The+Shot

The day was here. The Saint Catherine Swedes were very close to winning their first tournament ever. It was a perfect day to be indoors to watch an intense basketball game. The temperature was below freezing and snow was piling on the roads. However, inside the gym, the atmosphere was truly wonderful. Urban was the star player for the Swedes. His best friend and teammate John would always say, "Wow! How does Urban do that? He is so agile. I want to be as good as him one day" The Swedes opposition was the Saint Alexis Spartans. This year, 2009, the Spartans are undefeated. Cody leads their team averaging over twenty points a game. Meanwhile, Bill, the Swedes coach, is giving his team a pep talk. He says, "Now fellas, we are going to guard Cody extra tight tonight if we want to win the championship. We can not let him score on us. Does anyone feel up to this daunting task?" Quickly, Urban jumped on it and said, "I will coach! You can count on me." Happily Coach Bill replied, "Ok boys, lets go win this game!" Tip off is only fifteen minutes away and the two enemies are already looking at each other with disgust in their eyes. Every time Cody would take a shot, Urban would watch his technique. The same thing would happen when Urban took a shot. Both of them would never miss a shot. As with the start of any Christian Youth Organization game, CYO for short, there is a prayer to be said. Thus Urban, John, Eric, Bobby, Louis, and the rest of the bench players trotted out to half court. When this was completed, the two teams went to shake hands, but some of the Spartans refused to do this. Now the Swedes knew they were in for a dog fight. Immediately after the start of the game, things got rough for the Swedes. On every possession someone always had to be pushing and shoving. Eric would go hard to the hoop and get hacked, but no call was made. Also, Louis would get tied up with the ball and the Spartans would slap his arms to force him to throw the ball away. Then, Urban and John realized that their foul calls were becoming very bias. This was giving the opposing team the opportunity to get on the foul line and get closer to the bonus. Cody went to the line for a shooting foul late in the first quarter. He dribbled it twice, picked his head up, and breathed out slowly. Cody bent down and on the way up, released the ball toward the basket. However, the shot rattled around the rim and fell out. With anger, Cody rushed through his second shot and the ball sailed just short of the rim. After Cody missed his shots, the Spartan coach yelled, "C'mon Cody! You’re better than that; get your head in the game!" As the second quarter began, Urban pumped faked to evade a defender and surprised him again by shooting a three. //Swish.// The crowd stood up and cheered for Urban as he cut close the Spartan lead to three. The teams keep going back and forth each making shot after shot. The scoreboard now read Swedes 24, Spartans 28. However, with a minute to go, Cody was running down the court. He stuck his leg out and purposely tripped Urban. As usual, no foul was called. Urban immediately bounced back up and charged at Cody. Right before Urban could have inflicted damage, John and Eric restrained him. Just by looking in Urban’s eyes, you could tell that he wanted revenge. Urban and Cody backed off from each other and headed into the locker room for halftime. After Coach Bill's strategic and empowering speech, all of the boys went back on to the court to shoot some more. On the other hand, Coach had asked Urban to stay behind for a minute. Urban was expecting the worst for his actions. He thought he would never play the rest of the game. Shockingly, Coach Bill stated, "Urban, you know better than that. However, your actions were good in a way because you rattled Cody's head. He is not focused on the game, but on you instead. So keep up the good work out there, play hard, and let’s beat them in the second half.”   With amazement, Urban found that Coach was right. Cody kept trying to take the ball right at Urban, but would be stripped by someone else. This seriously impacted the Spartans. They saw their lead slip right out of their hands. Half way through the third quarter, something very surprising occurred. There was a foul called on one of the Spartan players for reaching in while Louis had the ball. The head coach for the Spartans stood up and screamed, "That’s not a foul Hon! I mean uhm ref."    This sent the Swedes for a loop. They figured out that the female referee was married to the Spartan head coach. This proved the theory of Urban and John. They were indeed correct when they said all of the calls were biased. This just lit a fire inside of the Swedes. They wanted to win like never before to prove the Spartans that they can win this game. Deep into the last quarter it seemed to be true; the Swedes had the advantage 45 to 40. However, they were becoming very tired. On defense, Bobby would just watch a guy drive right through the lane and score an easy bucket. On the other side of the court, John would pull up a mid range jumper and it would fall at least a foot short. This allowed the Spartans to go ahead by four with twenty seconds left in the game. The Swedes inbounded the ball and took it down the court. With total exhaustion, Louis heaved the ball at Bobby. With desperation Bobby stopped near the three point line. With all of his remaining strength he launched a three point shot. The ball sailed at the perfect trajectory and went right into the basket. He turned to run down the court and could hear the crowd going wild. The Swedes needed to stop the Spartans to stay in the game. With five seconds left Louis threw his body at the ball. He came up with a steal and headed down the court. He was near the sideline when Cody decked him out of bounds. The clock now was reading Swedes 56 Spartans 57 with 1.2 seconds left. Coach Bill called a thirty second timeout. When his players made it to the bench he gave them his key to victory. He strategically informed the team, "Ok fellas this is what we have to do to succeed. John, you got to take the ball out and pass it to Urban. Urban, stand right underneath the basket and look for your wide open lay-up. Everyone nodded in agreement and the fate of the game was now in their hands. The official handed the ball to John. He saw Urban wide open and chucked the ball right at his hands. He caught the ball and shot it as Cody knocked him to the ground and the shot bounced hard off the rim just in time for John to grab it and tip it in. The buzzer sounded as he shot the ball and it was up to the officials to make the call as to whether he shot it in time or not. The officials looked at it and gave their decision on the shot. All of the Swedes players were crushed and some began to weep and cry.   With disbelief and deep sadness, the Swedes lined up to shake their oppositions' hands. However, the Spartans were being very sore winners. They were jumping, screaming, and laughing at the Swedes. They felt that they had the stronger performance. On the other hand, Coach Bill had a talk with his boys before they packed up and left the gym. He started off by saying, "Great game guys. I know it didn't end up they way we all wanted. Keep your heads held high because you couldn't have played better. One more thing, I was talking to the other coach and he told me Cody was averaging 20 points a game. You held him to zero points! That’s a great accomplishment! See you guys at our next practice." The Swedes changed their shoes, packed up, and left the gym with a hop in their step. They weren't down at all. In fact, they were actually excited for the next game.
 * __ The Shot  __ **