It was the day before the tournament. Both the men and women's teams were getting a bit nervous. The Fighting Illinois and the Virginia Tech Hokies were both amazing teams and very hard to beat. They were practicing like crazy, but they knew that the hard work they put in didn't mean a victory.
Before long the women's team headed out to the Midwest where they would take on the fighting Illinois in a couple of days. Their tournament started a few days after the men, so in addition to practicing they had a chance to do a bit of sight seeing.
The men's team had their game the next day. So they went to New York to practice in Madison Square Garden to practice that night and then the following day before the match.
The Angel Grove team was pretty happy. Even though they might end up losing the game to Virginia Tech, they got to play in Madison Square Garden, which is known as the most famous arena in the World. New York was definitely the place to be and they were happy that they were there. This would defenetly be an intriguing match with a lot of tans in the stands. After all, this was MSG in NY.
--------------------------------------- Friday, March 14 -----------------------------------------
CBS and ESPN cameras started to roll as the Angel Grove Rangers and the Virginia Tech Hokies started to practice at MSG. The fans were already in the stadium, with some just arriving.
ESPN was having their pre game show as they were getting ready to talk about the game and what the analysts thought the outcome would be.
Scott Junior: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the ESPN pregame show. In about fifteen minutes, the Angel Grove Rangers will take on the Virginia Tech Hokies. Though before we get to further analysis, we want to apologize for something that we did on Selection Sunday. Duke is in the south for the men's tournament and in the Midwest for the girls. We got the information wrong as you probably noticed and we are sorry. The UCon Huskies are the number one seeded teams in the Midwest for the girls and in the east for the guys. Now to get on to our analysis of the game. Who do you guys believe will win this game?"
Nick Scotts: "My choice is the Virginia Tech Hokies. They are the far more superior team in offense and defense. Sure, the Angel Grove Rangers are much faster than Virginia and Angel Grove caught fire in the end of the season, but I don't believe that they can beat the Virginia Tech Hokies."
Vince Smith: "Come on, Angel Grove has some potential, but they don't have nearly enough fire power to stop Robert Krabbendam and Terrance Vinson. My choice is the Virginia Tech Hokies. I am sorry for the Angel Grove Rangers, but I don't think that they can make it to the next round."
Scott Junior: "I'll have to go with your choices. I think that Virginia Tech is the better team. I think that Angel Grove University has the talent to stop Virginia Tech. Though what does Angel Grove need to do to have any chance to win this game?"
Nick: "Their center, Sky Tate has to be hot the whole game. He has to avoid foul trouble and make his presence known to the other team. That will be the real key for the Angel Grove Rangers."
Vince: "For me their shooting guard and lead scorer, Conner McKnight has to catch on fire early and keep it like that the whole game. He needs to take control of the game for the Angel Grove Rangers in order for them to stand any chance of winning. Though Sky Tate has to be on fire as well."
Scott: "Well that wraps up the show for us everybody. The Angel Grove Rangers are going to take on the Virginia Tech Hokies right now on CBS. The tip off will be in about five minutes. Highlights and results from the game on ESPN. Enjoy the game everybody."
CBS cameras then started rolling on the floor at Madison Square Garden, as the Virginia Tech Hokies were about to take on the Angel Grove Rangers.
The camera was first focused on the Virginia Tech Hokies showing Robert Krabbendam and Terrance Vinson with some talking in the background. The camera then switched to the Angel Grove Rangers and their team practicing.
Billy Crawford: "There is Conner McKnight. The PAC 10 conference player of the year. He will have to be on fire if Angel Grove has a chance to win. We will be right back after these messages."
Some commercials appeared on the TVs and then CBS returned.
Billy Crawford: "The game is about to start up right now, Lets look at the teams quickly before the tip off."
Jean Smith: "For the Virginia Tech Hokies starting at point guard and their lead scorer is Jamon Gordon, at center is Robert Krabbendam, at shooting guard is Marcus Travis, at power forward is Terrance Vinson, and at short forward is Deron Washington."
Jack Andrews: "Starting for the Angel Grove Rangers. At point guard, Jack Landers. Starting at short forward is Ethan James. Starting at power forward is Shane Clark. At center is Sky Tate and at shooting guard and the PAC 10 conference player of the year is Conner McKnight."
The tip off began as Sky Tate knocked the ball back into Jack Landers' hands. He quickly found Shane open in the paint and threw it to him. Shane slammed it down for two points.
Billy Crawford: "Virginia Tech is going to have to play better defense than that in order to win. They have the better team, but no one should be allowing a slam dunk on the first play of the game."
