Damien Spartans

SATURDAY, 1:00 PM

Everything in the gym is now set. Damien Highschool will be visiting our school for a practice match.

A lot of people have anticipated this game despite not being an official tournament match.

However, this is the first game our newly-formed team is going to make an appearance against a visiting team and so much hype and excitement has already been built to reach this point in time.

Damien players and coaches have already arrived a couple of minutes ago and they are now getting ready, which goes the same for my team as we are now in our locker room as the coach entered and required our attention.

"Alright guys, this will be your first game playing against a really tough opponent since the formation of this team."

"I want nothing else but your focus and determination in meeting our goals through this game. It might be a tough battle out there but I believe in you guys and what you can do. A lot of people will be watching and evaluating your abilities and potential, so don't get distracted. Fix your minds to only this game and lastly, please do be careful out there." Coach Alford showed us concern. And it is reasonable, a lot of things could happen and it's better to be careful than not.

"That's all for now, so let's get out there and make a name for ourselves."

""Yes coach!""

We cheered in unison as we head out of the locker room and unto the court.

As we arrived at our bench, the referees, coaches of both sides, and some staff gathered to discuss the officiating and some rules to make sure everyone is on the same page.

This game will have 32 total minutes divided into two halves and four quarters. This means the halftime break will be after 16 minutes and 8 minutes per quarter. There will also be a 35-second shot clock to increase the pace of the game.

As we are doing our warmups, I took note of our opponent's starting lineup.

Point guard (PG), Bradley Xie 6'1

Shooting guard (SG), Jacob Mckinn 5'9

Small forward (SF), Kaleb Smith 6'8

Power forward (PF), Jimmy Oladukon 6'8

Center (C), Nate Garcia 6'9

Just as we expected, they are playing with their starting lineup. There are occasions in practice games where teams don't start their main players to help the others in the team get experience and avoid the main players getting unnecessary risks.

I guess our rumors started spreading to them as they are also going all out for this game.

After regaining my attention from them, I looked at our team.

Point guard (PG), Isaac Hamilton 5'11

Shooting guard (SG), Tyrus Edney 6'0

Small forward (SF), Quincy Cruz 6'1

Power forward (PF), Ikenna Okwarabizie 6'5

Center (C), Jerrold Smith 6'10

Overall we are clearly the smaller team. But that is reasonable since most of the opponents are in their senior year while I'm only a freshman and Ikenna a sophomore. But I believe we are still superior in talent and skills so it's gonna be a tough physical battle.

Prrriiiiiii!

The whistle has sounded and the match will now officially start.

Jerrold and Nate are now facing off at center court for the tip-off.

As the referee observed that everything is ready, he blew his whistle while simultaneously lobbing the ball between the two tall players.

The first midair battle is won by Jerrold as he tipped the ball to Tyrus which he instantly passed to Isaac and everybody is already approaching their positions.

Isaac dribbled at the top of the key and raised his free hand making gestures to signal for a play. As we set the play in motion, Jerrold advanced to where Isaac was and made a screen to the right where I was positioned.

Isaac drew a lot of attention to our opponents including my defender so I quickly made a dash to the corner 3-point line area and as I got into a ball receiving position, I could see a ball incoming at my face so I quickly reacted and caught it to make a no hesitation 3-pointer.

I was wide open since my defender was too late to react to our play and a beautiful sounding swish was heard in the gym.

3-0

The crowd cheered and shouted my name as we were on our way to making a defensive formation.

Our opponents were a little surprised by the last play but they easily regained their composure and made it look like nothing ever happened. 'They have a good mentality, this will be tough to crack.' I thought.

But for now, we are only focused on what's ahead.

Their PG advanced the ball and quickly passed it to their PF on the left side of the court. Ikenna did not hesitate in hard-pressing his opponent. We already expected this so we just stuck to our training.

Their PF, Jimmy, posted Ikenna and used his body to shake him off with every strong dribble a single step closer to the basket. But he did not expect that Ikenna was tough to score against. Every opportunity from his angle was covered by Ikenna so he can't just make a wild shot out of nowhere just for the sake of making a shot.

Their PG, Bradley, got aware of this so he made a quick dash to the basket hoping Jimmy will pass the ball to him to make a cutting play luckily for him, Jimmy did notice this and made a good pass to Bradley who is now in the paint.

Without a choice, Jerrold had to step in hoping to stop the eventual running layup. But Bradley already expected this ahead of time so as he jumped to the basket, he actually passed the ball behind Jerrold.

Their Center, Nate, caught the pass and quickly flushed the ball to score 2 points for their team.

3-2

That was a good adjustment play from their PG who clearly has great vision. But it is only the starting minutes so we did not panic and maintained a calm and focused state as we advance the ball to our court.

We ran the same play of Jerrold making the screen for Isaac but this time, Isaac drew Jerrold's defender so Jerrold immediately ran back to the basket as he caught Isaac's lob pass and make an alley-oop dunk.

5-2

So far, everything's going well with our plays. It only boils down to making stops on the defensive end and forcing a turnover. To which we did. Or better say, I did.

Bradley was about to pass the ball to their center from his right side. But I quickly acted and intercepted the pass which deflected it to Tyrus.

We wanted to make a fast break from that play but our opponents were quick to react this time and in no time were back to a defensive formation.

For now, we played it slowly to avoid the risk of making mistakes.

Tyrus is still dribbling the ball high up on the left side of the court. Isaac made a screen-play to let Tyrus pass through the right which he did and left the defenders behind him.

Tyrus approached the free-throw line and stopped as an opponent was in front of him which seems to be my defender. Tyrus got a note of that and quickly realized I'm without a defender so he did not hesitate to pass the ball to me.

This time my defender quickly got back on his defense but I did not panic. I made some dribble moves and hopefully see an opening which I did.

He actually stepped back a little further anticipating that I would cross him over but I didn't. I instantly launched a jump shot and he was late to block my shot.

My shot goes in and the crowd is wild again from the cheers.

7-2

Damien's coach ultimately decided to take an early time-out and make some adjustments while also calming down his players as we clearly have the rhythm now.