Shengliver’s Note: A close game thrilled the teen writer.

 

Last year, my brother was drafted into the city basketball team. Since then, he has been one of its regulars. During the summer holidays, he had to go and work out every day. Every time he came back from his sessions, he was dripping wet, his jersey soaked through with sweat. He was too tired to do anything.

Several days ago, the Hubei Provincial Basket Tournament took place in town. Teams from all the regional capitals in Hubei participated, our Shiyan team included.

The championship lasted five days, for the duration of which all the members of the city team had to stay and practise together at the training camp. That really made me miss my brother very much, although he gets on my nerves from time to time when he is back home. What mixed feelings!

My brother and his mates played a series of matches for the tournament, but I had an opportunity to watch only one of them. That was the most exciting game I have ever attended.

At the competition, the city team was playing the team from the provincial capital, Wuhan. Their rivals were putting on a good show, scoring again and again. In the first half of the match, the host team fell behind by 20 points. After the second part started, they gradually caught up. The gap between the two teams’ scores narrowed down to just two points. I got extremely edgy because the time was going to be up in less than 2 minutes.

20 seconds before the whistle was blown, someone on my brother’s team grabbed the ball and shot, but he missed the basket. Almost instantaneously the ball was scooped up and passed back to the shooter. He did not give up and tried again. At the very last second, the boy shot and won! It was a three-pointer! No sooner had the ball gone through the hoop than the whistle sounded announcing the end of the game.

Shengliver, you could not imagine how excited I was at the moment. My heart almost jumped out of my chest. How amazing! They made it at the last second. The last second!

Although the deciding shot was not to my brother’s credit, I had an impulse to go over and kiss him in front of the audience. The city team were fabulous.