Marcus Travis tried to pass it to Jamon Gordon, but Jack intercepted the pass and threw it to Sky Tate. Sky ran all the way down the lane and slammed it into the basket with one hand.
Jean Smith: "I know that Travis is a rookie, but he shouldn't be making a mistake like that. Two slam dunks to start off the game for Angel Grove and this is not a good sign for the Hokies."
The game progressed as both teams became restless. The Rangers took the early fourteen to six lead, but Sky Tate fouled two times in the opening six minutes of the game forcing him to sit down. With out Sky Tate being there to guard Krabbendam he was easily scoring and out-rebounding both Shane Clark and Ethan James. This allowed his team to go on a seventeen to three run, putting the Hokies up by a score of twenty-three to seventeen. The Rangers' coach TJ Johnson saw enough and called a time out.
TJ: "What the hell is happening out there!? You guys were up by eight and now you are getting creamed like we did the last time! Just because Sky isn't in the game doesn't mean that you should be getting beaten this badly. Oh god! Bridge you are getting into this game for Jamal. Jamal you did a nice job backing up Sky, but we need to try something different. Come on guys, if we play Rangers' style we can put ourselves back in this. Watch out for Krabbendam, but don't always triple team him. They are great from the perimeter with Gordon."
The time out was over and the teams retook the floor. TJ motivated his team well as the Rangers played Ranger style. Conner made a three point shot after a quick pass by Jack to cut the lead to three. While Jamal was taking the ball down the court, Jack stole it from him and threw it down to Conner who not only slammed the ball in, but also got fouled on the play. Conner nailed the free throw shot and the game was tied and twenty-three all.
Billy Crawford: "This might look like bad news for the Hokies. Not only have the Rangers have tied up the game, but also it looks like Conner McKnight has caught on fire. Bad news for any team playing the Rangers."
Vinson drove inside to the paint and tried to put it in, but Ethan got a perfect jump and blocked the ball. He threw it to Jack. Jack, Conner, and Bridge were driving down the court. It was a three on one situation and the ball kept on being thrown around. The ball eventually went into the hands of Bridge Carson and he put the ball in the basket, giving Angel Grove a twenty-five to twenty-three lead.
The rest of the half was pretty much an even to even battle. A few minutes before the first half was over Sky came back into the game, but he wasn't a real big factor. With nineteen seconds remaining on the shot clock Gordon took a quick three point shot that put up the Hokies by one. With nine seconds remaining the Rangers were driving down the court, but Sky's last second dunk attempt was blocked.
Billy Crawford: "So the second half has come to a close. The Hokies currently lead the game by a score of thirty-six to thirty-five."
As CBS switched to another station the teams were taking their halftime break. In the Hokies' locker room their coach, Seth Greenberg, was talking about how his team could beat Angel Grove if they slowed them down. He was a bit upset that his team allowed Angel Grove to come back into the game and how it was a close one.
In the Rangers' locker room it was a bit of a different story. TJ Johnson was upset that his team was lacking in defense and that Sky couldn't avoid foul trouble. Krabbendam was giving the Angel Grove Rangers so much trouble with out Sky blocking him. He already managed to score fifteen points and only had one foul. TJ was expressing to his team his need for them to come up bigger on defense.
TJ: "Guys, I am thinking of not starting Sky for the second half of the game. Krabbendam is killing us and we need to play him and the rest of their team with great defense. If I put Sky in and if he were to commit another foul, it wouldn't be good. We need to stop him and the perimeter defense. Man to man isn't working so well as we need to double team Krabbendam and then Gordon or Vinson find away to break free and bank the ball in. Try zone and help each other out. We are only down by one-point guys. We still have a fighting chance."
Halftime ended soon afterwards as the teams took to the courts again and after some shooting around to get warmed up again each team put on their five players and began playing again.
Billy Crawford: "Well Angel Grove seems to be trying something a little bit different. They are starting Jamal Robinson at the center position instead of Sky Tate, their starting center. Interesting move considering that Angel Grove is down by only one point, it is the start of the second half, and because Sky Tate only has committed two fouls so far."
Jean Smith: "Well, I don't know what TJ is thinking but Angel Grove better be rolling on all cylinders because if they lose TJ will be the easy blame for the loss."
The game started again and Angel Grove felt like the first few minutes were taking forever as they were getting creamed. With out Sky Tate guarding Krabbendam and with Vinson becoming hot from the line in addition to a lot of missed shots by the Rangers, the Hokies went on a fifteen to two run which increased their lead by fourteen points.
