what would you do if a forward kept coming into your crease when youâre in net?â
Cody smiled. âIâd take my goalie stick and give him a good whack on the back of his legs, cut him down like firewood.â
âOkay,â I said, slowly shaking my head. I made a mental note to never go into the crease when he was playing net. âMaybe thatwonât work here, but try to push him around a little anyway.â
âIâll do my best.â
âAnd donât forget that weâre not going to get the tip. Forwards, you have to jump into the spots you think their center is going to direct the ball to. Guards, you drop back to defend. Okay, letâs break andââ
âBefore we do that I just want to say something,â Mr. Davidson said. âI know I donât know much about basketball, but I do know about kids. I have been so honored to be able toââ
âHold on there, Coach,â Tanner said, cutting him off. âYou canât give that speech until the last game of the season. Maybe this wonât be our last game.â
âPossibly it is.â
âPossibly it isnât. Remember we havenât lost one single game since we started to use the new cheer. Some people believe in miracles,â he said, winking at me. âOther people believe in luck. Everybody put your hands in.â
We formed a pile.
âOn three, Go, Lard Butts. One, two, three.â
We screamed our cheer and then five of us trotted toward center court andâwhat was going on here? Their center wasnât on the court. I looked over at their bench. He was sitting at the end, his head in his hands. On the bench beside him were the usual starting point guard and one of their forwards. They were starting their subs! They thought so little of us that they thought they could beat us with their second stringers!
I felt myself start to get red. I felt the anger building up inside andâno, I wasnât going to let it make me crazy.
âWait!â I yelled out. âEverybody here!â The four other starters gathered around me.
âI want a full-court press with man to man defense. Cody, you go up for the tip. Smash the ball as hard as you can toward their basket. Iâll go and get it. Now break.â
We tapped hands with each of their players. A little courtesy before the game was always nice, even when you didnât feel any.
Cody lined up beside their center. Cody was a shade taller and thicker. He wouldnât be able to jump as high as their center, but he might be able to overpower him. The ref tossed the ball up, and I turned and ran for their net. The ball soared over my head and past me! I raced after it, grabbing it before it bounced out of bounds. I turned around just in time to see Taylor streaking toward the net. I fired in a pass. He put it up and scored! We had the lead. It might be our only lead of the game but weâd scored first.
âPress! Press! Press!â I screamed.
Everybody locked on his man. The ball was passed in, bounced off the fingertips of one of their players and right to Tanner. He dribbled in, uncovered, and put up our second basket!
âPress!â I yelled.
The pass came in, and Taylor and Cody trapped the ball carrier in the corner. He made a wild pass. I grabbed it, stopped, turned and fired up an equally wild three-point shot. It dropped! We were up seven to nothing!
I looked over at their bench to give them a smirk. Their centre got to his feet. I thought that was the end of our winning streak; he was coming in. He walked over to the score tableâno
past
the score table. He walked over to the far corner of the gym, bent over and threw up in the big plastic garbage can!
âSam, do we keep on the press?â Taylor asked.
I was startled out of my thoughts. âYeah, keep pressing, keep pressing!â
By the time the game was half over, it was really over. The players on their team, who