It was a normal basketball tournament on a weekend that me and my friend Justin Protzman will most likely always remember! It involved a big shot and some clutch free throws against a team that we previously lost to. This game made our team gain some life and get pumped up! Just remember, every shot matters and don’t ever give up!
My team was coming off a bad loss in the game before when a kid chucked up last second shot after the buzzer and made it but the refs counted it and they won. As you could imagine, we were pretty mad. Going into the next game, against a team that we had previously lost to a week before, we had our heads down because of the previous loss we just had. We started off really bad with a bunch of turnovers and bad defense, so our coach called a timeout. He started yelling at us telling us to get our heads into the game and start playing some good basketball and eliminate the turnovers! We were down already by about 15 points so we really did need to start playing good. It was going to be a hard comeback, but we’ve got the talent.
We started fighting back trying to make a comeback, but we didn’t know if we could do it because of our slow start. We did catch fire though and started playing good fundamental defense and hitting shots back to back to back. Down by about
Bertrand 1
Cade Bertrand
Friday, October 11, 2013 2:43:03 PM Central Daylight Time
Bertrand 2 five now we made a shot to be within three of the other team. The other teams coach
called a timeout over frustration. Our coach and our team were fired up!
Now, only down by three points with about 45 seconds left, our team came
out of the huddle with the blood pumping and had a lot of nerves. It was the other teams ball on sideline. The ref blew the whistle and the kid passed the ball in. The kid that caught the ball dribbled around to waste time and we were pressuring him like crazy and we forced him to pass the ball. That kid caught it and passed it off right away, and then out of nowhere my friend Steve intercepted the pass and I started sprinting down to the other end of the court and Steve passed the ball up. I caught the ball and it was a one versus one situation. There was only one kid from the other team down there and and he made a stupid move and backed way down to the block, but he should have remembered that we were down by three with about 20 seconds left now, so we needed a 3-pointer. If he was going to back down to the block then I was going to capitalize on it so I stepped up for a 3-pointer. When the ball left my hand I was just staring at it with my heart pausing and nothing was going through my mind. Then when I saw it go in I froze and the opposing coach called a timeout and my teammates came sprinting over to me and started jumping on me. We went over to our bench and my coaches were so pumped up and congratulated me for making the shot. Our head coach told us we needed to try to get a steal but don’t foul no matter what. Then we went back onto the court. The other team came down the court and we played tight defense on them. Then the point guard chucked up a wild shot and missed. We pulled down the rebound and rushed down the court. We passed it up to Justin and he had an open shot and took but he got fouled, which we were happy about because he just had to make one free throw and we would
Cade Bertrand
Friday, October 11, 2013 2:43:03 PM Central Daylight Time
Bertrand 3 take the lead. Justin went to the line and the ref gave him the ball. He did his routine
and let it go. Then for the first time of the game we took the lead. Then he shot the second free throw and made that one too. Now we were up by two with about 5 seconds left. The other team rushed down the court and chucked up their final shot that was missed by alot, then the buzzer went off and we won the game!
After the game we got into a team huddle and went over the game. Our coaches were
excited about the win but they were kind of mad because of how we started the game. They also said if it weren’t for me and Justin we wouldn’t have won and we wouldn’t have won without the whole team either. After we broke the huddle my coach called me over and said that my shot was money. The reason we won wasn’t just because of my shot and Justin’s clutch free throws, it was the whole team, and just remember, never give up!