Grady took a deep breath and let it out For good measure he blasted his face with some lukewarm water from a bottle Then he looked up at the scoreboard It was 54 48 The Badgers had a six-point lead A few more minutes Hopkins he told himself feeling invigorated by Coach’s pep talk We got this The referee blew the whistle and the Badgers were back on the court The ball was thrown in and the Wildcats came out to play A tall mean-looking dude with serious eyebrows stole the ball from Grady’s teammate Amir and drove it to their basket for an easy layup not even looking for anyone to pass it to Closing in Grady thought He did everything he could to muster up some energy 8
Brett threw the ball in and the Wildcats moved in full-court press Number 11 the guy guarding Grady was all over him making it impossible for Grady to get clear to receive a pass You guys are slipping Number 11 said Might as well call it a day This is parks and rec basketball man Grady said Save it for the big leagues The ball went wild and one of the Badgers moved to stop it He grabbed the ball but stepped out of bounds The whistle blew It was the Wildcats ball Perfect Grady muttered Now the Wildcats had the ball in their half of the court Let’s go Badgers Big D big D Even though Grady was tired Number 11 had put the fight back into him 9
The ball was passed back into play The guy with the eyebrows grabbed it and shot an easy basket from inside the paint One more basket and the game will be tied Grady thought As the Wildcats moved downcourt to get into a defensive zone Eyebrows sneered at Grady You call that Big D Eyebrows muttered Game’s not over yet Grady snapped back Might as well be Eyebrows returned You guys are dead out here With those words a secondary fire was lit inside of Grady Hopkins As Brett passed the ball in Grady looked up at the clock There were 42 seconds left in the game The Wildcats came in hard doing everything they could to keep the ball in their half of the court 10
Grady got a pass and drove it toward the center line As he did a hand reached in and slapped the ball free Number 11 picked it up and drove it back toward the Wildcats basket No Grady thought No way Grady spun and ran toward the basket Number 11 dribbled around the right side as the key was loaded with players Grady cut across and saw Number 11 getting ready to pop the ball up Put it in Grody one of the Wildcats shouted Were they talking to me Grady thought briefly Number 11’s nickname sounded a lot like his own name Using everything he had left Grady jumped The ball was in the air and Grady was airborne too He reached up and snatched the ball out of the sky stealing it from midair 11
