Before you read this chapter, here are some quick notes...
High School Basketball has four 8-minute quarters for each 4 periods, and unlike pro-basketball and college basketball it does not have a 24-second, 30-second nor 35-second shot-clock because of a state-by-state rule for high school basketball (information of the state-by-state shot-clock rule in high-school basketball will come soon).
And also, when you see this: (8:00; 1Q), (7:59; 1Q) ... I have put a time-limit and quarter number on every start of the paragraph as it signals the time remaining in the game by every quarter per live play. This is something I will be doing for now on. But keep in mind if you know basketball, every play per paragraph happens in a fast-normal pace. So along with the timer (minus the quarter number), you have to just visualize every play per paragraph in a fast-normal pace.
Chapter 12
Sonic & Amy's First Varsity Game
Wednesday has arrive as it's game day of the first regular-season game for the 2013-2014 high school basketball season for these male and female student-athletes of Knothole High School. For Sonic and Amy, it will be their first Varsity basketball game, as freshmen. These two hoopers didn't expect they will be on the Varsity roster that quickly and becoming starters for their teams. As it shows, hard work pays off.
This game, is a home game for Knothole High. Inside the gymnasium is about 900 people from local fans, students and faculty members watching and attending this game, of the 1,300 seating capacity inside the gymnasium. Many people don't know how this game will turned out, even though it's the first regular-season game, they just have to see it for themselves from their own two eyes.
For toady's game, Knothole High's boys and girls are hosting Bradford High School home of the Tigers located at the east side of Atlanta, Georgia. The girls will play first while the boys will chill with their music in their ears and watch the girls play.
For Bradford High's girls, they have decent-elite size on their roster with their guards around 5'4" to 5'9" and forwards and centers around 6'0" to 6'2" with a twelve women roster (in basketball term); not bad for a girls high school basketball team with that kind of size in their roster. Their playing style is a Balance offensive set; they like to keep their offense at a slow pace in half-court and the only time they'll play fast is when their coach lets them. Which isn't bad if you know basketball. On defense, the like to do 2-3 zone; their coach will let them go man if it's the right time to do that.
-Inside Knothole High's Gymnasium: 6:00 PM-
(Inside the girls' locker room)
Inside the girls' locker room is where the girls are getting ready by suiting up for their first regular-season game against Bradford High's Lady Tigers. Their brand as a team is sponsored by Nike: to their uniforms, warm-up attire, team shoes, team short-sleeved shooting-shirts, and their basketballs.
For their uniforms, it's colored white (as the main color for home games) and blue (as the secondary color for road games), with the front of their jersey titled "Knothole" and the back of their jersey up top titled "Lady Warriors" colored blue including having the numbers from the front to back colored blue, the Nike symbol is on the right-hand side of their jersey and at the thigh section on the left side, the blue color has stripes at the collar, and thin stripes on the side from their jersey to their shorts. And for their short-length, it's around 7 to 9 inches long.
For their warm-up attire, it's a long-sleeved no-hooded zip-up jacket colored royal blue with the Nike symbol colored white. For their short-sleeved shooting-shirts, it's colored blue at the chest and arm area and white at the stomach area. For their team shoes, it's the high-top Lebron X's colored white and blue. For their basketballs, the type of basketballs they have is a Nike Elite Championship Airlock Leather Indoor Basketball - it's the type of basketball that has patten grip and lets the air inside the ball stays inflated with a cap inserted to prevent the ball losing air. And for the unexpected, they have Nike Elite socks white and blue stripped (at the Achilles area) for home games and blue and white stripped (at the Achilles area) for road games.
The girls each picked out the jersey-number to wear: Julie-Su picked number 0, Bunnie picked number 50, Barby picked number 15, Hershey picked number 24, Hope picked number 10, Ciara picked number 32, Lien-Da picked number 34, Honey picked number 30, Nic picked number 7, Sally picked number 11, Wave picked number 1, and Amy picked number 3.
It's no surprise for Amy because number 3 is from her favorite player, Allen Iverson.
After the girls picked out their number, they each started to suit up: putting their uniforms on first, tying their hair or dreadlocks in a ponytail, and some putting on the gear they will wear for the season. Amy, from the gear she bought from the mall the other day, wearing a grey and white no-sleeve McDavid padded vest underneath her jersey, white and grey Nike padded girdle underneath her shorts, white sleeved McDavid knee pads at her knees, and white and blue Nike Elite Socks. Julie-Su wearing a white Nike Pro Combat Elbow-Padded Arm Sleeve on her left arm, white and grey Nike Pro Combat Football girdle underneath her shorts (you'll know why she, as a female, is wearing that soon), white sleeved McDavid knee pads at her knees, and blue and white Nike Elite Socks. Bunnie wearing small white wristbands on both of her wrists, white tight compression no-padded girdle underneath her shorts, and white sleeved knee pads on both of her knees. Lien-Da, Barby, and the rest of the girls are wearing the white tight compression shorts underneath their shorts.
After they put on their uniforms, their gear, and their shooting shirts, all the girls gathered around Coach Vanilla (who's wearing a white polo shirt with the school logo at the left side of the chest area, light brown khaki pants, and black flats) and Coach Rosemary (who's also wearing a white polo shirt with the school logo at the left side of the chest area, but has black khaki pants, and low-top Shell Toe Adidas), where they are located at the white marker board discussing the game plan, and each took a seat.
Coach Vanilla went silent for a moment and looked at her players. "Now ladies," she spoke, "be true to yourselves... Are y'all nervous?"
All of the girls, including Amy, spoke and explained they are nervous while some are kinda nervous. For Amy you may wonder, she's nervous but confident of her game and for her teammates.
Coach Vanilla smirked and nodded. "Okay," she said, "I asked y'all that 'cus it's always like that when playing the first game of the regular season. Starting game one today, is the chance to prove who y'all are as a team and what y'all do as a team. For today's game, I want y'all to start off in a slow pace; the only time that we'll start running, is when to think it's the right time to go out and run. Last but not least, know your roles, play hard and smart, and most importantly..., know... how... to play the game of basketball, ladies. Lets go."
All the girls got up from their seats. Julie-Su and Wave each grab a Nike basketball (with Coach Rosemary carrying the rest of the Nike basketballs in a ball bag), and they all walked out from their locker room, to the hallway, into the two double-doors of where their gymnasium is at, also where they will present themselves of how they'll come out as a team. But first, they must wait until a warm-up song comes on.
Down at the other side of the double-doors, Bradford High's Lady Tigers came out first and presented themselves of how they come out as a team - six players running to the sideline and the other six players (totaling twelve) running to the baseline all the way to center-court and dabbed. Their team colors are green, yellow and white and their team shoes are the high-top 2014 Nike Hyperdunks.
For the Lady Warriors however, they are still lined up waiting for the song to drop. Three seconds later, an instrumental rap song Karate Chop by Future came on and the Lady Warriors all jogged inside their gymnasium and present themselves how they come out as a team.
As previously stated, inside the gymnasium is about 900 people from local fans, students and faculty members watching and attending this game, of the 1,300 seating capacity inside the gymnasium. Many people don't know how this game will turned out, even though it's the first regular-season game, they just have to see it for themselves from their own two eyes.
Five minutes are now ticking down as the two teams are now warming up of doing lay-up line and shooting drills. Thirty seconds have reached as the two teams all jogged to their benches as the five starters form two teams, each took off their shooting-shirts and sat on the bench to hear their names called. While the seven other players stand up side-by-side and low/high five to the starters.
The PA Announcer Principle Mrs. Lupe Belafonte, who keeps up with the players' name, fouls and the score in the score book, makes the announcement. "May I have your attention please, ...The GHSA and its member schools have made a commitment to promote good sportsmanship by student-athletes, coaches, and spectators at all GHSA sanctioned events. Profanity, degrading remarks, and intimidating actions directed at officials or competitors will not be tolerated, and are grounds for removal from the event site. Spectators are not allowed to enter the competition area during warm-ups or while the contest is being conducted. Thank you for your cooperation in the promotion of good sportsmanship at today's event."
