Our game against Faith Academy in the last 24 hours was one for the ages—the kind of game that keeps you at the edge of your seat, the kind that keeps your palms sweaty. We went into that game after a tough loss on Friday, where another one of our nemeses was granted 30-plus trips to the free throw line. Don’t get me started on that.
In any case, we were heading to another away game against a tough opponent that had handed us a loss at home two weeks prior. We knew this was a winnable game because our previous loss to them was mainly due to our poor closeout, which resulted in 8 triples made by the infamous number 4, who I will refer to as a Splash Brother. He lit us up in our first game and ended up with 24 points, so we knew what we had to do.
Upon our arrival, we were welcomed warmly, made our way into the locker room, and put our game plan into motion. The one thing we all agreed on was to put the clamps on number 4.
Mind you, yesterday was Faith’s senior night, so the arena was full of their fans—and rightfully so. We scored the first bucket at tip-off, and before you knew it, Faith answered back with a layup of their own.
Then the battle began. The Splash Brother proved why he earned his name by lighting us up again with three back-to-back triples. Our troops had a flashback from the game before and knew what they had to do to avoid another nightmare: put a stop to his onslaught from behind the arc. And that’s exactly what we did. We traded punches with them and went into the half with a one-point lead, 24-23.
We came back in the second half more ready than before and completely took number 4 (Splash Brother) out of the game with our shell defense, holding him to just 3 points in the second half. Now, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t effective, as his gravity led to defensive scrambles and some layups.
We eventually tightened up on defense and went on a 12-2 run, if I’m not mistaken, at some point, leading by as much as 13 points. Then came the dreaded fourth quarter.
We were up by 9 with 2 minutes to go when Faith made an epic comeback to send the game to overtime. Then the thriller happened.
We were down by 1 point with 3.7 seconds to go when Noah took a shot that will be remembered in the annals of New Life basketball. He shot a 3-pointer that made its way into the basket and gave us the 63-61 victory.
This Herculean effort from our team is a testament to Coach Darrel Armstrong and Coach Z’s attention to detail and the resilience they have instilled in these guys. While Noah “Bucket” Burton’s buzzer-beater was the nail in the coffin, this game wouldn’t have been won without the others. I’m talking about seniors Jack “All Day Boiiii” Socash, Jack “Tank Abbott” Kelley, who was a monster on the boards, Junior Jack “IQ” Hewes, whose understanding of the game is second to none, freshman Levi “Energizer” Salami, whose motor and defense are unparalleled, Jeffrey “KD” Nyaku, whose length chokes up all the passing lanes, and finally Jason “Splash” Grisby, who you never want to leave open unless you want to pay for it, and Bennett “Big Ben” Hutchinson, who’s going to be a force to be reckoned with in years to come.
Do not miss our next game, for it will surely be another thriller!
I’ll let you relive the moment with the video below
