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
The small crowd was on its feet cheering Grady landed and held the ball tight He saw that Dominic another one of his teammates was open and bounced it his way The Wildcats still stunned from the steal took a moment too long to react Dominic was gone headed toward Badger territory where he made an easy layup As the ball dropped through the net the buzzer rang sounding the end of the game No Number 11 shouted C’mon ref A few of the Wildcats went over to the referee to complain including Coach Dremble They argued that Grady was goaltending and should be fouled But it was no use The score stood The Badgers had won the championship 12
2 ALWAYS SOMETHING You cheat one of the Wildcats shouted as the Badgers headed back to the bench Some of the others hollered at them too but Grady couldn’t hear them over the sounds of Coach Olson clapping and shouting praise their way What a bunch of crybabies Brett muttered looking over his shoulder No kidding Grady agreed You’d think this was a professional tournament or something 13