That statement Mrs. Lupe addressed, represents the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) for every official in every sport in high school to hear before every game starts.
Mrs. Lupe continues, "Now for the starting line-ups for the visiting Lady Tigers of Bradford High School,
"At (Point) Guard, the senior, number 10 Nikki Thomas." Nikki got up, high five her teammates, and shook hands to the three officials. Her physical appearance is at 5'4" with the playing-weight of 152 pounds, has light pale Caucasian skin with a B-cup breast size, blond hair (that's tied into a ponytail) that stops at her shoulders, and blue eyes. Her basketball attire is McDavid knee pads colored black and white tube socks.
"At (Power) Forward, the junior, number 24 Monica Stewart." Monica got up, high five her teammates, and shook hands to the three officials. Her physical appearance is at 5'11" with the playing-weight of 172 pounds, has brown skin with a C-cup breast size, black hair (that's tied into a ponytail) that stops at her shoulders, and brown eyes. Her basketball attire is McDavid knee pads colored black and black tube socks.
"At (Shooting) Guard, the senior, number 5 Jazmine Aaralyn." Jazmine got up, high five her teammates, and shook hands to the three officials. Her physical appearance is at 5'10" with the playing-weight of 154 pounds, has brown skin with a C-cup breast size, black hair (that's tied into a ponytail) that stops at her shoulders. Her basketball attire is McDavid arm sleeve with a built-in elbow pad colored black and white tube socks.
"At Center, the sophomore, number 34 Regina Smith." Regina got up, high five her teammates, and shook hands to the three officials. Her physical appearance is at 6'1" with the playing-weight of 182 pounds, with light pale skin and purple dreadlocks (in a ponytail) that stops at her shoulders. Her basketball attire is McDavid sleeved knee pads colored black and white tube socks. (A/N: You thought it was gonna be Regina Ferrum, didn't you?)
"And at (Small) Forward, the junior, number 1 Stacy Young." Stacy got up, high five her teammates and shook hands to the three officials. Her physical appearance is at 5'11" with the playing-weight of 162 pounds, has dark Caucasian skin with a B-cup breast size, black hair (that's ted into a ponytail) that stops at her shoulders, and brown eyes. Her basketball attire is McDavid knee pads colored black and black tube socks.
"The head coach for the Lady Tigers is Lisa Banner. The assistant is Nicole Thomas." Coach Lisa Banner has light Caucasian skin with a B-cup breast size, green eyes, and brown colored hair that stops at her shoulders; her coaching attire is a black polo shirt with the school logo on the left side of the chest area, light brown khaki pants, and low-top Shell Toe Adidas. Coach Nicole Thomas has light pale Caucasian skin with a C-cup breast size, light brown-colored hair stopping below her neck, and purple eyes; her coaching attire is a white dress shirt with lightweight black colored sports jacket, black khaki pants, and three inch black heels.
The rest of the players of Bradford High's Lady Tigers are: Brandy Lewis, Jody Bing, Carla Caden, Marry Moore, Katie Jones, Lola Smith, and Alexis Jones. Their physical appearance will appear soon.
Mrs. Lupe Wolf will now announce the starting line-up for the Lady Warriors of Knothole High. "And now, the starting line-ups for our Lady Warriors, ...
"At (Small) Forward, the senior, number 15 Barby Kadyn." Barby got up, high five her teammates, and shook hands to the three officials.
"At (Point) Guard, the sophomore, number 0 Julie-Su Avyanna." Julie got up, high five her teammates, and shook hands to the three officials.
"At Center, the junior, number 50, Bunnie Charleigh." Bunnie got up, high five her teammates, and shook hands to the three officials.
"At (Power) Forward, the junior, number 34 Lien-Da Avyanna." Lien-Da got up, high five her teammates, and shook hands to the three officials.
"And at (Shooting) Guard, the freshman, number 3 Amy Rose." Amy, with jitters, got up, high five her teammates, and shook hands to the three officials.
"The head coach for the Lady Warriors is Daleen (Vanilla) Honbria. The assistant is Rosemary Prower."
(8:00; 1Q) The two teams huddled at their benches and broke, as the starting five from both teams walked on the court, shook each others hands, and stood at the spots they stand at - Bunnie and Regina at center court, behind Bunnie is Amy behind Jazmine at one end of the court, Lien-Da and Monica next to each other between the half-court line, Barby and Stacy also next to each other between the half-court line, and behind Regina is Nikki in front of Julie-Su. The referee walks to center-court between Bunnie and Regina, holding Knothole's game ball, bounces the ball two times then tossing it up; both Bunnie and Regina jumped, the ball got tipped to Julie-Su as Bunnie won the tip, and the first high school regular-season game has began.
(7:59; 1Q) Julie-Su dribbles up-court at the middle while being guarded by Nikki seven yards away and seeing the Lady Tigers playing man-to-man defense, while also seeing Amy at the right side of the court at the three-point line, Lien-Da at the right-corner of the three-point line, Bunnie at the left-elbow of the free-throw line, and Barby at the left side of the three-point line. Julie gives it to Barby (who catches it and brings the ball up high, while Stacy is guarding her) as Julie cuts to the middle of the free-throw line with Bunnie setting the screen, and sets a screen for her sister Lien-Da. Lien-Da ran her defender into the screen her sister, Julie-Su, made as she goes to the left block, Bunnie going to the right side of the mid-range area, Julie-Su going to the right-corner three-point line, and Amy taking five steps back from the right side of the three-point line.
(7:49; 1Q) Lien-Da fronted Monica for post position, calling for it; Barby throws the ball to Lien-Da as she catches it and feels the right hand of Monica's on the right side of her lower back while also looking at the Lady Tiger's man-to-man defense seeing Stacy, Barby's man, at the left elbow of the free throw line. Lien-Da later faces-up on Monica and did some pump fakes that got Monica put her left arm up; she later jab-steps with her left foot to fake the baseline-drive seeing Monica bite at; Lien-Da right-hand dribbles to the paint with Monica trailing; she sees Stacy coming as Lien-Da picks-up her dribble and cuffs the ball with her left hand taking two steps, then jumping up with her left foot throwing the shot up with her right hand - with two box-out battles inside the paint, . . . . . and missed.
(7:42; 1Q) The ball bounced off of the back of the rim as Stacy grabs her 1st rebound of the game; looks around and sees Nikki at her left and throws it to her. Already with Knothole running up-court to get on defense, Nikki receives the pass and left-hand walk-dribbles up-court seeing the Lady Warriors also in man-to-man defense.
(7:39; 1Q) Nikki reaches to the middle of the half-court with Julie-Su on-balling three feet away. Nikki later throws the ball to the right at Jazmine as Nikki walks closer to the three-point line; Jazmine catches it and gets in a triple-threat position with Amy on-balling three feet away, she jab-steps with her right foot at Amy but she didn't bite at it; she looks to her right seeing Stacy off-balled three feet away from Barby and Lien-Da and Monica at the mid-range area. Jazmine later palms the ball with her right hand before telling her teammates to spread out; she backs up right-hand dribbling then points at Regina motioning her to come at the three-point line at Amy's left side. Regina comes up as Bunnie stays at the mid-range area because she's not a three point shooter, Nikki throws it to her and catches it. As Nikki jogs to the free-throw line with Amy following her as Monica, while being guarded by Lien-Da, comes to the middle of the three-point line and Regina throws the ball to her. Monica catches it, faces up with the ball above her head, and viewing the court. She looks to her left and sees Barby behind her teammate Stacy as she's setting a screen on Amy to free her teammate Jazmine. Jazmine goes to the screen set by her teammate Stacy with Amy dodging it to guard her man, Monica throws the ball to Jazmine and catches it from three-point range, gets in a triple-threat position and sees Amy coming to close out. She pulls up for three with box-out battles inside the paint, . . . . . and missed.
