Chapter 17

MONDAY MORNING, Coach Dearborn wanted Dennis to work with the Bears at DMACC. Dennis wasn’t sure he was ready for that after the stinging loss on Saturday, but the Bears had lost two in a row since getting back after the first of the year. They had a long layoff between their game the previous Wednesday and the upcoming game on Thursday.

The consistent thing about the two games was that their new player, Amanda, had scored twenty-four in each game while no one else on the team broke double figures. Dennis was going to be teaching a hard clinic on assists.

“This is one of the hardest things to figure out,” Dennis said. “Right now, there’s a kind of competition to get the shot off and you aren’t looking for the open person. You canned less than thirty percent of your attempts from the field. That was uniform for the whole team. We’re running assists to turnovers at a rate of only 50%. That means you aren’t looking for the best shot.”

“How can we if we never get the ball?” one of the women grumbled. She cast an evil eye toward Amanda.

“Give me a break. I’m the only one who ever hits anything. Why should I pass it off to you?” Amanda shot back.

“You hit the exact same percentage as Libby,” Dennis corrected her. “It isn’t that anyone is doing worse than anyone else. It’s that you are all taking shots that should be given to someone in a better position. Now, no blame here. We all need to pass the ball and find the right person to shoot. That’s what plays are for. Let’s get back to the basics and review the play book.”

It was a painful session. Some of the women seemed to have forgotten all the plays Coach Dearborn had drilled them on in October. A couple had never really looked at the playbook. What they accomplished was to find the hot spot for each of the players—that place where she was most likely to make her shot. It turned out that Amanda’s best shots were from outside the three-point line at the right wing. She didn’t realize that. Just exactly Natalie’s favorite shot.

It would take a while before they got coordinated. They’d be working on the playbook for the rest of the week.

Dennis hurried to Bartley to work with his own girls after their loss on Saturday. He had some rebuilding to do with them.

“Rosie, what the hell?” Dennis exclaimed when he saw her in the gym. She was walking with a crutch and her right foot and ankle were heavily wrapped. Dennis was relieved to see it wasn’t in a cast.

“I fell on the ice and twisted my ankle. With luck it will only be a week or so,” she sniffled.

“Are you sure it isn’t female athlete triad?” Daphne said, scowling at her.

“Believe me, after your experience last year, I got thoroughly checked and tested. I’m of sound mind and body. Or at least I was before this happened. They checked me for concussion, too. I’m having occasional headaches.”

“You hit your head?” Karen asked. The younger freshman had become quite attached to Rosie since the season began.

“Yeah. They were more concerned about that than about my ankle.”

Rosie sat out the training session, watching her teammates and shouting encouragement. It was clear that Janice would start in her place again Tuesday night.

“The Wolves gave us opportunities to win on Saturday. To be precise, seven missed free throws and—I can’t believe this one—eleven missed three-pointers. We only hit one for the bonus. That means we’ll be working on free throws and threes this afternoon. Let’s focus on getting that range, ladies. The Wildcats aren’t the same caliber team as the Wolves, but they smell blood in the water.”

Dennis drilled the girls hard and worked in some of the assist training he’d used to discover hotspots the day before. By the end of practice, the girls—except Rosie—were all feeling much better.

Tuesday night, everyone was a little tense. The first minute of the game was marked by turnovers on both sides. Then Janice, driving for the basket, was fouled and sank two free throws for the first score of the game. For another two minutes, the ball and the score went back and forth. Then the Angelines found their rhythm and opened up the score to 16-8 at the end of the first period.

Janice found her hot spot under the hoop. Every time an Angeline missed a shot, it seemed Janice was there to tip it in. She soon had the high score of the game with sixteen—all scored in the first half. The Angelines led at the half 40-11.

Dennis had the team back off on their full-court press and for most of the fourth period played younger and less experienced players. Nonetheless, the Angelines outscored the Wildcats 21-11 in the second half.

“Hey, girl. You were getting really chummy with that number three out there,” Natalie teased Diane. With Janice’s sixteen points, Diane, Natalie, and Tori had each contributed twelve.

“Belle’s a sweetheart,” Diane said. “We’re going to be classmates at Northwestern next fall. I feel like I know someone now.”

