*swoosshh* The sound of another bad shot. Somehow, we’re down by 10 and it’s only 2 minutes into the game. Something’s gotta’ give. We pull three of our starters and put in some fresh guys. Now we’re rollin’ with twelve unanswered points. We’ll make it to half-time down by six’not bad. We come outta’ half-time gunnin’ for ‘em. A few jumpers and some fast-break points and we’re right back in it; even up by a few sometimes. We’re up with about a minute left to play, but a few mistakes cost us the lead and almost cost us the game. We’re fortunate to be in over-time. Alright, 2 minutes and we’re done. We play pretty poorly for the first minute or so, but we manage to step it up on D and keep ‘em to a 2 point lead. Our ball; 15 seconds left and I’m spotting up in the corner’base-line to my left”cause that’s my money spot. Even if I’m 0-for-6 today from beyond the arc, I’m on the floor and that means I might be takin’ ‘the shot’. 15′our forward inbounds the ball to our point-guard’14′the point starts bringing the ball through the back-court’13′he’s almost to mid-court’fighting a bit of a press, but the press is conservative, so we don’t get an easy shot inside’12′the point is at mid-court and slowing it down’we want the last shot’11′he’s hanging near mid-court still, protecting the ball, but not moving much’10′now’s the time to make a move’he starts heading for the top of the key’9′our guys are screening, but their guys are following and switching too well for anything to be easy’8′looks like he’s going right’that means it’s up to the strong side of our offense to score and the pressure’s off me’7′never mind, he’s coming left, but it looks like he’s gonna’ cut inside for the runner’6′wait a sec.; their zone’s collapsing in on him to prevent the easy bucket’that means the arc is opening up’5′he sees it; here comes the dish’4′pressure’s on, but the defense isn’t'it’s just me and the ball trying to put our differences behind us for just a second while I take this jumper’3′*snap* that one’s good’1-for-7′3 points means we’ve got ‘em by one; their ball; 3.7 seconds on the ticker. We manage to stuff ‘em on the inbound, but we tip it out on the lob, so it’s their ball on their base-line; 3.5 seconds left. Inbound, tough shot, our rebound, time-out; 1 second left on the ticker. All we have to do is inbound the ball and keep it on the floor. Forward in to point’tick’game over. I can’t believe ours is the bigger score, but I do believe we earned it.

There were two things that made today’s game really tough for me: First, being down by 17 at one point’that really hurts the ego; Second, hitting the game-winner, but knowing I played like garbage for most of the game. I think I ended up with 11 points or so, but 6 of those were easy lay-ups on fast-breaks. I guess I enjoy knowing that I came through ‘in the clutch’, but I would rather have been there for my team throughout the game. I’d rather have my team knowing they can consistently depend on me than have my team be excited because I uncharacteristically made a tough shot. All-in-all, I have to say I was really proud of the guys I ran with today. They showed a lot of character in not giving up when we had an early deficit. It was really encouraging to see everyone come together without complaining or finger-pointing and, as a team, pull through to the win.