Parrish was on the bench Logan was one of the Grizzlies forwards Bear Cub Ben shouted to his teammates as he reached the top of the key The Gladiators defender played close but not too close A foul would send Ben to the free throw line and the Gladiators didn't want to give away any easy points Nick Cozzetti one of the Grizzlies forwards dashed up and set a pick Ben breezed past the defender and dribbled into the lane The player defending Tyler Murphy the Grizzlies center peeled off to defend the driving Ben That left Ty wide open Ben bounce passed to Ty who drained an easy layup Nice pass Ty shouted as he and Ben slapped a high five
The Grizzlies were now down by 1 point No time to celebrate Coach Horton waved an arm animatedly Foul Foul Coach Horton wanted them to intentionally foul to stop the clock Ben hazarded a look at the ticking clock 0 25 0 24 0 23 Aware of the Grizzlies intentions the Gladiators sent the inbound pass to their best shooter Carl Martinson He snatched the ball and held it tight as Ben swatted at his arm Tweet The referee pointed at Ben Foul Two shots Gladiators The teams lined up on both sides of the lane As Carl toed the free throw line waiting
to get the ball from the ref the Grizzlies fans in the crowd began to stomp their feet on the wooden bleachers A low rumble resonated throughout the gymnasium The ref passed Carl the ball He dribbled twice spun the ball in his hand and shot The ball rattled around the rim and then dropped in Down by two points Ben thought He hoped the home crowd would rattle Carl on his next attempt Carl received the ball again He took a deep breath went through his routine and shot This time the ball bounced high off the rim and fell toward a mass of leaping bodies and outstretched arms Ty came down with the rebound
0 13 0 12 0 11 Ty found Nick open at midcourt and slung a pass up to him Ben ran as hard as he could along the far side of the court His team didn't have much time to get a shot off before the buzzer sounded 0 08 0 07 0 06 Nick caught the pass at midcourt and spun There was an open player near the top of the 3 point line Nick passed the ball and it was deflected by a Gladiator defender The ball bounced back toward Ben 0 04 0 03 0 02 Ben quickly snatched up the ball He was steps from the 3 point line There was no time to set up As a Gladiator defender rushed toward him Ben leaped up and shot the ball in a high beautiful arc The defender
