The game was the highest stakes game that I've played in since last year's NCAA tournament. If we won, we'd be playing the following week for first place and the right to move up a league; If TuS Lichterfelde (TuSLi) lost, they would be forced to move down a league. Finally, we were playing for something we could actually see on the horizon.
TuSLi signed two American import players recently to help them stay afloat: a 6'4 guard and a 7'0" center. The 6'4" guard walked into our gym and onto our floor in street clothes, took a ball that we were using to warm up, shot on our basket as we warmed up, and ignored our not-so-polite requests for him to keep it moving. I didn't know much about his playing style but his demeanor told me it'd be an interesting game one way or another.
The first half wasn't my best work. We were down 3 points and I had only scored 3 points. Nick kept us in the game well with 20 pts in the first half, but other than him, no one really scored very well. Our offense was stagnant mostly because the 7-footer did a pretty good job early in challenging shots.
The second half was much better. A couple of offensive rebounds got me going and a few post isolations helped me to find my rhythm again. I had 16 points in the second half including a stretch of 4 or 5 straight scores. The American guard decided to defend me in the 4th quarter and ended up getting two quick fouls. He responded by storming off the court and into the lockerroom for the rest of the game. There was no shaking of hands for him at the contest's end.
I finished with 19 and 15ish. The best part is that the first place team, Hermsdorf, lost in overtime. This means that if we win the rest of our games, we will the league outright. No needing to score by a certain point margin or anything. Woo!!
Shout out the the 'Herst boys for holding down their homecourt on Sr. Day. I'm proud of them.
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