3-Point (FreenBecky)

Lose is the new win

PRITTT

The whistle had been blown by the referee as the signal of the last quarter had begun.

"Glad that I am not missing it!" Becca said under her breath. She was tired after looking out for her seat when she was going back after buying a drink.

While sipping into her drink, Becca looked out to the score above the ring. A worried look could be seen on her face, as she saw that her campus team was left quite far behind the Mahidol team. Will they catch up? She said to herself, getting nervous all of sudden.

Upon checking the score, Becca's eyes traveled down to the court, seeing the player was running in position, securing the ball. The ball was currently dribbled by Nam, the Point Guard and shortly passed onto someone just feet away from her, Mind. Mind accepted the ball and played with it a bit, dribbling on each of her feet before passing it again to Lux, who was under the ring. She was waiting for momentum to shoot the ball but the opposition's player was so aggressive that she finally failed. She then passed to Sam, who was standing across her, outside the three point line.

Wait, Sam?! Becca was shocked after she laid her eyes on her most enemy, Sam. She did not expect that Sam would come and play with the team in this match. Knowing that Sam was there playing, Becca unconsciously put her drink down on the empty seat beside her and stood up from her seat.

After accepting the ball in her hand, Sam jumped out just before another player ran to her spot. While her feet in the air, she let out the ball from her grasp and shot it directly to the ring. Just seconds later, the ball came inside the ring, which added to the Bangkok team's score.

84 - 63

Just after the ball got into the ring, the arena became alive again, so did Mike. He looked over to Song, who was also looking back at him, smiling. Sam's first point had burned the spirit that was out of him minutes before.

Not only did it make Mike and Song happy, Sam's first point was also welcomed by Nam and Mind, who patted their hands on Sam's back. "Keep it up, Sam!" Nam said. "I know you can do it, Sam!" Mind smiled, after giving Sam the encouragement.

However, this did not go well with Lux, who just ran back to the other side of the court, ready to defend when the opposite team had passed inside the first ball. Sam realized that then got into her position as well, defending the other team's Point Guard.

The opposing team tried to break the defense of the Bangkok team but unfortunately they could not do it easily as before. Both Mind and Lux had doubled their guard to handle the tower twin from the opposite twin and the ball got blocked, thrown outside the court.

While guarding up the team, Sam noticed the small details from the rival. She noticed that 3 out of 5 players' stamina had already run out, which was a good sign for her to steal the ball from them, as their focus also will be lessened than before.

Just like what Sam thought; when the player did a throw-in, Sam sneakily stole the ball from the player's hand and got away with the stolen ball. She then stopped when she arrived at the half court line and jumped to throw the ball, which no one thought that she would be able to do from there.

SPLASH

The ball got into the ring beautifully seconds later, making the crowd scream with full joy. Sam, once again, succeeded with her three points, helping the team to earn more and more points.

84 - 66

~

86 - 82

Sam's existence on the court made the game even more heated than before. With only five minutes, Bangkok could chase Mahidol's point. Bangkok only needed 5 more points for them to win the game. With no more than two minutes left, Mike and the players did believe that they could make it to 86 points, since they always could stop the opponents' offense.

However, the team's excitement did not go well with Lux, as she always passed the ball to other players than Sam. She clearly did not let Sam dribble the ball and kept on trying to shoot directly into the ring when the ball was in her hand. Actually, if the ball gets in, there will be no problem with that. Unfortunately, with all the chances she got, she failed to add the score.

87 - 82

Seeing that Lux kept on making the same mistakes, Mike called the team for a time out. "What do you think you are doing?" Mike asked Lux, who was sitting and drinking her water.

Lux looked up to the coach, "What?" she asked, and looked like she did nothing wrong.

Mike frowned, raised his voice. "You lost the chance! Pass the ball to Sam instead, will you?" He instructed, disappointment clearly heard in his voice.

"She's not traini-"

"Yes, she skipped the training but she definitely saved this game!" Mike answered, looking impatient. "Whatever your problem is with her, just forget it first and play this game wisely. Understand?" He paused then continued. "See there? You made us lose one point, made us have to catch up with five points more! Wake up, Lux!" he yelled.

Lux looked over to the score's board above the ring, which showed 87 - 82. She then let out her sigh, feeling displeased by Mike's instruction.

~

87 - 85

"Two more points! Two more points!" The audience chanted their supporting chants for the Bangkok team, as they only left two points behind the Mahidol team. Both teams had only less than 20 seconds to claim their victory. They are drenched by sweat, dancing between the rhymed footsteps. Every second was important, as they are either losing it or winning it.

As the shut clock had shown 8 seconds, Mind successfully blocked the opponent's shot, made the ball thrown to the side, rolling on the floor in no man's hand. Seeing the chance, Nam dived on the floor, reached out to the ball and pushed it to Lux, who was standing just two feet away from the ball.

Understanding Nam's plan, Lux took the ball who rolled up to her then dribbled it straight to the opponent's ring. Her fast steps left the opponents behind, including the Bangkok team. Only one player was running behind her on the left side. Should I shoot? Lux told herself, when she was only feet away from the ring.

Just when she was about to do a lay up, her left side eye caught a glimpse of Sam, who was running to the three point area. Her breath was rushing, feeling all the hate she felt to Sam. The hate she felt made her stop on the spot, ready in the position to shoot. She crouched a little, jumping. While flying on the air, she looked at the score and remembered what Mike had told her earlier:

"Yes, she skipped the training but she definitely saved this game!"

Lux then closed her eyes, letting out the ball from her hands. Fuck!

"??!!"

Instead of shooting the ball directly to the ring, Lux turned her right hand to the left side, positioning her hand to pass the ball to Sam, who was already on the spot.

"Whoa?!!" The audience were screaming in unison, and did not expect that Lux would pass the ball.

Sam, who predicted Lux's motive, accepted the ball steadily. When she got the ball in her hand, she jumped and threw the ball high into the air. As the board had turned red, the ball flew inside the ring, indicating the win of the Bangkok team, with the final score 87 - 88.

Lux's loss had brought the team a good win, after all.

To be continued