Edenville Owls

Chapter 28

We were down by three points to the Grange Bay JVs, with ten minutes left. Grange Bay had a center almost as tall as Russell, and he was too good for Russell one on one. He was getting a lot of points. And we decided the only way to deal with him was to go straight at him. Wear him down a little. Maybe get him in foul trouble.

I was the best dribbler on the team, so I did the most of it. He blocked my shot twice, and one of Russell’s, when I passed off to him. But he picked up two fouls in the process, and had only one left. Next time down the court, with four minutes left, we were hanging in there. Nick and Billy were hitting outside shots, and Manny was doing his usual work on the rebounds. Bringing the ball up, I faked right, dribbled left. Beat my man and ran hard into the Grange Bay center as he moved over to cut me off. Both of us went down, and as we did, I jabbed him hard in the ribs with the elbow away from the ref.

The ref blew the whistle. The Grange Bay center got up and smacked me hard in the mouth. My upper lip started to bleed. Russell jumped in between us with his hands up and his fists clenched, and I grabbed him around the waist and pulled him back.

“No,” I said. “No. We got no subs. We got no subs.”

The referee stepped in and called a double foul. Me for charging, my third, the Grange Bay center for fighting. His fifth, so he was ejected. Which didn’t really matter because he had already fouled out.

“I’ll see you after,” the Grange Bay center said. “You little creep.”

I still had my arms around Russell’s waist.

“You’ll see all of us after,” Russell said, “freaking sucker puncher.”

The coach of Grange Bay came out on the court to get his center.

“Settle down,” he said. “I’ll be around afterward, too, and if there’s any fighting, I’ll kick everybody’s little ass on my team and yours.”

He handed me some wadded tissue.

“Stuff that in your nose,” he said. “Then wad some up and stick it under your upper lip.”

I did as he told me. He watched.

“You ready to go?” he said.

“Yeah,” I said.

He nodded.

“You stayed pretty cool, kid, pretty cool.”

Then he nodded at the referee, and play resumed. Since there’d been a double foul, we had to jump ball to decide possession. With their center gone, Russell was six inches taller than anybody else on the floor. He won the tap easily, and moved down in close to the basket. Nick passed him the ball and he turned and put in a layup over some guy too short to guard him. In the remaining four minutes, Russell scored ten points and blocked half their shots, and we won by five.

After the game when we changed and were leaving the building, the Grange Bay coach came and walked beside me.

“You give him the elbow when you went down?” he said.

I shrugged.

“I guess so,” I said.

“On purpose?”

“Yeah.”

“Worked pretty good, didn’t it?” the coach said.

I looked up. He was smiling.

“Pretty good,” I said.