“That’s cool. Will she play basketball?” Amy asked.

“Well, she wasn’t recruited, but she’s going to try to walk on. Who knows, though. She really didn’t have the support of her team out there. If she was playing with the Angelines, she’d be a star,” Diane said.

“Yeah, she’d have my position,” Amy said. “I don’t know why I can’t hit anything all of a sudden.”

“With three steals and three assists, you are still making plays possible for us,” Tori said. “With the way she was hitting threes, it would be more likely she’d replace me.”

“Nobody’s getting replaced,” Natalie said. “We’ve got depth on our team. It was so nice to be back up to full strength tonight. I missed you all out there on Saturday.”

“That three-day flu stuff just kicked my ass,” Liz said. “I’m glad I got to play today.”

“Too bad we’ve got school tomorrow. It would be a good night for pizza.”

While they were chatting, the boys won their game, 58-45. The new kid, Brandon, had come off the bench to contribute thirteen points and the high score for the night.

“Hey, there. I’m Brandon. New kid. Can I join you for lunch today?”

Tori turned around and found herself face-to-face with Brandon.

“Um ... Sure. I usually sit with the team.”

“Oh, that’s great. I’m really trying to meet more people in our class. It kind of sucks getting here just in time for the last semester of our senior year,” he said.

“Well, come and meet the gang,” Tori said. “We don’t bite unless you like that kind of thing.”

“Oh, well, I could probably get into it with the right girl,” he laughed.

They got to the table and the girls shifted around to make two seats available next to each other.

“Hey, guys. Have you all met Brandon? He’s new in our class,” Tori said as they sat down. “And on the basketball team.”

“Nice job Tuesday night, Brandon,” Dennis said. “The team needed that help.”

“I was just glad to get a chance to play. Wouldn’t have if we weren’t already ahead,” Brandon said. “Thanks for welcoming me.”

“I’ve got senior English with you,” Natalie said. “Aren’t you in physics?”

“My former school got my schedule screwed up, so I’m back in biology this term. I’ve already taken physics.”

“I’m in that class,” Dennis said. “You can take it for college credit, you know.”

“Not me. My highest aspiration is to stay eligible to play. I’m not much in scholastics otherwise. Um ... Aren’t you two in US History?” he asked pointing to Amy and Lana.

“Um ... Yeah,” Amy said. “We got permission to take it a year early. Just juniors, you know.”

“Oh. You’re Amy, right?”

“Yeah.”

“We got a chance to talk to some of the guys after the game last night. They said you’re the reason other schools call you the Devilines instead of the Angelines. One of their girlfriends was waiting for them and she said you were a one-person terror squad and she didn’t understand how you could force so many errors on the full court press. She swore you could guard two people at once,” Brandon said.

“I like that,” Natalie said. “From now on, you’re our Deviline.”

“Oh, great. Just wait till Bren hears that!”

“She will,” Lana giggled. “I’ll make sure of that.”

Lunch wrapped up and everyone was happy to have met Brandon. He walked to class with Tori.

“Say, would you like to go out after the game Friday night?” he asked. “Or maybe if you’re too tired after games, we could make it Saturday. I know I’m usually whipped after a game.”

“Sure you want to ask me out and not Amy?” Tori teased.

“Um ... Don’t take this wrong, but I got a real lecture from a couple of the guys on the team about certain girls who are off-limits. She’s one of them. I was just thankful you weren’t on their list.”

“I was, but I broke up with them at Thanksgiving. Um ... Anyway, sure. How about Saturday afternoon. We could have a little time to get to know each other,” Tori said.

“Sure. I’ll check on movies and give you a time. You’ll let me know where you live so I can pick you up, won’t you?” Brandon asked.

“Since everyone in the school will know we’re going out by then, I think that will be safe.”

They sat next to each other in their economics class.

Friday night, Natalie finally found her three-point range. After two games with no three-pointers scored by the Angelines, Natalie hit five out of seven attempts and Amy sank two for two. Tori grabbed one and the rest of the game was wrapped up under the basket with Janice, Diane, and Judith all contributing to the second 61-21 victory in two games.