(7:29; 1Q) The ball bounced on the back of the rim as it tallies to the middle of the perimeter as Amy grabs her 1st rebound of her varsity high school basketball career. After Amy grab the rebound, she took a quick glance down court and sees an opening at the middle, and takes off by dribbling with her right hand. She spits the two defenders, Monica and Regina, from center-court with burst of speed, already reaches to the paint and lifts off from her left foot, backscratches the ball behind her neck, and finished strong with the two-hand jam. Getting her first 2 points of the game and for her arsity high school basketball career.
Knothole 2, Bradford 0.
Time Down Possession... Knothole 17, Bradford 7. 4:20 left in the first quarter.
The Lady Warriors of Knothole High are playing a good game so far with there style of basketball. The girls are playing hard and playing smart. Julie-Su is the leading scorer so far with 10 points along with 3 assists. Amy, so far, isn't trying to do much as she now has 6 points, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 rebound, as she's clearly letting her game come to her, since it's only her first Varsity basketball game. For the rest of the Lady Warriors, Bunnie and Lien-Da haven't scored yet as they are being the anchors of the defensive end and grabbing rebounds, Barby has only 2 points, but is playing defense and grabbing rebounds; the reserves are doing okay so far, nothing fancy just doing their job.
The Lady Warriors now have the ball after the missed shot went out-of-bounds off of Jazmine's three-point attempt. Lien-Da and Amy came as Lien-Da will inbound the ball to Amy. Lien-Da got the ball from the referee and inbound it to Amy.
(4:20; 1Q) Amy catches it, faces up on her man Jazmine and gets low; she then crosses through the legs to her right, does a slow in-&-out move, takes off with Jazmine trailing. They reached to the left side of the half-court as Amy uses her left arm to protect her dribble as Jazmine puts her hands up and kinda moved out of the way to not get a foul. Amy, while still dribbling, sees she's behind Jazmine and continues to dribble all the way to the wide-open painted-area with Regina at the right elbow of the free-throw line. Amy spins and gathers, stops and sees she's close to the rim, rises up high off two feet and puts the ball up high, and jams it in with two hands. Getting point number 8.
"OOOOOOOHHHH! AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Cheers the Knothole High crowd.
Knothole 19, Bradford 7.
(4:12; 1Q) Monica, after the dunk by Amy, grabs the ball and inbounds it to Jazmine. Jazmine receives the inbound-pass and dribbles up-court.
(4:09; 1Q) Jazmine reaches to the middle of the half-court with Amy on-balling three feet away. Jazmine dribbles to the right side of the half-court towards the three-point line seeing Regina at the right block fronting Bunnie for post position. Jazmine stops and picks up her dribble with Amy not closing-out to her as she knows the ball is going to the post, and [Jazmine] lobs it to Regina; Regina catches it with her left hand gathering it, as Jazmine backs up four steps to her left and Amy inside the perimeter doing ball-you-man.
(4:02; 1Q) At the right block with Regina and Bunnie. Regina feels Bunnie's left hand at the left side lf her lower back. She leans back that made Bunnie took her hand off of her back, as Regina sees the man-to-man defense of Knothole High and realized she can't go to the basket. She throws the ball back out to Jazmine, she catches it and sees Amy three feet away from her, pulls up for three with three box-out battles inside the paint, . . . . . and missed.
(3:55; 1Q) The ball bounced on the front of the rim as Lien-Da skies high for her 1st rebound, looks to her left seeing Amy and throws it to her. With Bradford running up-court to get on defense, Amy catches it and right-hand speed-dribbles up-court to the right side of the court.
She crosses to the right side of the half-court with Jazmine on-balling three feet away; Lien-Da (who was behind Amy) later comes setting a pick to the left on Jazmine, Amy dribbles to her left going to the pick with Jazmine going underneath the pick; Amy doesn't see an opening this time on the defense but does see Jazmine closing out to on-ball defend as Amy steps back with a hesitation move seeing she three feet of space; picks-up her dribble and pulls up for three with Jazmine coming to jump and contest or block her shot, Amy releases it out of her hand and holds up her right arm, felt the bump from Jazmine and (*whistle blued*) . . . . . and makes it. As that gives Amy 11 points and Jazmine her 1st foul of the game.
Knothole 22, Bradford 7.
After the three-point shot by Amy, she still held up her right arm with a grin on her face, with her teammates congratulating her giving her dabs. And with Amy holding up three fingers from her same hand and does the Carmelo Anthony three-finger sided-headed jabs three times. She walks to the free-throw line, with Regina, Bunnie and Jazmine to the left, Monica, Lien-Da and Stacy and the right, Julie-Su and Nikki at the left side of the three-point line, and Barby at the right side of the three-point line.
The referee walks underneath the basket holding the basketball, puts his left hand up showing one finger signaling one shot for everybody, and later threw the bounce-pass to Amy.
Amy catches it and does her free-throw routine: looks down then spins the ball on her left hand, puts the ball underneath her chin then looks up at the rim taking three dribbles, took one last dribble then bend her knees glancing at the rim for eight seconds, brings her shooting form up with her right dominant hand and releases it with a textbook shooting form, ... ...and hits nothing but net. That now gives Amy 12 points as she and the rest of her teammates jogs up-court to get on defense
Knothole 23, Bradford 7.
(3:49; 1Q) Regina, after the made free-throw by Amy, grabs the ball and inbounds it to Jazmine. (3:48; 1Q) Jasmine receives the inbound-pass and left-hand jog-dribbles up-court.
Jazmine reaches to the middle of the half-court with Amy on-balling three feet away. Jazmine later passes the ball to the right side of the court towards Stacy; Stacy catches it with Barby on-balling three feet away as Jazmine (with Amy following) is cutting to the middle of the paint as Stacy sees she's not nowhere-near open. Stacy later gets into a triple-threat position with Barby still on-balling three feet away as she calls Regina, who was at the right elbow of the free-throw line, to set a pick to the right. Regina (with Bunnie following) comes and sets a pick towards Barby's left side. Stacy goes to the pick towards the right baseline as Bunnie rotates to Stacy; Stacy later looked to her right seeing Nikki and gives it to her. Nikki catches it seeing Stacy cutting to the basket with Barby following her signaling to Nikki she's not open.
(3:39; 1Q) Nikki gets in a triple-threat position as she's being guarded by Julie-Su. Nikki checks her defensive-stance and sees she's in a front position and the Lady Warrior's man-to-man defense and sees it's aligned perfectly to stop the dribble penetration. She later takes slow-speed dribble to the middle of the front-court and later sees Julie backing her off from six feet. She looks at Regina and tells her to come to the elbow of the free-throw line on Julie's left side and later looks to her left and sees Amy and Barby at the right close to the paint at the close-range area. By keeping her dribble low with her right hand, she walks up to Julie-Su, slowly dribbles to the right and sees her going to the pick, and quickly does a crossover to her left now driving to the paint. She later does a hop-step by cuffing the ball in traffic between Amy and Barby from her left and Bunnie from her right-
(3:30; 1Q) Amy stripped it from the left side as Amy gathers the ball and holds it - getting steal number 1. She did that because she couldn't go cost-to-cost down court.
Amy, after seeing all of the players running/jogging up-court, left-hand jog-dribbles up-court. She later reached to the middle of the half-court stopping towards three-point range, sees the opening inside the painted-area and attacks; Amy sees Regina in the paint and spins to her right before picking-up her dribble, goes up with her right hand then softly throws it off the glass and scores. Getting point number 14.
Knothole 25, Bradford 7.
Coach Lisa Banner of the Bradford Lady Tiges had enough and (*whistle blued*) calls a timeout. The Knothole Lady Warriors so far are running away with it, even though it's only the first quarter. The two teams each walked to their benches as the Lady Tigers of Bradford High are getting sloppy and the Lady Warriors of Knothole High's reserves are congratulating to the starters.