Billy Crawford: "Well I guess TJ is going to have to do a lot to make his decision look wiser as Virginia Tech is killing Angel Grove just like they did when both teams played each other in the Rangers' Arena during the regular season. They are currently losing by a score of fifty-one to thirty-seven,"
TJ called another time out, but decided against saying anything to the team. Instead he just pointed out that Sky Tate would enter the game for Jamal and that was it. To the Rangers' it was very apparent that TJ wasn't happy with the defense they were playing and they weren't going to complain. They knew that unless they tightened up their defense that they wouldn't be able to come back into the game.
Jack Andrews: "Well that doesn't look very good for these Rangers. TJ didn't say a word the whole time out. It is evident that he is pretty pissed off with his team's defense, but I think some of the blame must go back to him. After all he was the one that didn't put Sky in to block Krabbendam."
The game started up again and Angel Grove knew the defect that they had to overcome to end up winning the game. They were down by fourteen with twelve minutes left in the game. They all knew that this was definitely game time.
Ethan James tried to inbound the ball to Jack Landers, but the inbound pass was stolen by Deron Washington. Washington tried to throw the ball to Marcus Travis so Travis could put it in, but Sky Tate saw the move coming and jumped up in the air and stole the ball back before it could get to Travis.
Sky quickly threw the ball to Ethan, who placed it back down in the basket. Thirty seconds had been erased from the clock. So now it was fifty-one to thirty-nine for the Hokies with eleven minutes and thirty seconds remaining on the shot clock.
Angel Grove quickly went to zone defense hoping that they could get the ball back with out allowing the other team to score. Shane saw a pass coming and stole the ball. He threw it down to Jack who was able to go all the way to the basket and put the ball in, which cut the deficit down to ten points. Then after a missed shot by Gordon and a quick three point shot by Conner McKnight, the Rangers were only down by seven points.
Billy Crawford: "Well it seems as Angel Grove is starting to heat up again and at the right time. They are on a seven and o run which has cut the deficit to just seven points. They are currently trailing by a score of fifty-one to forty-four."
From there both teams each scored ten points in seven minutes with the Hokies up sixty-four to fifty-one at the end of the seven minutes. Though as the game was coming to a close, the Rangers were down by seven points. They only had three minutes left to tie or end of winning the game. Their season looked liked it was very close to being over.
At the start of the remanding four minutes of the game Krabbendam got the ball from Gordon and got fouled as he was slamming the ball in. He went to the line and missed the free throw, but nonetheless did the basket put the Hokies up by nine.
Conner McKnight responded by putting in a quick three point shot that spun around the basket before it went in, which cut the deficit to just six points. After a missed shot by Krabbendam, Shane's lay up cut the deficit down to just four points. Another missed shot by Vinson and a wide-open dunk by Sky Tate cut the deficit down to just two points.
With a minute left on the shot clock Gordon missed another shot and Jack quickly ran down the lane and threw the ball into the basket for two points. At this point in the game the Angel Grove fans were going nuts after their team went down from a fourteen-point deficit to tie up the game.
Jack Andrews: "Incredible, the Angel Grove University Rangers have gone down from a fourteen-point deficit to tie up the game. It looks like Seth Greenberg will call another time out. The Hokies have two time outs remaining."
After the time out the Hokies went back on to the floor and executed their plan perfectly. The only difference between the shot clock and game clock was about four seconds. So they waited until then and then fed the ball to Gordon who knocked down a two point jump shot.
Billy Crawford: "Ladies and Gentlemen, that might be the dagger for Angel Grove. They need to put in a shot in the next four seconds or this game is over."
Sky Tate in-bounded the pass to Jack who took no time throwing it to Conner McKnight who was at the other half of the court. With two seconds remaining Conner knew that he didn't have enough time to drive to the basket and put the ball in so he took a three point shot.
The ball kept on swerving around the basket as Conner and every one else in Madison Square Garden was in suspense. If Conner successfully knocked down a three point shot Angel Grove would win the game, but if not then they would lose it. For the Rangers and the Hokies it felt like the ball was swerving around the basketball rim forever. Each player looked intense and nervous about the outcome as the ball finally stop spinning and fell right into the basket. The game was over and the Angel Grove Rangers won it all.
Billy Crawford: "Holy God! This game is over, the Rangers from Angel Grove have upset the Hokies from Virginia Tech. Angel Grove is moving on to the round of thirty two!"
Jack Andrews: "Wow, this game really came down to the last second. Conner McKnight hit a three point shot just a second before the buzzer. This game really came down to the wire."
Jean Smith: "Yeah and the Rangers from Angel Grove will play the winner of the Pitt and Holly Cross game."
After the game was over all of players went to their locker room. The Hokies were upset that they lost, but the Rangers were happy. They knew that they still had a long and rough road ahead of them, but for now they were happy that they were able to upset a really good team like Virginia Tech.