball, maneuver it to the other side of the court, Brazeil shoots the basket as the buzzer sounds.

The ball goes into the basket.  Everyone cheers, and then......the ball bounces out.