Time Down Possession... Knothole 31, Bradford 17. 8:00 to start the 2nd quarter.
Both teams were playing good so far by playing their style of basketball in the first quarter. For the Knothole Lady Warriors, for a run-and-gun team they were playing hard and smart offensively and defensively, they ran the pick and roll/pop in the first quarter, hitting shots that they know they can hit, and being smart both on offense and defense. For the Bradford Lady Tigers, for a slow-pace offensive team they were setting up their offense a half-court and were executing their plays, even though they are only down by fourteen (31 to 17). Hey they want to see how it will set up for the tempo of this game.
The leading scorers are Julie-Su with 18 points and Nikki with 12 points. The assists leaders are Julie-Su with 4 and Monica with 3. The leading rebounders are Lien-Da and Bunnie both with 6 rebounds and Regina with 5. What about Amy Rose you may wonder, she still has 14 points of 9 of 12 (75%) shooting from the perimeter and only 1 for 1 (100%) from both three-point range and the free-throw line, along with 3 rebounds, 1 assists, and 1 steal. As previously stated, she's really letting her game come to her, besides the fact that she's having a high shooting percentage in her first Varsity game as a freshman.
The second quarter is going to start with some new players on the court on both teams.
Knothole's five on the court...
PG: Sally
SG: Wave
SF: Amy
PF: Lien-Da
C: Honey
Bradford High's new five on the court...
PG: Brandy
SG: Stacy
SF: Monica
PF: Katie
C: Lola
Let's know Katie, Brandy, and Lola of Bradford High...
Katie Jones is a 6'1", 172 pound junior big/tall girl at the Forward position, and shoots with her right hand. Just like Nic and Mighty, she's a Hybrid Forward that can play either Small Forward or Power Forward. On offense, she is a scoring big who can shoot from the perimeter from mid-range to three-point range, but she's an average finisher in the paint in traffic. On defense, she's an average shot blocker and can move her feet to guard any Forward and sometimes a Shooting Guard. Her physical appearance has light pale with burnt orange medium length hair, and brown eyes. Her basketball attire is white long socks and team shoes.
Brandy Lewis is a 5'9", 144 pound junior Point Guard who shoots with her right hand. Just like Sally, she's a Pass-First Point Guard who is always setting up her teammates and looking for the open man, but can score when called upon. Her best ability is keeping her teammates involve of keeping their emotions (including hers) in check, being the leader on the floor, and knowing what play to run of how the defense is playing. On defense is where she sometimes struggle, she'll help out by rotating on the weak side, but her struggle is staying in-front of her defender because she's an average on-ball defender. Her physical appearance has dark brown skin, black medium length hair tied up in a ponytail, and green eyes. Her basketball attire is the team Nike Elite socks and team shoes.
Lola Smith is a 6'1", 177 pound senior big/tall girl at both Power Forward and Center who shoots with her right hand. Just like Honey, she's not a big-time scorer, but she'll score from close range and inside the paint. What she's known for is her rebounding effort, setting screens, defensive awareness of taking charges or blocking shots, and making hustle plays. Truly meaning, she's a blue-collar type of player. Her physical appearance has light skin, with dreadlocks (in a ponytail) colored dark red hanging down to her shoulders, and blue eyes. Her basketball attire is a built-in elbow padded arm sleeve on her left arm and Nike Elite team socks.
(8:00; 2Q) The two teams walked on the floor to resume the game and start the second quarter. The Bradford Lady Tigers will get the ball to start off the second quarter; as Lola will inbound the ball to Brandy from the baseline. (*Whistle blued*) The referee gave the ball to Lola as she inbound it to her Brandy (7:59; 2Q), and the second quarter begins.
(7:57; 2Q) Brandy left-hand dribbles to the middle of the half-court with Julie-Su on-balling five feet away. Brandy glances to her left and sees Stacy, throws a chest-pass to her but Amy Rose picks off the lazy pass with her right hand, and gathers it with her left hand as she took off down court freely, reaches to the paint, goes up off of her left foot and brings the ball up high with both hands, and safely finishes it with a slam dunk.
Knothole 32, Bradford 17.
Here's how Amy intercept that pass. When Brandy looked to her left at Stacy, she didn't think Amy will pick the pass off, because Stacy was at the right wing (right side) of the three-point line and Amy was at the mid-range area. What was Amy doing, she was doing ball-you-man. When Amy saw Brandy looked at Stacy, she stepped up a little, sees the pass coming, and picked it off and had a fast break-breakaway dunk down court. Good read and great steal by Amy Rose. That now gives Amy 16 points, along with 3 rebounds, 1 assists, and now 2 steals.
(7:52; 2Q) Brandy and Stacy both ran back down court to get the ball back as Amy jogs back down court to get back on defense. Stacy gets the ball to inbound on the left side, sees Brandy also on the left side and Amy jogged back down court and throws it to her-
(7:48; 2Q) Amy picks it off again, reaches the painted-area and goes up, and does a reverse lay-up with her left hand.
Knothole 34, Bradford 17.
Here's how Amy intercept that pass... again. After her breakaway dunk off a stolen pass she caused, she sees Stacy and Brandy jog down court to get the ball back and inbound. Amy took a quick glance at the inbounder (which was Stacy) and Brandy. Amy was behind Brandy of her left side, stops and picks off the inbound pass, and later know what happened next. That was one of those moves you just can't teach at times. That now gives Amy 18 points, along with 3 rebounds, 1 assists, and now 3 steals.
Time Down Possession... Knothole 40, Bradford 25. 4:30 left in the 2nd quarter.
The Knothole Lady Warriors ended up increasing their lead to fifteen by getting baskets on one end and defensive-stops on the other end. That's what Coach Vanilla preaches to her players, getting good defensive-stops and have momentum on offense by trusting one another, which makes the game so much easy and fun. For the Bradford Lady Tigers, (by looking at the score) they seem to be struggling on offense because of the Lady Warriors are playing fundamental-defense by still playing man-to-man.
The leading scorers for Knothole High is still Julie-Su as she now has 20 points, along with 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. What about Amy you may say, so far she still has 18 points, along with 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and 3 steals; it looks like she's taking over this game, but as previously stated, clearly she's letting her game come to her, since it's only her first Varsity basketball game.
For the rest of the Lady Warriors of Knothole High, the starters (which are Bunnie, Lien-Da, and Barby) are doing good. Bunnie has 11 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. For Barby, she isn't a factor of her scoring as she has only 6 points, but has 2 rebounds and 1 steal - so you're probably gonna say "she isn't doing anything" because of the statistics she has right now, what she really doing is being the defensive anchor on the perimeter because that's her specialty. Lien-Da scored 10 points, including 6 rebounds and 1 block - just like Barby (except that she plays inside the paint), she's also being the defensive anchor for her teammates.
Let's get back into the game shall we...
(4:30; 2Q) Knothole High has the ball after the made shot by Brandy Lewis of Bradford High. Lien-Da inbounds the ball to her half-sister Julie-Su. Julie receives it and dribbles, with her right hand, up-court and medium-speed. She crossed half-court as shes the Bradford Lady Tigers now playing 2-3 zone - with Brandy (left) and Stacy (right) up top, Lola in the middle of the paint, Monica at the left block, and Katie on the right block. Julie also looks at her teammates and sees Amy on the left wing of the three-point line, Bunnie at the middle of the free-throw line, Barby at the right corner of the three-point line, and her sister Lien-Da, who jogged back down court, stops 22 feet of the three-point line on the right wing.
