The Annual Senior Class Basketball Tournament was starting. This was the most exciting part of our senior year. We knew we had the highest chance of taking home the championship. Everyone else knew that we would win this without any competition. Our class had the most skilled players out of the 16 senior classes. Our lineup was Sonny, Alex, Ian, Jacob, and myself. Sonny was arguably the best point guard and shooter out of all the classes. Alex was tough and could grab rebounds over anybody. Ian was the best defender and could lock anyone up. Jacob was a big, tall center with the skills of a point guard. I was an all-around player to fill up any gaps in the team.

The tournament was single-elimination styled. In other words, only one team can go on each round and the other team is eliminated from the tournament. As expected, we blazed through the brackets effortlessly. We were undefeated all the way to the championship round. Little did we know that things were going to get super rough for us. 

At the championship round, things were going smoothly in the first quarter. We had a pretty consistent lead as well. We kept this up and the score was 15-9 by the end of the first quarter. During the second quarter, we noticed that the other team was closing the gap between us. We kept trading baskets and they almost took the lead. By the end of the second quarter, the score was 27-25. The third quarter was when things went south. They took the lead a few times and it made us uneasy. That was when we started to get selfish with the ball. We all wanted to score for ourselves and be the hero to win the game. Our defense wasn’t coordinated anymore, which allowed the other team to score easy baskets. We weren’t passing and instead were taking heavily contested shots. Anybody could tell that we weren’t playing like a team anymore. By the end of the third quarter, the score was 37-41. 

In the fourth quarter, the opposing team had a consistent lead. When there were about six minutes left, they sunk two 3-point daggers which increased their lead by a ton. That was when our teacher called a time-out. We’ve pretty much lost hope of winning and our pride as the best team was hurt. I felt really sad that our run was going to end like this. Our teacher then gave us a pep-talk that saved us. He said, “Talent can win you games, but teamwork wins championships.” That was when we decided to put our selfishness aside and work together. “Let’s work together again.” Sonny said. “Yeah, we can win this!” Jacob said. Everyone nodded in agreement. We then walked onto the court with new confidence.

Our scoring and defense immediately improved. We played the best we could and were able to close the gap to 2 points. When there was a minute left in the game, the score was 47-49. We tried to draw fouls but it didn’t work out. There were 38 seconds left. The opposing team tried a layup, but it was blocked by Ian. There were 26 seconds left. We had to put everything in our final possession. Alex grabbed the rebound and passed it to Sonny. He dribbled down the court and analyzed the court. Jacob set a screen for a pick-and-roll and Sonny read it perfectly. He drove and passed it to Jacob. Jacob tried to get open but the opposing team double-teamed him. He passed it out to me. I did a crossover and went for a layup. I saw Alex running up behind Jacob in the paint and I passed it to him. He saw Sonny wide open in the corner and passed it to him. Sonny then splashed the most clutch 3-pointer and it brought us up by 3 points.

There were only 3 seconds left in the game. The opposing team had no time-outs left. They were trying to pass it inbounds but we were doing a full-court man-to-man defense. They passed it in and tried to get closer, but time was running out. They desperately tried a hail mary half-court shot. The whole gym went quiet as the ball flew. The buzzer rang, and it was no good! The gym went crazy. We were all cheering and it felt amazing. We wouldn’t have done it if we lost hope and didn’t work together. In the end, we got the trophy and made an everlasting memory.