[ditttoo]

7th grade (soon to be) summer league girls - Gold team v Pink team. HOT and humid gym, with no AC, tired parents, last game of the night - you get the picture. Obvious that NONE of the girls could even begin to play a lick but they sure wanted to. 4-0 halftime with Gold the obvious dominant. Everyone seemed comfortable with the blantant double dribbles, traveling, 3 seconds that were never called.

With 5 minutes left, my partner and I decided that nobody was going to get shut out so we erred a bit on the out of bounds giving the poor girls in Pink at least a shot. Needless to say, the gals in Pink did very little to help us out, in fact turning the ball over with less than 30 seconds to go after yet another blatant errant call in their favor.

At the far end, now with only 7 seconds left, there is the typical playing catch going back and forth across the lane as the 'dominant' Gold team attempts to pour it on with one final basket. As my heart began to sink a bit in sympathy for the gals in Pink, miraculously the ball bounds out of bounce and now we've got a chance - drive the full length of the court with less than 5 seconds and make at least an attempt.

I'm focused on the clock as the ball is painfully in bounded backcourt. The "point guard" seems a bit confused and freezes at the first sign of defensive pressure wasting precious seconds. All of a sudden she bursts free now driving the sideline carrying the ball and defensive pressure with her all the way to half court. With a scant 0.4 left my partner comes crow hopping in from trail frantically selling the BLOCK and awarding a 1-1 (huh - but let's go with it).

Now the cutesy cute has a 1-1 with everyone lined up and the crowd fully aware of what "the moment" is all about. I administer the free throw allowing everyone time to settle in and really set the scene. As soon as she secures the ball I signal a lane violation on the defense just in case (my partner chuckles). Cutey calmly steps over the line and bounces a fierce line drive clean off the glass directly into the hole as the crowd erupts. Unfortunately, her second attempt doesn't even come close and the game ends on a very high note as "the gals in Pink" didn't lose, they just ran outta time.

Sorta keeps it in perspective and makes it somewhat worth it.