We had our second basketball game last night. It only went into one overtime and we came out on top by 1 point. The way we started the game I thought we were going to blow them out. Of course our shooting went cold, almost as cold as my cards have been in poker over the past 3 weeks. We were losing at the half and finally caught back up. The score went back and forth, but we couldn’t get a stop on defense at the right times to take a lead. The team we were playing was mostly older men, but could they ever shoot! It was lights out.

With about 15 seconds left in regulation and the score tied, one of our guys got a steal and took off down court for a wide open layup. He thought he heard a whistle and ended up missing the layup. Their team gets the rebound and calls a timeout with 11 seconds on the clock. It didn’t take them long to get it up court and drain a shot. We’re down by 2. Timeout! In the huddle we basically just said to get open.

As we walked back to inbound the ball I made up my own play. I told the inbounder I was going to come at him and then take off. I knew there was no way the guy guarding me could keep up with his knee brace. The ref handed off the ball and blew his whistle. I broke and Jeff lobbed the ball to the other end of the court. I sprinted to catch up with it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a teammate under the hoop. I jumped to snatch the ball after it’s first bounce. I remember thinking, “There is no way I’m going to get a good shot off here.” I gunned a pass to Mike, who at this point was under the backboard. A defender closed on him and he quickly dished it off to the other Mike in front of the hoop. The ball fell through the net as the buzzer sounded. SCORE!

We had tied the game on the best full court inbounds play I had ever seen in my life. Larry Brown couldn’t have drew it up better himself. In the overtime I decided to take control and went to the free throw line several times. We never gave up the lead once it was ours.

The team played better than the first game and I only see us getting better as a unit. We’ll look to improve to 2-1 next week and then enjoy our break for the holidays.