Mr. Basketball Ch. 15

"Yes sir," she smiled softly.

The horn sounded telling me the time out was over. I glanced at the circle of girls again and decided on another sub.

"Lane, check in for Tracy. Eva, slide over to the three spot on offense and let Taylor and Lane handle the ball."

"Yes sir," they both called.

"One, two, three, win!"

"TT, inbound, Red!"

Taylor took the ball and tossed it into Lane. Lane circled to the top as Taylor ran down the lane already running Georgia. Lane knew the offense and waited for Taylor to come out the other side. The defense shifted to anticipate Taylor getting the ball. It left just a small window for Lane to find Tessa in the paint. She squeezed the ball through the space to Tessa. She turned and banked the ball home to push the lead to six.

They brought the ball up the floor and started their pick and roll play again. Taylor made the call and told Eva and Lane to switch before the play started. Eva was now guarding the ball handler as they tried the pick. Tessa slid over perfectly and covered it until Eva got around the play and right back into the face of the defender.

She picked up her dribble and tried to shield the ball until somebody could get open. Eva had quick hands and slapped the ball free before grabbing it and turning her body to shield the ball. Taylor took off and sprinted ahead. Eva lobbed the ball down the court for Taylor. She grabbed it and made an easy layup to push the lead to eight.

They pushed the ball up the floor quickly and tried the pick and roll again. They shot a long three that missed. Tessa secured the board and found Lane waiting for the outlet pass. She took off up the floor quickly and cut through a few bodies before she saw Taylor on the wing at the three point line. Her pass was perfect and the shot was even better. It flipped the net and pushed it to eleven. The home crowd was alive now as the cheers deafened the building. It was the first time they had been this loud all night long.

"Come on," I said softly. "Just two more points and Taylor can have a forty point night."

They brought the ball up the floor quickly and hit a three to cut the lead to eight again. That silenced the building for the moment again. They pressed hard making Tessa find Lane again. She was fearless as she brought the ball up the floor through traffic until she reached the top of the key. It left them disorganized as Lane looked then found Taylor in the corner. She faked the three, drove the baseline and scored while getting fouled. With that she had forty and the record for the most points in a single game. She had set that last year with thirty nine. She added to it with one more free one and pushed the lead to eleven again.

The other team knew they had the clock working against them now. They flew down the floor and tried a risky cross court pass. Taylor was in perfect position and stole it easily. Everyone changed directions as the ball left Taylor's hands and went quickly to Lane on the far side. She waited until Tessa slipped through the middle before she bounced it down. Tessa scored easily.

"You might be on to something," Teagan whispered in my ear.

"Yeah," I chuckled. "Where the hell was this three quarters ago?"

"And you didn't want Lane," she teased.

"Whose side are you on?" I teased right back.

I focused on the game again as Tessa grabbed the board of a missed shot and got it to Taylor.

"TT," I called.

She looked my way as she brought the ball quickly down the floor. I was waving my hands down to tell her to slow the pace again. We had a good lead and the clock was ticking away with about a minute left.

"Spread them out TT," I ordered.

"Spread," Taylor called.

She passed it off to Tessa as she came up to the free throw line. Spread was a simple, spread the floor so we could burn some time. They came to double Tessa so she passed it out to Lane. They raced to Lane to double her. She waited until they got close before she passed it back to Taylor. She waited until they came close before she passed it to Eva.

Eva caught the ball then quickly sent it back to Taylor. Taylor sent it over to Lane then took off to the hoop. They chased the ball leaving Taylor open as she cut to the hoop. Lane passed the ball to Taylor who caught it then turned and tossed it back out to Bree. Taylor was right there and could have scored but she knew better. We were just killing time.

We passed it around a few more times until they stopped chasing the ball around and conceded defeat. The clock ticked down to zero before the horn sounded. Taylor made her way over to me and hugged me.

"Good game TT. Forty one points."

"That many?" she smiled.

"Yeah, didn't you know?"

"I wasn't keeping track. If I had known that I would have shot the ball there at the end."

"No you wouldn't have," I laughed.

She smiled and went to stand in line to shake the other teams' hand. Tessa was next to give me a hug. Tracy followed along with the rest of them before I followed them.

"Good game coach," their coach offered.

"Thank you, you too."

"How are you feeling?"

"Good. Win or lose, this sure beats the hospital."

He chuckled. "Good luck this season."

"Thanks, you too."

I saw Eva gathering her stuff from the bench.

"Hey Eva," I called. "Good job out there."

"Thank you," she said softly.

"You did really well out there tonight. Play with confidence."

"Yes sir. I just don't want to mess things up."

"We all make mistakes," I offered. "Look at Jamie, she had a horrible game tonight. But I never once yelled at her. That's not how I coach."

"The youth coach sure did yell a lot," she said.

"And it didn't make you play any better did it?"

"No sir. It scared me to be honest."

"I hardly ever raise my voice. Only after you make the same mistake a bunch of times."

"I'll try and remember that," she giggled.

"Lane," I called. "Great job out there. You keep that up and you might just start a few."

"Really? Thank you sir."

"Go on and get back to the locker room so I can talk with you girls."

I followed them in as Taylor found me.

"Well?" she sighed. "How was it from your end?"

"TT, if you weren't here, I don't know what I would do."

"It's the first game," she offered.

"I hope you are right."

I pushed the door open and let Taylor walk inside. "Coach is coming in, are we all decent."

"They are good," Teagan called.

"That was a sloppy start girls," I started. "We have a lot to work on tomorrow. We did pull through and got the job done but we have some things we definitely need to clean up. Get cleaned up so we can head home. Tomorrow we start fixing what I saw. Practice is at eight."

I left the locker room and sat on the bleachers of the empty gym and waited on them. Teagan hustled out the door and found me.

"Jake," Teagan called. "Listen to this."

"What's that baby?"

"A voicemail from the doctor's office."

I held the phone in my hand and listened.

"Mrs. Tillman, this is Dr. DePaul. We did your blood test on you this afternoon. We are going to set up an ultrasound for next week on Thursday but not to check out your ovaries. Congratulations to the both of you. You should expect a little bundle of joy in about nine months. You are pregnant Mrs. Tillman."

"It's early in the game so don't get too excited yet. We like for you to get through the first trimester before you really get excited. But it's good news that you are expecting."

I looked at Teagan. Tears of joy filled her eyes as I pulled her into a hug and held her tightly.

"I told you we didn't need any help," I said as she sobbed.

"Yeah, yeah," she giggled with joy. "Shut up."

Thanks for reading. Comments always welcome.