The Parade College Writing Workshop – Lewis Sebben: My basketball semi-final

 

By Lewis Sebben

 

It was a Saturday afternoon back in 2017 and I was playing in my first basketball semi-final after a blowout win in the first round of the finals. Before I left, I practised for a solid hour before leaving to warm-up and get ready. I was very nervous and anxious in the car on my way to the game. While in the car I put my headphones in and off I went. The team we were playing had only lost one game in the season. We had beaten them the first time by five points, so we definitely had a lot of confidence going into this game. I was the first in my team to arrive at the game, but everyone on the other team was already there. It felt very intimidating. With only five minutes until the game my whole team showed up at the same time. I was a bit confused at first, but I just went with it. Before the game we did the usual warm-up – lay-ups, lines and running back and forth to half court to get ready.

 

I was in the jump ball to start the game and the kid I was guarding was a bit smaller than me, but he was very intimidating. He ended up winning the jump ball because I wasn’t very athletic. But after the first five minutes of the game we had a bit of the lead and the other team was yet to score. I had started the game quite slow, as I usually do. The game went back and forth for the entire first half and I had only scored eight points. As I went to the bench for half time, I was very disappointed in myself and the other team had been trash-talking me all game. I didn’t pay too much attention to it because or else it would get to my head easily.

 

A massive second half started and our defence just completely shut down the other team from scoring. One of the other players on the other team was so frustrated by our defence that he ended up swearing in front of a ref, meaning he received a technical foul. We also got a free throw, which I took and got in. After that I scored 15 straight points for us and we had a 10-point lead halfway through the second half. I felt amazed and surprised that I could ever play this well, but the scoring just continued and continued for the rest of the game. Even though our defence was unstoppable, they found a way to beat it with only five minutes left in the game. We were up by 20 at one stage, then the other team brought it back to just 10 points. But because of my dream scoring run, their scoring meant nothing to us. I had scored 27 points in the second half alone and altogether I had 35 points. Throughout the whole game my team was very sloppy with the ball but on defence we were locked in.

 

Once the final buzzer sounded, my whole team went nuts and they all jumped on me. I had never felt so amazed in my life – I was going to play my first grand final in a weeks’ time. The other team left straight away without shaking our hands. We won by nine points and I finished with a crazy 35 points (my most points in a game). This was the greatest game that not only I had played but my whole team had played.

 

 

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Comments

  1. Colin Ritchie says

    Well played Lewis! Sounds like your team may have the wood on your opponents. Good luck.

  2. Vanessa Fox says

    Good on you Lewis! So much for the other team trash-talking you. 35 points is an awesome individual effort and a fantastic win for your team.

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