I wanted the game to be over. The stress of wanting to win was hard to handle. The only thing that I wanted more at that moment in the game than a victory was a victory over Saint Paul’s. I hated the way they always acted like they were the best. We needed to score, we needed to win! My coach interrupted my thoughts.

“Guys we’re down by two!”

It was the fourth quarter. That is always the toughest part of the game because you never know what might happen. You could be winning and in a matter of minutes you are loosing, or the opposite, you could be losing and all of a sudden you are winning. And then time just runs out.

It seemed like the game dragged on and on. It felt like we were neck in neck the entire fourth quarter. There was 50 seconds left and we were tied. Then, Saint Paul’s scored a basket; they were ahead by 2 points.
This was it, time was running out. One of our guards was bringing the ball up the court. Her name was Emma and she was the best 3 point player on our team. She had just won a 3 point contest in the tournament earlier that day. I thought maybe she was our game winning weapon.

The Saint Paul’s defense was playing a 2-3 zone and the two players were guarding Emma, our guard, really tight. I was the post player, the big man that always scored under the basket, but I was running a half step behind her trying to get the defense to follow me. They both stayed on Emma and I had now passed Emma about five feet away. She passed me the ball and I thought that there was like 2 seconds on the clock. Not knowing where I was on the court and thinking there was only seconds left, I shot the ball.

It seemed like minutes had gone by as I watched the ball flying through the air. To me everything was dead silent, except the voice of my coach yelling,

“Why is my post player shooting the three?”

I thought to myself if this doesn’t go in I’m in trouble. More time seemed to go by, but I knew it was only seconds in reality. Then I heard the faint sound of a “swoosh”! It went in! It went in. I made a three point basket! Everyone was so excited! We were up by one point.
I looked up at the clock and there was actually 9 seconds left. The other team inbounded the ball, but we stole the ball in a matter of seconds. Another one of our point guards got the ball and started dribbling the ball up the court, and then she got fouled. She went to the free-throw line since we were in bonus. She made her first free-throw basket! Two point lead! She missed her second free-throw and then my coach called a time out.

My coach said, “Get in here. Okay, we have the two point lead with five seconds left. I want you guys to line up at the half court and as soon as they inbound the ball I want you to run up and get in their face.”

It sounded good to me! My team lined up at the half court line just as our coach had told us to. Saint Paul’s lined up at the free-throw line and they inbounded the ball. As soon as the ball left the inbounder’s hands we ran up to them. A Saint Paul guard threw the ball as hard and as far as she could to try and get it in their basket. It didn’t work. They didn’t even get it close to their basket. The buzzer went off, we won the game!

After the game, my mom was talking to me and saying how proud she was of me. Today, I realize that crazy moment was very important in my life. That moment changed my direction in how I train for basketball, my most important thing in my life. I found confidence and I knew I wanted to extend my shooting range and be able to also play a guard. I learned from that one experience that things can change and you have to let those changes happen because most of the time it is for the better. I went on to find a new travel team and coach after that school season. I trained as a guard and now I have so many more opportunities for my basketball future.