Rushing the Court

Last night, Cameron traveled to Blackhawk Christian with the Bethany girls' basketball team for their first game of this year's sectionals.  Even though the Bruins had won the game in Goshen easily and were ranked #10 compared to the Blackhawk's #16, everyone knew this one would be challenging.  In the game several weeks ago, the Blackhawk's were missing their starting point guard, but not tonight.  They also had the home court advantage.  

We were all correct in our prediction that it would be a tough game.  Bethany found themselves down the entire second half.  With twenty-five seconds left, it looked as though the Bruins' season would be ending tonight.  They were behind by five and were having a difficult time scoring.  A banked in three for Bethany and a turn over for Blackhawk led to Bethany having a chance to tie it with 1.9 seconds left.  A perfectly executed inbound play tied the game with no time left on the clock.  Bethany hit the free throw moving them into the sectional finals.  Cameron said that the game was a lot of fun with everyone rushing the court afterward.

As much fun as Friday night's game was to watch, Saturday afternoon's was even better.  IU played Purdue at Assembly Hall and the hype was big.  Purdue was the #1 team in the nation and had been trash talking IU non-stop lately.  Cameron felt confident about the game.  Doug and I were not so sure.  IU came out on fire, leading Purdue in the first half by 16.  As much as we wanted to believe that they would be able to maintain that lead, we knew that the second half wouldn't be easy.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.  The Boilermakers came roaring back and with less than five minutes to go, they pulled within one.  All I kept thinking about was last night's game.  I was positive that the Hoosiers would fall to the same fate.  Thankfully, they stepped up their defense in the end, hit several key buckets and beat Purdue by five.  For the second time in twenty-four hours, we watched fans rush the court.  

The last game of the night was probably the most important, but the least competitive.  Fans didn't rush the court afterward, but did cheer when the Bethany girls' easily beat Lakewood Park Christian for the sectional championship.  It was fun to watch, but my favorite part was seeing Cameron on the screen behind the Bruins bench and to listen to him talk about cutting down the net after the game.  What a great weekend for basketball.