(4:20; 2Q) Lien-Da and Julie-Su both looked at each other as Julie (still dribbling with her right hand) used her left arm and hand and points at Brandy's right, motioning her half-sister Lien-Da to set a pick to the left. Lien-Da went to where Brandy is at (which she's at the left side of the 2-3 zone) and sets a screen. Julie dribbled the ball to her left hand and goes to the screen, glances Brandy going to the screen and seeing her going underneath the screen, sees Amy moving up and Katie coming to close out onto Julie, Julie stops and gathers, turns and spins by using her left foot, and throws a chest-pass to Amy at the three-point area. Amy receives the pass from Julie-Su, gathers and squares herself, pulls up from three-point range, . . . . . and hits nothing but nylon.
Knothole 40, Bradford 25.
That now gives Amy Rose 21 points on 11 of 14 (78%) shooting from the perimeter and only 2 for 2 (100%) from both three-point range and 1 for 1 (100%) from the free-throw line, along with 3 rebounds, 1 assists, and 3 steals.
Sim to the end of the game...
The Knothole Lady Warriors come away with an easy victory over the Bradford Lady Tigers with the score - Knothole's 107, to Bradford's 60, blowing them out by forty-seven points. The Lady Warriors of Knothole High were playing great basketball of their style of play - by running and gunning and slowing down when need to (which is a good idea, if needed). For the starters, Julie-Su led the team in scoring with 29 points on 17 of 22 (77%) shooting on the perimeter, 2 of 3 (66%) from three-point range and 6 of 6 (100%) from the free-throw line; along with 8 assists, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals. Amy had 25 points on 13 of 25 (52%) shooting on the perimeter, 2 of 3 (66%) from three-point range and 6 of 6 (100%) from the free-throw line; along with 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals. Barby had 12 points on 5 of 7 (71%) shooting on the perimeter and 1 of 1 (100%) from the free-throw line; along with 7 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block. Lien-Da had 14 points on 4 of 8 (50%) shooting on the perimeter and inside the paint, along with 8 rebounds and 2 blocks. Bunnie also had 14 points on 4 of 8 (50%) shooting on the perimeter and inside the paint, but had 7 rebounds and 4 blocks. For the reserves, they played good as well - Wave led the reserves in scoring with 14 points (on 5 of 10 (100%) shooting on the perimeter) off the bench, along with 3 assists and 1 rebound. The rest of the reserves scored with single-digit points, as well as playing their role.
-After the Game: Inside the girls' locker room-
After the game, the girls went to their locker room and each congratulate themselves of an easy victory over the Lady Tigers of Bradford High.
Coach Vanilla later came in the locker room and address to her players. "Alright ladies great win today. I have nothing to say of how great y'all played. Now don't get too excited of y'all selves, we got a long way to go for the rest of this season. Bring it in."
The girls all gathered around Coach Vanilla. "Make sure everyone of ya go home safely and get out of trouble. If y'all want, y'all can watch the boys play. Okay Warriors on three. One, two, three..."
"WARRIORS." Said the girls.
The rest of the girls all started to pack their stuff and exited out of their locker room to either watched the boys play or go home. For Amy, she's gonna watch her boyfriend Sonic to see how well he'll play on his first Varsity basketball game.
-Inside Knothole High's Gymnasium: 8:00 PM-
When the fourth quarter struck during the girls' basketball game, Sonic and the boys got up out of their seats from the bleachers, and went straight into their locker room to get ready for their game against Bradford High's boys. Bradford High's boys are an up-tempo team that would like to get off a good start, their defense is sometimes 2-3 Zone or man-to-man, to start off with and/or switched into. For their size, their guards are around 5'8" to 6'1" (not bad) and their bigs are around 6'3" to 6'5" (still not bad)
(Inside the boys' locker room)
Inside the boys' locker room is where the guys are getting ready by suiting up for their first regular-season game against the boys of Bradford High's Tigers. Just like the girls, their brand as a team is sponsored by Nike - to their uniforms including their warm-up attire, team shoes, team short-sleeved shooting-shirts, and their basketballs.
For their uniforms, it's colored white (as the main color for home games) and blue (as the secondary color for road games), with the front of their jersey titled "Knothole" and the back of their jersey up top titled "Warriors" colored blue including having the numbers from the front to back colored blue. The Nike symbol is on the right-hand side of their jersey and at the thigh section on the left side, the blue color has stripes at the collar, and wide stripes on the side from their jersey to their shorts. The length of the boys' shorts are around 9 to 11 inches.
For their warm-up attire, it's a long-sleeved no-hooded zip-up jacket colored royal blue with the Nike symbol colored white. For their short-sleeved shooting-shirts, it's colored blue at the chest and arm area and white at the stomach area. For their team shoes, it's the high-top Nike Hyperdunks of 2014 colored white and blue. For their basketballs it's just like the girls, the type of basketballs they have is a Nike Elite Championship Airlock Leather Indoor Basketball - it's the type of basketball that has patented grip and lets the air inside the ball stays inflated with a cap inserted to prevent the ball losing air. And for the unexpected, they have Nike Elite socks white and blue stripped (at the Achilles area) for home games and blue and white stripped (at the Achilles area) for road games.
The guys each picked out the jersey-number to wear: Jet picked number 0, Storm picked number 34, Luke picked number 12, Knuckles picked number 24, Shadow picked number 10, Silver picked number 32, Ash picked number 4, Mighty picked number 30, Antoine picked number 7, Derrick picked number 11, Cyrus picked number 20, Brandon picked number 5, and Sonic picked number 1.
It's no surprise for Sonic because number 1 is from his favorite player, Derrick Rose.
After the boys picked out their number, they each started to suit up: putting their uniforms on first, tying their hair (well some of the guys are) or dreadlocks in a ponytail, and some putting on the gear they will wear for the season. Sonic, from the gear he bought from the mall the other day, is wearing a grey and white no-sleeve McDavid padded vest underneath her jersey, white and grey Nike padded girdle underneath her shorts, white sleeved McDavid knee pads at her knees, and white and blue Nike Elite Socks. Jet is wearing a white and grey Nike Pro Combat Football girdle underneath his shorts (you'll know why he is wearing that soon), white sleeved McDavid knee pads at his knees, and blue and white Nike Elite Socks. Storm is wearing small white wristbands on both of her wrists, white tight compression no-padded girdle underneath her shorts, and white sleeved knee pads on both of her knees. Ash, Luke, and the rest of the guys are wearing the white tight compression shorts underneath their shorts.
After they put on their uniforms, their gear, and their shooting shirts, all the boys gathered around Coach Chuck (who's wearing a navy blue polo shirt with the school logo at the left side of the chest area, light brown khaki pants, and black flats) and Coach Locke (who's also wearing a navy blue polo shirt with the school logo at the left side of the chest area, but has black khaki pants, and all-white low-top Shell Toe Adidas), where they are located at the white marker board discussing the game plan, and each took a seat.
Coach Chuck went silent for a moment and looked at his players, including his nephew Sonic. "Now fellas," he spoke, "be true to yourselves... Are y'all nervous?"
All of the guys, including Sonic, spoke and explained they are nervous while some are kinda nervous. For Sonic you may wonder, he's nervous but confident of his game and for his teammates.
Coach Chuck smirked and nodded. "Okay," he said, "I asked y'all that 'cus it's like that when playing the first game of the regular season. Starting game one today, is the chance to prove who y'all are as a team and what y'all do as a team. For today's game, I want y'all to start off in a slow pace; the only time that we'll start running, is when to think it's the right time to go out and run. Last but not least, know your roles, play hard and smart, and most importantly..., know... how... to play the game of basketball, guys. Lets go."
All the boys got up from their seats. Jet and Brandon each grab a Nike basketball (with Coach Locke carrying the rest of the Nike basketballs in a ball bag), and they all walked out from their locker room, to the hallway, into the two double-doors of where their gymnasium is at, also where they will present themselves of how they'll come out as a team. But first, they must wait until a warm-up song comes on.
Down at the other side of the double-doors, the boys of the Bradford High Tigers came out first and presented themselves of how they come out as a team - six players running to the sideline and the other six players (totaling twelve) running to the baseline all the way to center-court and dabbed. Oh and just like the girls, their team colors are green, yellow and white and their team shoes are the high-top 2014 Nike Hyperdunks.
