Final game: The farewell gift.

The setting was not new. In fact for the past four years I have spent in this college, it has always been the same. They would crush their opponents as ruthlessly as we did. They were always as strong as we were (if not more). And they would always reach the finals as we would. Last year though, they beat us. They beat us real bad.

My day had started with me cramming up the portions of the dreaded internals. Distributed computing and Security in computing to be precise. Till the clock showed 5:45 pm, I was always near a text book. It was time for the finals. B.Tech, CUSAT vs Rest of CUSAT.

The match started on a high note for us: Praveen scored the first points by scoring a 3 pointer. But, after those first points, ROC came roaring back into the game. At the end of the first quarter we were down 7 points.
We didn't give up. Our playing five fought like hell and tied the score by the end of the second quarter at 15-15.
The third quarter saw the same ups and downs. At one point they would score at the other point we would do well. At the end of the third we had a small lead of 3 points.
The fourth quarter started with a bang for us. We managed to extend the 3 point lead to 7 points. The time left on the clock was somewhere around 2 minutes, and the game was a wrap .... or so it seemed.
Thomas is undoubtely the best player in the university. Be it ball control, shooting or passing. He is literally a one man army. And he was in the opposing team. He shot a 3 pointer and followed it up with another excellent 2 pointer. And we became nervous..
The clock had counted down to 45 seconds. Thomas had the ball. The B.tech crowd was shouting their lungs hoarse, for they though t the match was over, while the ROC crowd waited patiently for a miracle. He slowed the game down. Waiting for the clock to count down further. And then came the screen. Bipin came and blocked Praveen who was guarding Thomas. Thomas went to his right, looked down at the 3 point line and let one loose. The ball had a perfect arch and it fell into the basket. ROC lead by 1 point. Clock showed 10 seconds. We were in dismay.
The throw was taken, the ball passed to Praveen, which was then quickly passed onto Pylee, who was standing at the ROC three shot line. Pylee fumbles the ball... Freddy gathers it tries to drive in and gets fouled !!! Two free throws granted.
Now that is what you call pressure. But, we all had confidence in Freddy. He shot the first free throw, in front of a crowd which was trying their level best to distract him, and it fell !! What a relief, the scores were tied. The second one didn't fall and the whistle was blown.
The game was tied and we were to have 5 minutes of over time. The playing 5 played their hearts out and in the end we managed to win the game by 6 points !!!
It was the perfect goodbye gift.

PS : I was a substitute player in the team, and didn't get a chance to play. The first five played the whole game and no one could have done better than them. I'm just really happy to be a part of this team.
There were a few fights and unfair decisions in the game. But those all are a part of it, I guess.