Chapter 38: Basketball Match (Part 1)

Alex is seen sitting in the stands with Frank and Emily. Waiting for the start of the school basketball match.

Alex - "Who do you think is going to win?"

Frank - "Of course, I hope our school wins, but it's going to be a tough match. Locke is the opponent after all."

Alex - "Are they very strong?"

Frank - "No, we are pretty terrible."

Emily - "What position does Ryan play again?"

Alex - "He plays shooting guard."

Emily - "Shooting guard, so like, he is going to shoot a lot of baskets?"

Frank - "Kind of."

Emily - "Why is our school in a black jersey?"

Frank - "They changed it from orange to black to symbolize that our school is a dark horse."

Emily - "Why?"

Frank - "Cause of Ryan duh."

Alex - "He sure is under a lot of pressure. I hope everything works out."

Frank - "Don't worry, I have seen him practice his hype isn't baseless."

Soon the warm-up was over, and the game started.

Andy from Locke won the tip-off making it so the ball was in the possession of Locke from the start.

Slowly, Andy dribbled the ball from the half court to the three-point line.

Andy's match-up was Kale, who was trying his best to guard Andy preventing him from shooting.

Roy from Locke quickly lost his match-up and made a screen for Andy to shoot.

Andy took the shot from outside the three-point line. The ball starts flying towards the basket unguarded and falls in.

The score becomes 0-3

Andy does a small celebration, and the crowd cheers him on.

The ball goes to the losing team. Damion from Ryan's team decides to dribble the ball to the half-court but promptly runs into Harris from Locke's team.

Harris tries to slow down Damon's momentum and doesn't allow him to go any further. Damion decided to do a one on one against Harris.

Damion fails miserably as Harris soon manages to take the ball away from Damion. He completes a steal with ease.

After running with the ball, he leaps to dunk the ball inside the basket. His leap is not sufficient causing the ball to bounce off the rim.

Damion who was in the area quickly grabs a rebound and throws a long pass from his end to the other end. Ryan sprints to where he thinks the pass will land and manages to grab onto the ball far outside the three-point line.

Ryan doesn't even think for a second and shoots the ball from deep.

John (Match Commentator) – "It's number 5 from deep. It's good."

The crowd bust into a wild frenzy and Ryane waves his hand at the crowd in celebration.

The score is now 3-3

Ryan's crazy shot easily breaks down the confidence of the player from the opposing team. Leading to them making mistakes when facing Ryan.

By the end of the first quarter, Ryan manages to score ten points, two assists, and one rebound. In detail, he scored two out of three field goals, and two out of two three-pointers.

The current score is 18-14

Out of those eighteen points, Ryan scored fourteen on his own. It also made Ryan very tired, forcing the coach to rest most of the second quarter.

In the second quarter, Ryan's team gets blown out of the water without him. Locke not only managed to come back from four down but even managed to create an eight-point deficit for Ryan's team.

The score came to 24-32

Ryan couldn't stand it anymore and decided to return back to the game, one minute before the end of the second quarter.

Ryan soon finds Donald the main defender from the opposing team has locked on to him. So Ryan decides to try to create a screen for Damion instead. Damion takes the shot but it's no good.

Ryan then suddenly jumps up grabs the ball reflected from the rim and dunks the ball back into the basket.

Ryan then hangs on the rim and lets out a scream. The crowd turns wild and people start chanting Ryan's name.

Ryan then gets down and heads back to his court to help with the defense. He quickly follows his match-up, Andy around the court.

Harris dribbles the ball into the half-court but nobody steps up to defend him. Leaving Ryan with no choice but to leave his man and head toward Harris.

Harris sees Ryan make a mistake and tries to pass the ball to Andy but Ryan intercepts and quickly manages to bring the ball under control.

Ryan then starts running straight at Harris. Harris tries to steal the ball but Ryan does a step over and leaves Harris lying on the floor. He then does head inside but towards the left corner and stands at the three-point line.

James From Locke immediately rushes to Ryan and throws his body to stop Ryan's shot, but it turns out Ryan did a fake shot.

This leaves him completely unguarded, and then he shoots the three, and the ball, as expected, the ball flies straight in.

In the span of 30 to 45 seconds, Ryan managed to cut that eight-point deficit by five points. The crowd goes completely crazy because Ryan left two people on the floor and made the shot.

Unfortunately for Ryan, something even more bizarre happens. Locke wins the ball back, and James takes a shot from the half-court, and it goes in.

John – "Oh my, it's crazy scenes here tonight, dunks, ankle breaker, and now even a half-court shot. With that, it's half time folks. You better be prepared for the second half, because this has been a crazy game like none other."

Ryan grabs a bottle of water and drinks it. He then wipes off the sweat on his head while looking depressingly at the halftime score.

29-35

Author – "Readers, please keep in mind that this is the first time I have written a basketball chapter. I am sure there are things I can improve, so please comment with this in mind."