Days before one of my AAU basketball tournaments I find out that we play a team that is the same as the one I played when I played town ball this past year. We lost to them by a lot and it was not a good game. They beat us by 20 and we were going to have to face them again but there was a snow blizzard so we didn't. Tournament day and now we have just played 2 games before this and won one and lost one. We needed to win this game to win the tournament and I also wanted revenge. 

I was warming up and I kept looking down there to see who it was and if they were the same team. And watching them I noticed that they were missing a good player, but gained one. While I kept warming up I was thinking we needed to beat this team by a little bit to get first place because we lost one and they were undefeated. Then I said to my team that they sucked and we should easily win this game.

The game was starting and my coach said I was going to be guarding their best player. The game started and the kid I'm guarding hits a 3. Then my dad told me, “Never help when people drive to the hoop, stay with him the whole time.” That's when I told myself not to let him score again while I was in the game. But then I started to hit shots too. 3 there, and I drove there and got a foul called, and again. That's when I realized they can't guard me.

Coming right out of half we were up by 10 and I was thinking to myself that the kid I was guarding didn't have many points. Also, I was tearing their whole team apart. My confidence just kept going up and up. I took the ball up every time I got it and isoed the kid that was guarding me. Crossover layup foul, 2 points. I brought it up one time and I was dribbling like Kyrie Irving. In and out, between the legs, step back, hesi, crossover, drive and get a layup. 2 more points. Wide open 3. 3 in my defender's face. While I was doing this their best player couldn't do anything on the offensive side. He could barely get a shot off on me.

Then the buzzer sounds and I look up at the scoreboard and it said we won by 18. On the way home I asked my dad how many points I had and he said 21. Once I heard that I remembered my 27 point game I had earlier that season against St. Charles. In that, I had confidence, and the same with the one I played today. So I told him I felt like I could've done anything in the game and I would've done it right. He said that was the confidence I always needed to play with. So from then on I always tell myself to believe in myself and have confidence.