For the Warriors however, they are still lined up waiting for the song to drop. Three seconds later, an instrumental song called "I'm Back" by T.I. came on and the Warriors all jogged inside their gymnasium and present themselves how they come out as a team.
As previously stated, inside the gymnasium is about 900 people from local fans, students and faculty members watching and attending this game, of the 1,300 seating capacity inside the gymnasium. Many people don't know how this game will turned out, even though it's the first regular-season game, they just have to see it for themselves from their own two eyes.
Five minutes are now ticking down as the two teams are now warming up of doing lay-up line and shooting drills. Thirty seconds have reached as the two teams all jogged to their benches as the five starters form two teams, each took off their shooting-shirts and sat on the bench to hear their names called. While the seven other players stand up side-by-side and low/high five to the starters.
The PA Announcer Principle Mrs. Lupe Belafonte, who keeps up with the players' name, fouls and the score in the score book, makes the announcement. "May I have your attention please, ...The GHSA and its member schools have made a commitment to promote good sportsmanship by student/athletes, coaches, and spectators at all GHSA sanctioned events. Profanity, degrading remarks, and intimidating actions directed at officials or competitors will not be tolerated, and are grounds for removal from the event site. Spectators are not allowed to enter the competition area during warm-ups or while the contest is being conducted. Thank you for your cooperation in the promotion of good sportsmanship at today's event."
Mrs. Lupe continues, "Now for the starting line-ups for the visiting Tigers of Bradford High School,
"At (Shooting) Guard, the senior, number 10 Jeff Young." Jeff got up, high five his teammates, and shook hands to the three officials. His physical appearance is at 6'1" with the playing-weight of 182 pounds, with light skin, smoke grey short buzz cut hair, and blue colored eyes. His basketball attire is McDavid knee pads colored black and white tube socks.
"At (Power) Forward, the junior, number 24 Lamar Stewart." Lamar got up, high five his teammates, and shook hands to the three officials. His physical appearance is at 6'4" with the playing-weight of 187 pounds, with brown skin, black short natural wave hair, and brown eyes. His basketball attire is McDavid knee pads colored black and black tube socks.
"At (Small) Forward, the senior, number 5 Jason Mitchel." Jason got up, high five his teammates, and shook hands to the three officials. His physical appearance is at 6'3" with the playing-weight of 192 pounds, has light pale skin, dreadlocks (in a ponytail) colored orange that stops at his shoulders, and brown colored eyes. His basketball attire is McDavid arm sleeve with a built-in elbow pad colored black and white tube socks.
"At Center, the sophomore, number 34 Kendrick Malone." Kendrick got up, high five his teammates, and shook hands to the three officials. His physical appearance is at 6'5" with the playing-weight of 202 pounds, has light-dark skin, dreadlocks (in a ponytail) colored purple that stops at his shoulders. His basketball attire is McDavid sleeved knee pads colored black and white tube socks.
"And at (Point) Guard, the junior, number 1 Patric Young." Patric got up, high five his teammates and shook hands to the three officials. His physical appearance is at 6 feet with the playing-weight of 172 pounds, has light-dark skin, black hair in a low-top box fade, and brown eyes. His basketball attire is McDavid knee pads colored black and black tube socks.
"The head coach for the Tigers is LaMarcus Pallatin. The assistant is Walter Thomas." Coach LaMarcus Pallatin has light brown skin, green colored eyes, and buzz cut hair colored brown; his coaching attire is a black polo shirt with the school logo on the left side of the chest area, light brown khaki pants, and low-top Shell Toe Adidas. Coach Walter Thomas has brown skin with black shaved hair and brown eyes; his coaching attire is a white dress shirt with lightweight black colored sports jacket, black khaki pants, and brown dress shoes.
The rest of the players of Bradford High's Tigers are: Omar Lewis, Jeff Kaelem, Cris Charles, Marcus Moore, Keise Jones, Lou Smith, and Alvin Scott. Their physical appearance will appear soon.
Mrs. Lupe Wolf will now announce the starting line-up for the Warriors of Knothole High. "And now, the starting line-ups for the Knothole Warriors,
"At (Small) Forward, the senior, number 12 Luke Farrell." Luke got up, high five his teammates, and shook hands to the three officials.
"At (Shooting) Guard, the sophomore, number 0 Jet Hawkington." Jet got up, high five his teammates, and shook hands to the three officials.
"At Center, the junior, number 34, Storm Albarran." Storm got up, high five his teammates, and shook hands to the three officials.
"At (Power) Forward, the junior, number 4 Ash Willard." Ash got up, high five his teammates, and shook hands to the three officials.
"And at (Point) Guard, the freshman, number 1 Maurice Drummond." Sonic, with jitters, got up, high five his teammates, and shook hands to the three officials.
"The head coach for the Warriors is Chuck Adelbert. The assistant is Locke Heahweard."
(8:00; 1Q) The two teams huddled at their benches and broke, as the starting five from both teams walked on the court, shook each others hands, and stood at the spots they stand at: Storm and Kendrick at center court, behind Storm is Sonic behind Jeff at one end of the court, Luke and Jason next to each other between the half-court line, Ash and Lamar also next to each other between the half-court line, and behind Kendrick is Patric in front of Jet. The referee walks to center-court between Storm and Kendrick, holding Knothole's game ball - because they're the home team, bounced the ball two timesthen tosses it up, both Storm and Kendrick jumped, the ball got tipped to Sonic as Storm won the tip, and the first high school regular-season game for the boys has began.
(7:59; 1Q) Sonic dribbles (with his right hand) up-court as he's being guarded by Jeff and seeing the Tigers in 2-3 Zone: with Jeff (left) and Patric (right) up-top, Jason at the right wing of the mid-range area and Lamar at the left wing of the mid-range area, and Kendrick in the middle of the paint. With Sonic looking around and standing at the middle of their half-court, he sees Jet at the right wing at the three-point area and Luke at the left wing of the three-point area, Storm at the left block and Ash at the right block.
(7:50; 1Q) Sonic calls Ash to come to the free-throw line, picks up his dribble and sees Jeff and Patric not closing the free-throw passing area, and lobs it to Ash. Ash catches it and puts the ball above his head, and faces the basket while also looking at the defense and his teammates - Sonic moving to the right corner of the three-point area, Storm moving to the right block, Luke sliding to the left wing of the three-point area, and Jet moving up to the top of the key (middle of the court).
(7:44; 1Q) Ash throws the ball back out to Jet, he catches it as Ash comes out of the free-throw line and set a screen on Patric (at his left) to the right. Jet went to the screen as he slowly but patiently drove to their zone defense. Jet sees Lamar (of Bradford High) coming to close out the dribble penetration. Sonic later comes up to the right wing of the three-point area. Jet passed the ball to Sonic. He squares himself up, pulls up for a shot from three-point range (with Ash and Lamar, Storm and Kendrick, and Luke coming to the paint for a rebound), . . . . and missed on his first field goal attempt.
(7:39; 1Q) Lamar of Bradford High grabbed the rebound of the missed shot from Sonic. He looks to his far left and see Jeff and throws the ball to him-
(7:35; 1Q) Sonic came out of nowhere and picks the pass off, goes to the paint (without Lamar trying to block it), jumps off his left foot with the ball at his right hand up high, and dunks it.
And not only that, those are the first two points for Sonic in his high school Varsity basketball career.
Knothole 2, Bradford 0.
(7:32; 1Q) Lamar grabs the ball after the dunk from Sonic and inbound the ball to Jeff, their Point Guard.
(7:30; 1Q) Jeff receives the ball from Jeff and dribbles (with his right hand) up-court seeing where his teammates are at and sees he's being guarded by Sonic while also seeing Knothole playing man-to-man defense. Jeff is at the top of the key and calls Kendrick to set a pick to the left (at Sonic's right side). Jeff went to the pick, with Sonic going underneath the screen and Storm following his opposing man Kendrick. Jeff sees the pick and roll/pop didn't work as he decides to go one-on-one on Sonic.
