Safe to say that my life will NEVER be the same after that game. From getting on the bus to head over, to coming home after the game, every moment will be cherished forever. First off, I get into school waiting for the bus and one of the mom's had made us all snack bags. Now snack bags are usually a sandwich, chips, drink, and cookies, but this, was like slapping a normal snack bag in the face. There were beads, a pencil and pad (which I never got), a Snickers bar, peanuts, gatorade, a sandwich, a Hershey bar, 4 suckers, tootsie pops, gum, and much more. Of course none of us ate from it in that moment though.
Next, we are driving down Homestead Road towards 24 and the bus driver is freaking crawling let me tell ya. At one point, a girl on the team complained about it...loudly. All of a sudden we see a massive group of people, signs and all. Our parents, neighbors, and cheerleaders had made a fan recession right by Oleys. We all stuck are head out the windows, gave high fives it was awesome. It felt like Remember the Titans when they came home after winning semi-state. I put my head back in and was teared up. It was amazing what our parents were doing, so many surprises all week long. Being that we are not only a girls team, but HHS which doesn't get ANY recognition anywhere, in that moment I realized that we didn't need it. Our fans were supportive and crazy enough to do more than a student section or newspaper article could.
Game time now; watching the game before us, I was freaking out. My stomach was turning and all I was thinking was 'oh crap'. I followed all my insane rituals, put on my shoes, listened to coach, and warmed up. The tip came, we lost it and I had to rush to find my girl. She was a lights out, deep 3 point shooter and if I didn't cover her to my absolute best, we would have issues. With every defensive stop, steal, rebound, jump-ball, and especially shot made, our fans went crazy. They would stand screaming and clapping, the bench would jump sky high, and us on the court would give high fives, fist bumps, and scream random nonsense...no matter what the score was.
Down two, 44.2 seconds left. Coach calls a time out and tells us to run Blue, and option play designed for Emily and then Jena if Emily is not open. My basic duty on offense for that play and basically every other one: screen, pass, pretend to do something. I'm literally the last option on that play, an upscreen to the top of the key. Earlier in the game I had shot a three, first quarter, air-balled it and trust me I never heard the end of it. With every time I touched the ball the PHHS student section would scream air-ball, air-ball, air-ball. Luckily I'm used to that, I mean they found the right person to chant that to. I score the least amount of points for anyone who plays. Anyways back to the game....Emily gets a back screen, not open. Jena passes it to Carmen who passes it over to Emily. Jena gets a side screen from Carmen and cuts to the block, not open. Emily looks around frantically, I run from the block to the top of the key off a double screen from Carmen and Whitney. I don't even recall contemplating shooting the ball, or even hearing air-ball chants, I caught the ball and threw it up
What was going through my head as I watched it? Well I'll tell ya, "oh shit, I air-balled it again". And then the craziest thing happend, I swooshed it. I couldn't believe what just happen, I start running down the court, look at Whitney and said "what the *&%$ did I just do". I'd tell you I said something different, but on the news you can clearly make out me saying those words. PHHS called a time out and I jumped up in the air pumping my fist. I run over to the bench and I can hear Ray-Ray saying "she aint no air-baller, suck it Pendleton". Hahaha, yeah I laughed and smiled and Parker yelled at us saying the game was not over. We get on D and get a stop eith 17 ticks left and Emily goes to the line. I'm standing at center court repeating the same thing as I'm watching her "please em, please". She hit both, no surprise there, that girl is ice.
We won by three, 60-57. Not until I was on the bus did I realize what just happened. Never has my name even been mentioned in the news, not a shot, a pass, nothing, but Parker called me outside, apparently for an interview. I was sooo happy, that I pulled off a miracle shot, that my team was freaking awesome in that game, that our crowd was into it, everything, nothing topped that moment.
That was all a mere two hours ago, I'm sitting here writing all of this, still in shock, still exuberent, and shaking..I don't know why. Let's see what'll happend tonight...
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