Sorry for the break in the action last week. Work got to me as I had a bunch of stuff to work on. But we're back this week, baby! I now submit probably one of the most exciting moments as a player that I can remember.
It was my senior year. We were just starting to get on a roll to start the second half of our schedule, beating conference foes Wisconsin Lutheran, Rockford and Marian.
Next up was Dominican. Now we have always had a funny dynamic against the Stars. In my first three years, we just never played good at their place. Two of the years we got blown out, while my sophomore year, we lost on a last second three-pointer on the worst last-second defense ever.
What it really came down to was a clash of styles. We were a little more methodical in our offensive attack and weren't as quick at some positions, where as Dominican liked to run and gun and out-athletic us at some of the positions on the floor. And their style always won at home.
So to say us seniors, especially those who started all four years (i.e. Cam, A.J.), we really wanted to pull out a win on the road. And more importantly to keep our momentum going into the second half of our conference schedule.
The game was during our annual Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday gauntlet. It was always our Tuesday game, as well.
So the game gets going and it's a typical run-and-gun pace. We are trading blows with them pretty good in the first half. We'd go on like a 5-0 run, they'd answer with a 6-0. No one could really grab a hold of the game.
Second half is much of the same way. Neither team had bigger than a four point lead down the stretch.
With about seven minutes left (key part of the story) I'm on the floor. A shot goes up on our end. There is a loose ball and in my infinite wisdom decided I would make a play on it.
I go headfirst towards the ball and realize it's out of my reach by about two inches. There is a Dominican player coming from my left who got to the ball first.
Problem is that I've already hit the deck. His weight collapses on to me smashing my head, which was already on the floor, even farther down.
The play heads to the other end and I can feel something is off when I stand up. I feel like there is a gap missing on my chin.
I immediately touch my hands to my chin, which by this time is just gushing blood. Dominican scores on the other end and I get taken out as soon as the whistle blows.
Our trainer Nick quickly takes me down to the end of the bench. Out comes the gauze nearly instantaneously.
Now, I was a bit dazed and full of adrenaline. All I kept telling him was:
"Nick, get me back out there, man."
He'd always respond: "Relax, I got it."
I don't know how he did it. But he stopped the bleeding enough to get me back out on the court. Another shout out to Benedictine being a red and white school and us being on the road. I'm sure there were plenty of red blood cells on my jersey that couldn't be seen.
I got back on to the floor with about four minutes left to go and the game still going back and forth.
Fast-forward to about a minute and a half left. We're down by two and Dominican has the ball. Some how out of a sideline out of bounds, we manage a steal and it's me and Cam on a two-on-one down to the other end. At the last second, Cam dishes me the ball and I get hammered and go to the line.
Cam would later tell me there was no way in hell he was going to shoot those two free throws. I don't know if I was a much better option at that point considering I had a gaping wound in my chin that was pouring blood.
But I made both free throws to tie the game. Dominican came down to the other end. One of there guards drove pretty deep into our defense and in my infinite wisdom sunk way down on the opposite side from a guy that made three 3-pointers at that point.
The guard kicked it out to Milos Mandic (greatest name ever). All I was thinking was running at him as fast as I could so he would have to pull up.
The plan worked. I closed out so hard and went by him, but he was forced to take a step back 3-pointer which he rattled in and out (Hey, I call that a success).
We grabbed the rebound and call timeout. Our setup for the game-winner, or so we hoped, was just to run Nate off a simple flat screen at the top of the key that we called "Flat." (Original, I know). There was about 20 seconds left on a shot clock and about 26 seconds left on the game clock, so the plan was to run the play as late as we could.
We got out there and this happened.
It was all kind of blur really but there are some parts I still remember, especially when I picked the ball up, which you don't see on the video.
This was really a thanks to two people. Well, four actually. Firstly, to Nate, who blatantly tripped Milos so that I could pick up the ball. Two, three and four goes to the officials, who had missed the foul on Nate's split of the screen and then didn't call the trip figuring the game was going to overtime.
The shot itself was one of those surreal, slow-motion deals. Like I can remember everything I was thinking when the ball was in the air.
My only thought was this has never happened to me in my basketball career. A game-winning buzzer beater. I figured as I let it go that this would be the time it would go in.
As it got closer, that feeling got a little stronger, and when it went in, pure elation.
As you can see our reaction was pretty killer. It took us a good deal to wind down from the game after that. Bunks took us to our after-Dominican game restaurant Portillos, (always stopped at the same one) then back to campus.
However, my night wasn't done yet. Nick and I had a trip to the hospital in Naperville, where I had to get four or five stitches in my chin. If you ever see Nick at a BenU game, be sure to ask him about my chin. He's got a picture of it on his iPhone.
But it was all more than worth it for that shot.
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Sorry once again for the break in the action. We will for sure be back next week. As always you can follow me along on Twitter at @turkdigg40 and if you have any stories and want to share it on the blog, let me know.