(7:23; 1Q) Jeff is now at the left wing and sees Sonic is five feet away from him seeing he's not gonna play him tight (smart idea). Jeff, by keeping his dribble low, walks up to Sonic by slowly dribbling with his right hand, crosses left between his legs, crosses back to his right (completing the killer-crossover), took a quick glance at Sonic and sees he's playing good defense, decides to step back, gathers himself, pulls up as a left handed shooter with Sonic contesting his shot (also with Ash and Lamar, and Storm and Kendrick boxing out for a rebound), . . . . and missed.
(7:17; 1Q) The ball bounced off the back of the rim hard as it trailed to the free-throw line area as Sonic is right there to get his first rebound of the game. He took a quick glance at Jeff and his surroundings, and decides to safely hold on to the ball and wait for everybody to go down court.
(7:14; 1Q) Sonic sees it's now clear and starts to jog up-court (dribbling with his left hand). He crosses half-court and sees Bradford still in 2-3 Zone and sees his teammates standing at certain spots: Ash at the free-throw line, Storm at the right block, Jet at left corner three-point area, and Luke at the right wing of the three-point area.
(7:09; 1Q) Next he calls Ash to come set a pick on Patric (at his right side) to the left. Sonic patiently goes to the pick, but sees Patric going to the pick and also sees Jeff sagging off at his spot, and attacked the zone to the paint. He hop steps to his right after he picked up his dribble, cuffs the ball, throws up a floater with his right hand, hits the backboard and goes in for two points. And four points for Sonic and for the team.
Knothole 4, Bradford 0.
Time Down Possession... Knothole 17, Bradford 9.
Knothole now has 17 with Bradford's 9 with 4:20 remaining in the first quarter. Both teams are doing good so far. For Knothole High, they are playing hard and smart - being patient on offense against the 2-3 Zone and playing hard on defense by rotating to the week side of the man-to-man defense. For Bradford High, They are playing good so far, even though they are only down by eight (17 to 9), it's exactly how they wanna start off.
For the leading scorers, Sonic is leading the team in scoring with 10 points on 4 of 4 (100%) shooting on the perimeter and 2 of 2 (100%) from the free-throw line without a missed shot, but also has 3 assists, still 1 rebound and 1 steal, Jet and Storm both have 5 points, and Luke has only 2 points.
(4:20; 1Q) Bradford High's Jeff pulls up for a shot from mid-range and missed.
(4:18; 1Q) The ball bounced off the rim to the left as Sonic grabbed his 2nd rebound. He later sees an opening and sprints down court dribbling with his right hand. While sprinting and dribbling, he sees two players of Bradford High's guards, Jeff and Patric, at the half-court area and he splits the two of 'em, already reached to the paint, by using his athleticism - taking off from his left foot and cocks both of his arms back behind his head, and finished strong with the two-hand jam. As that now gives him 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting on the field, still perfect on the perimeter at 100%.
Knothole 19, Bradford 9.
(4:16; 1Q) Sonic ran back down court to get back on defense, as Jeff will inbound the ball to his teammate Patric. Patric receives the ball from Jeff and jogs up-court with Sonic now guarding Patric and Jet guarding Jeff. Knothole High are still in man-to-man.
(4:13; 1Q) Patric safely throws the ball back to Jeff as he dribbles to the left side of the court and later look and see how the defense is playing, and sees it's aligned okay. Jeff later throws the ball back out to Patric-
(4:10; 1Q) Sonic sees it coming and deflects it as the ball safely went to the other side of the half-court with Sonic following the ball.
(4:08; 1Q) Sonic went to the deflected-ball and gathers it with his right hand, getting his 2nd steal of the game. He took a quick glance from behind and sees Patric coming. Sonic took three dribbles (with his right hand) already reaching closely to the basket at the painted-area, quickly glanced at Patric seeing him coming, gathers and lifts off of his left foot with Patric jump off of his left foot to use his right hand to block his shot, (Sonic) cocks his right arm back, (*whistle blued*) and flushes it. Plus the foul.
That gives Sonic 14 points and now 6-of-6 shooting on the perimeter on 100%.
Knothole 21, Bradford 9.
(4:04; 1Q) The whole gym erupted with excitement of Sonic doing a poster dunk on Patric. Sonic looked at the crowd of the gymnasium, and just grinned of his impressive play.
The players later all lined up at the free-throw area as Sonic will go to the line for the possible three-point play.
At the left side of the paint is: Lamar, Ash and Patric. At the right side of the paint is: Kendrick and Storm. Behind Sonic are: Jet and Jeff at the left, and Luke and Jason at the right.
The referee got underneath the basket with the ball at his right hand and held up one finger with his left hand signaling 'one shot'. The ref throws a bounce pass to Sonic as he catches it and does his free-throw routine - cuffs the ball with two hands, puts it behind his neck and took a deep breath, brings it back at his chest, looks down and take three dribbles, stops and looks at the rim for eight seconds, brings his shooting form up, releases it while holding his follow-through, . . . . and hits nothing but net. That now gives him 15 points and still 6-of-6 shooting on the perimeter on 100% and also 3-of-3 on the free-throw line also on 100%.
Bradford High's Head Coach LaMarcus Pallatin calls a timeout to get things right for his players as the Knothole Warriors are running away with it.
Time Down Possession... Knothole 40, Bradford 27.
Knothole now has 40 to Bradford's 27 with 6:00 (six minutes) remaining in the 2nd quarter. For Knothole High, it's the same old-same old - playing hard and smart. Just plain and simple, nothing fancy Sonic is leading the team in scoring with 17 points with 7 of 9 (77%) from the perimeter and still 3 of 3 (100%) from the free-throw line, but also has 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and still 2 steals. Jet has 11 points and 4 rebounds. Storm has 7 points most on offensive rebounds and post moves, but has 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. Their role players are doing well, Shadow leads all role players with 5 points and the rest of the role players haven't scored yet but were called when needed (except Cyrus, Silver, and Derrick).
Knothole's five on the court are: Sonic at Point Guard, Shadow at Shooting Guard, Luke at Small Forward, Knuckles at Power Forward, and Ash at Center. Bradford's five on the court are: Jeff at Point Guard, Omar at Shooting Guard, Marcus Moore at Small Forward, Lamar at Power Forward, and Cris at Center.
Lets know Omar, Marcus, and Cris...
Cris Charles is a 6'3", 200 pound junior big man at Power Forward/Center who shoots with his right hand. Just like Knuckles, he's not a big-time scorer, but he'll score from close range and inside the paint. What he's known for is his rebounding effort, setting screens, defensive awareness of taking charges or blocking shots, and making hustle plays. Truly meaning, he's a blue-collar type of player. His physical appearance has light brown skin, and blue colored eyes. His basketball attire is a built-in elbow padded arm sleeve on his left arm and Nike team Elite socks and shoes.
Omar Lewis is a 6 foot, 188 pound junior Shooting Guard who shoots with his right hand. He's a scoring Guard who is always looking to score when called upon or run the offense. On defense is where he sometimes struggle, he'll help out by rotating on the weak side, but his struggle is staying in-front of his defender because he's an average on-ball defender. His physical appearance has dark brown skin, black short faded hair, and green eyes. His basketball attire is the team Nike Elite socks and team shoes.
Marcus Moore is a 6'2", 192 pound senior Forward who shoots with his right hand. Just like Mighty, he's a Hybrid Forward that can play either Small Forward or Power Forward, but has upper body and lower body strength in him. On offense, he'll score if he wants too on the perimeter (which is not a bad idea); he can handle the ball but isn't a shifty ball-handler, just a normal ball-handler. On defense is where he takes pride in: staying in front of his defender, rotating when need to, and getting a steal by intercepting or pickpocketing out of their hand. His physical appearance has brown skin, black short faded hair (only around his eyes and tail as rings), and blue eyes. His basketball attire is the team Nike Elite socks and team shoes.
