Hendrix rolled into our gym. We didn't know anything about them. They looked like pretty much any other team during warm ups. We felt pretty good. We were 1-10, but we weren't losing by 30+ points anymore. We felt like we could have and should have won at least three more games.
Hendrix had red uniforms. #12 on their team had pasty white skin and black hair. His last name is Brusnahan. Kirk Hinrich played for the Chicago Bulls at the time. I swear this Brusnahan guy looked exactly like this:
Now, that may seem really stupid to many of my readers, but I kid you not, I was annoying!! And I strongly believe to this day that I got under his skin and into his head.
Jorge Riviera, Greg King and Adrian Bernal all came up big in this came with the latter two combining for six trifectas. (That's huge at this level of the sport!)
We're up 15-6 after one and 26-19 at half. We put up 20 points in the third quarter, nine of which came from Greg's three three's. This was the start of a crazy hot streak for him. We're up 46-35 after three and McEvers had enough confidence in us to put both me and Craig in the game. Nothing exciting though. We won 57-43.
2-10 never felt so good.
January 19, 2006. Kino vs. Mesa Jr. This game was epic.
We were high off a win two days earlier. Having 6th hour P.E. and then about 40 minutes after school until tipoff always gave us quite a bit of time to screw around before home games. Well, on this day we were messin around (because McEvers let us [dare I say encouraged it at times]) and someone (I really don't know who, not me and not Lorenzo) launched a ridiculous shot that bounced off the wall and hit McEvers in the back of the head. He lost his God-given mind!!!
Immediately the blame was placed solely on Lorenzo, our star, leading scorer, rebounder and biggest guy. I swear he did not do it. I don't know who, just not him. McEvers absolutely lit him up!! It ended with McEvers telling Lorenzo he couldn't play that day. Basically a one-game suspension.
Lorenzo went to the locker room with his head down. The rest of us were shocked. Adrian and Greg, the other two team captains, started making their case to McEvers. He obviously had given up on the season, us being 2-10 and there being only seven games left and all. After a bit of deliberation, McEvers told us Lorenzo could play if we could talk him into it.
We all ran to the locker room. Lorenzo was slowly pulling his blue and gold long socks off (a team decision to all wear them.) He was crying. He didn't wanna play for McEvers. Not after that. I kinda don't blame him. We eventually got him to suit back up and lead his team.
Kino came in and looked like a bunch of big, tough guys. I think #44 even had a tattoo. They had one guy who was bigger than the rest. #23 Christian Trejo. I swear he looked just like this except in a jersey and without the smile:
The crowd really showed up for this game. Having won a home game two days earlier, the word got around and that small grandstand was packed. They weren't a dead crowd either. "M-J-H!!!" rung around the gym. It was a good feeling, even from the bench.
Martin Vega played out of his mind in this game. I remember one sequence where he launched a three, knew he missed right away, ran down and grabbed the rebound, and laid it in for two. He scored seven of his 20 points in the second quarter. Greg kept launching threes and missing because he thought he was on a hot streak (he was.) McEvers took him aside during a timeout and told him straight up that his hot streak was over and he needed to pass more. We were up 30-26 at half.
Things started to get chippy in the third quarter. Martin put up six more points. We got six points off the bench and had our highest scoring quarter of the season, 22 points. Kino's #44 started to get into it with both Greg and Jorge. I knew Greg from about 4th grade through graduation. He had a reputation for fighting. He was gonna back down. Jorge was also a tough guy. Greg wound up ankle hurt in a scuffle and had to come out. #44 ended up getting T'ed up and forced to the bench. He scored 10 of his 14 points after that instance.
We were doing fine until Jorge fouled out in the third. Then, coming to the bench for a timeout, Adrian pulls his jersey out of his shorts. I thought nothing of it. He got T'ed up. His fifth foul. We're down two of our best players. We find a way to extend the lead to 52-42 after three quarters.
Even with the crowd being awesome, giving us as much of a home court advantage as possible, we got outscored 23-13 in the 4th. 9 of those 13 from Lorenzo before fouling out. Sucks to lose him, but we couldn't have won without him. 14 huge points. He and Jorge fouled out big Christian Trejo. That's huge. They no longer had a big, intimidating enforcer guarding the basket.
Greg was forced to play on a bad ankle. He and Martin were the only starters left. The game was tied at 65 after four quarters. The two head coaches and two officials met briefly to discuss what would happen. McEvers walked away from that meeting quite unhappy. There would be a four minute overtime period.
With three starters out, I got to play for about 30 seconds in overtime. But it was mostly Greg King, Martin Vega, Erik Portillo, Angel Sanchez and Alex Castillanos. Not a great lineup. Greg and Martin scored eight of our nine overtime points. This was an intense time. Greg knew it was up to him. He was ferocious! Offense, defense rebounding, everything. The crowd was very loud. Trejo was the only Kino starter who had fouled out.
I remember vividly watching Greg sink free throws with a grimace. He was in pain, but he knew losing this game would hurt more. It was perfect. He had the sweat dripping off his chin and everything. His last two were most important. We were down 73-72. Greg got fouled with four seconds on the clock. When he was on, he could sink free throws blindly. He sunk both of them. Calmly. With the atmosphere so chaotic, he seemed so calm. Really like he slowed down time.
Kino attempted to throw a full court inbound pass. But guess who stopped it. Greg King. He's probably never jumped that high since, but he leaped with all his energy and swatted the ball away. Erik ended up with it and the game was over.
Mesa Jr. 74 Kino 73 F/OT
The crowd rushed the floor. Oh, my!!!!! How cool that was!! Gilbert the security guy started blowing his whistle, but nobody could hear. Kino disrespected the chairs we let them sit on as the left the gym. They wanted to fight. I wanted to celebrate. McEvers made us get out of there. I wanted to stay and enjoy the moment. What a crazy emotional high! We ruled the school!!!
And to think, this all started with our coach threatening to not let our star play. We probably would've lost by 35 without him.
Best. Game. Ever.
January 20, 2006. Mesa Jr. vs. Powell.
One day after our epic victory. We went to Powell and they had a cool mural in their gym. They honestly didn't stand a chance. We were on a two-game win streak. Nothing could stop us.
We led 12-11 after one. 32-25 at half. I remember getting into this game, but not exactly when. I remember I was supposed to guard their big man. That's all McEvers wanted. I got one play. One chance. They were inbounding from halfcourt. I knew it was gonna come to my guy. He was bigger than I was. I just jumped as high as I could. He almost got it even still. But my efforts prevailed.
That's it.
Greg put in 18 points, including three from behind the arc. He was still hot. Lorenzo added 17 of his own. We were up 44-38 after three and won 59-46. A three game win streak. From 1-10 to 4-10. We were never gonna lose again. We just knew it!
1 comment:
You're back! Pretty sure I saw all of these games, but it's fun to relive them through your eyes.
Post a Comment