Did the girls get the “Second Round Jitters”?

    Wylie Gordon

    More stories from Wylie Gordon

    Picture this: half time, second round of the finals, you look at the scoreboard, down by 15. You know the coach is talking but you can’t seem to connect the words. All you can think about are those fifteen points. Whistle blows, game’s on.

    The starting 5 walk out on to the court; Kylee Mabry, Hannah Loveland, Kelsey Leavitt, Reagan Hansen, and Annie Pitcher. The Darts get the ball, pass to Loveland, she shoots from the corner, sinks it, first point of the half. A little too much excitement followed that shot, because immediatley following Davis fouls Herriman and gives them a chance to get some points on the board. First shot, nothing, second shot, sinks perfectly. The score is now Davis 19 Herriman 32.

    The game goes pretty back and forth from this point, Loveland tries to pull a behind the back and gets called on a carry. Davis gets the ball back after a slip up in Herriman’s drive. Leavitt drives up the field, dipping and dodgeing through the opposing players, finds her pocket, puts it up, lands just short of the pot hitting the rim. Herriman goes for an attempt, such the same as Leavitt’s, only to get swatted in the paint for straight denial.

    Fourth quarter starts, the amount of feelings amount to about that of atoms in the universe. Davis trails Herriman still 28-49. The girls are getting tired at this point, but just keeping going for the coach and because they’ve worked so hard to get to this point. They drive to open up pockets is definetly apparent now, there is more ball movement now than there is in the New York Subway. Time out called with 2 minutes left, Coach Jones takes this oppertunity to give a short pep talk.

    Pep talk finished, girls pumped, something that Jones said must have turned on a switch. The Darts are happy to communicate on the court, calling for passes, making plays. Though we have the drive, the shots aren’t connecting as well as they’d hope. Down by 20, and the clock starts to count, you can hear the Herriaman Student Section counting down, you can physically see the drive slip out of the darts. Game ends, 60-40, Darts lose and as you gaze out onto the court, you realize one thing: the showers had already started before they even stepped into the locker room.