Lets get back into Sonic's basketball game...
As previously stated, there are six minutes (6:00) remaining in the 2nd quarter.
(6:00; 2Q) After the two-made free-throws were made from Jeff (of Bradford High), after he was fouled by Shadow (which is his first personal foul), Knuckles got the ball and inbounds it to Sonic.
(5:59; 2Q) Sonic easily receives it and dribbles up-court looking at Bradford High's 2-3 Zone and where his teammates are standing at. He looks at Knuckles, who was behind Sonic after he inbound the ball to him, and tells him to go to the free-throw line. Knuckles went there as told, Sonic picks up his dribble and looks at Jeff (at the left) and Omar (at the right) and sees they're not closing the passing lane, and lobs it to Knuckles.
(5:49; 2Q) Knuckles catches it and looks around to who to pass it to because he's not looking to shoot the ball. He looks to his right, sees Shadow and passes it to him. Shadow catches it and gets into a triple-threat position because Marcus came to guard him. Shadow sees Knuckles coming and sets a pick/screen to the right (on Marcus' left side). Shadow goes to the screen/pick and drives baseline (while being inbounds of course).
(5:41; 2Q) While driving, Shadow sees Cris and two more players of Bradford High coming to stop dribble penetration. He dribbles very low to his left to prevent the pickpocket-from-behind steal, got out of the trap, looked at the other side of the court and sees Sonic. Shadow does a cross-court pass it Sonic, Sonic gathers the pass with his left hand, glanced to his right at Lamar and sees him leap up to block as Sonic smartly ducks and protected the ball, got room and squares himself up, pulls up from three-point range, . . . . . and missed.
(5:35; 2Q) Cris grabs the rebound and quickly gives it to Jeff at the left side of the court. Jeff sprints (while dribbling) up-court and sees a 3 on 2 fast break situation with Bradford's: Omar at the left, Jeff in the middle, and Marcus at the right, and Knothole's: Shadow up-front and Luke down back. They each crossed half-court as Jeff throws a bounce-pass to Omar as he catches it and sees he's got an easy basket, lifts off from his left foot and goes up with his right hand, and-
(5:30; 2Q) Sonic blocks it from behind (with the crowd applauding his effort) and quickly gathers it.
(5:28; 2Q) Sonic Looks down court and sees Ash by himself. He's lobs the ball down court to Ash who catches it, takes one bounce to the paint, and safely goes up off of his two feet, went up with his left hand, and lays it in for two points.
Knothole 40, Bradford 27
Here's how Sonic got that chase-down block. First thing first, keep in mind that Sonic is fast and quick; after he missed the three-point shot, he first started to jog down court. When he sees the 3 on 2 fast break situation, he was 5 feet behind Omar. When he saw he got the ball, he knew it was the right time to pull off a chase-down block by using his speed and leaping ability to block his lay-up from behind. Give credit to Sonic for showing effort of getting back on defense to stop the fast break.
Sim to the end of the game...
Knothole High has won the game with the score 85 to Bradford's 52, beating them by thirty points. Sonic finished the game as the leading scorer with 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting on the perimeter at 64%, 2-of-3 from three-point range at 66%, and 4-of-4 from free-throw range at 100%, but also had 8 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 blocks - pretty good game, huh?! For the other starters, Jet had 19 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds, Storm and Ash both had 12 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks, Luke had 7 points and 2 steals. For the reserves, Shadow led the reserves in scoring with 8 points, but also had 2 assists. The other reserves contributed.
Just a dominated performance for Knothole's boys.
-Inside the boys' locker room-
The boys all congratulated to themselves of their win against Bradford High. Coach Chuck later came and told his players (including his nephew Sonic) to huddle up.
"Okay guys." Coach Chuck said, "Great win for ya. Come tomorrow's practice and we'll go over some other stuff and watched the film. Hands up." The players put their hands up. "Warriors on three. One... two... three...,"
"WARRIORS!" Said the guys.
The boys all packed their stuff and headed out of the locker room. The players went back into the gymnasium to meet their folks. With Sonic, he meet up with his parents and his girlfriend Amy Rose. Sonic hugged his girlfriend and greeted her with a quick kiss on the lips.
"Good game, Sonic." Said Amy.
"Thanks, you too." He answered.
Amy turned her head to her right and faced at the red-haired and sky-blue haired adult, which happens to be her aunt, Mari-An and her uncle Robert. "Oh, Mari-An, Uncle Rob... here's the guy I talked to y'all about."
"Hello there Sonic." Said Mari-An as she reached her right hand out to Sonic. Sonic reached out his right hand and shook hands with her.
Sonic later glanced at Amy's uncle, Robert Hearne. From Sonic's point of view, he sees Robert has sky blue short buzz cut hair, skin tone colored shaded light dark, wearing a short-sleeved all-white T-Shirt, black loose fit jeans, and grey and white low-top Shell-Toe Adidas sneakers. "Good to meet you, Sonic." Said Robert Hearne. With that said, Mari-An and Robert finally meet Amy's boyfriend Sonic.
"Hey Sonic," said Jules, Sonic's father, "me and your mother will be outside at the parking lot when you get done, okay?"
"Okay."
After that, Sonic's parents walked off into their car out to the parking lot.
"So," said Sonic, "how did it felt playing you first Varsity game, Amy?" He asked.
"It felt great, plus I was nervous. But all in all, I did good." Amy answered.
"You did more than good, ...you did great." Sonic said.
Amy smiled and hugged him.
Sonic felt a tap on his right shoulder. He turned to his right and sees a male who has light brown skin, purple short faded hair, and blue eyes; with crutches at his armpits dressed in a all-black thermal shirt, regular khaki pants with a black knee brace on the right knee, and all-black Nike Air Max. Because of his physical appearance, he kind of (key words "kind of" because he's a male) looks like Nic Hunter. "Great game, boy," said the purple haired dude.
"Thanks, who are you thou?" Sonic said as he dapped the person he's talking to.
Then Nic, who was behind the purple-haired look-a-like, spoke, "He's my twin brother."
"No wonder." Said Amy. There you go, Nic's twin brother has been reviled. Now listen to his name.
"By the way," said the purple haired male, "my name's Nackley Hunter, better as Nack. I'm on y'all team as well, but as you can see [*he points at his left knee*], I hurt my right knee." (A/N: That character is Nack the Weasel.)
Sonic smirked and nodded. "What happened?" He asked Nack.
"I was playing AAU ball over the summer. And when I planted, I felt my knee bent the other way and I torn my ACL" ACL stands for Anterior Cruciate Ligament. This ligament is located behind the knee cap of every knee.
Both Nack and Nic respectively walked away and it led Sonic, Amy and Mari-An having a conversation to one another, which went on for two minutes.
"Well I gotta go. See y'all later." Said Sonic. He did a quick kiss to Amy and waved bye to her and Mari-An as he's now walking out of the school building to the parking lot to find his parents' car.
He found their 2010 Nissan Altima, opened the back door at the passenger side, and hopped in. Jules, his father, turned the ignition on, backed up, and drove to their destination.
End of Chapter 12
Another chapter in the books for this fanfic.
Now for the name with meanings starting with the Hunter twins of Nicolette "Nic" Hunter (Nicolette "Nic" the Weasel) and Nackley "Nack" Hunter (Nack the Weasel).
For Nic's biological first name, in French Nicolette means- the people victory; for being victorious when stealing some loot. For Nack's biological first name, Nackley is just a surname I put just to match his nickname. And for their last names, in English the name Hunter means- one who hunts; because both Nic and Nack are bounty hunters.
Leave a review or message of how this chapter went.
Until then, this is SelfMadeHooper saying, see y'all on the next up-coming chapter of Sonic's first Varsity game.
