Hoosier Hysteria

My daughter was starting forward for the hometown Bears in the opening round of the county basketball tourney. They were down three with twenty seconds to go against a fierce rival with a potential All-Star on the roster. The center pulls up for a three that rims out, but my daughter grabs the rebound and banks it in--and gets fouled. She goes to the line and sinks the extra point, and it's all tied up. Their foes bring it down the court, but the ball slips away and the Bears fall on it. In the process my daughter is fouled. Back she goes to the line with 1.3 seconds on the clock and sinks two sweet ones. Five points in twenty seconds and it's over.

The crowd noise is deafening. My hand is shaking so badly I can hardly record the points in the official book. My mother-in-law is jumping up and down and pulling my wife's arm out of its socket. A stranger has my father-in-law by the shoulders and is bellowing.

Later I found out that my ice-cool daughter thought there was one minute left, not one second, when she first looked at the clock and swished two through.

I woke up at 2:30 this morning with my heart pounding, reliving the last few seconds of the game. It's true: there is nothing greater than high school basketball on this green happy earth.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.