Asher, seeing the way the defence was being played, let out a long, almost bored sigh.
Leonz was out at the three-point line, Crox covering him.
Having a smaller, more agile player on Asher was probably for the best. Joseph guarded Asher by taking a few steps away.
Asher glanced to his right for a moment before he took a single dribble towards the rim, practically walking towards Joseph. When Asher got close enough, Joseph closed the space between them, reaching out for a steal.
Asher bounced the ball behind the back, from his left to right. He just jumped for a shot, Joseph extending a hand towards Asher.
Asher was about a metre inside the three point line.
Asher shot the ball. Leonz, for some reason, managed to see where it was going.
Leonz ran past Crox, who was too immobile to react as quickly as Leonz.
Asher tried dashing towards the rim as he did many times before, but Joseph skilfully boxed Asher out of the paint.
The ball bounced off the backboard, missing the rim completely. Asher tried jumping for the rebound, but he was just too out of position.
Joseph easily got the board and kept the ball close to him. He spun around Asher and started jogging out of the three-point line.
Asher stood in front of Joseph, not really in much of a position to play defence.
Joseph, in his typical manner, surveyed the court.
Asher was in front of him, Crox was at the rim.
"Careful!" (Crox)
Joseph noticed it too late when Leonz reached out to steal the ball from him.
After missing the chance for the rebound, Leonz had crept up on Joseph while his back was towards the basket.
Leonz grabbed the ball from Joseph and started driving towards the rim by himself.
Crox was there, so Leonz stopped, Asher already being covered by Joseph. Leonz saw that Crox was too far away to defend his shot, no matter how tall Crox was.
It was almost as if they were letting him take the easy midrange shot.
Leonz went up for the shot without any further hesitation. Asher took several steps back, out of the three-point line.
Leonz felt the shot after it was released.
"Tsk." (Leonz)
Leonz ran up to the rim, where the ball was likely to bounce off. However, his shot missed, and Crox had gotten the rebound.
Crox threw a fast pass to Joseph, the pass almost getting stolen by Asher. Asher stood in front of Joseph, not looking too pleased.
"Crox!" (Joseph)
Joseph threw another high pass. This time, Leonz tried to jump for it in an attempt to deflect the pass. Crox jumped and grabbed the ball that was too high for Leonz.
Crox landed hard. Leonz reached out, aiming to tap the ball away.
Crox went up, Leonz's hand doing nothing but weakly drag his arm down.
'BEEEP' (whistle)
Crox still continued his shot, going up and easily bouncing the ball off the backboard and into the rim.
"Shooting foul, #22." (Coach)
Crox clenched his fist and walked up to Joseph, who gave a high-five.
11-4
"My bad." (Leonz)
"Don't mind." (Asher)
For whatever reason, Leonz felt like Asher was acting rather uncharacteristically towards him. But it was no time to think about such things.
Joseph whispered something to Crox which Asher and Leonz were unable to hear.
"Set a screen, I'll work it out from there." (Joseph)
"Pick and roll?" (Crox)
Joseph glanced at the two defenders they were up against.
"No, it might be too risky with those two. I'll do a quick shot or drive." (Joseph)
"Got it." (Crox)
Joseph tapped Crox's arm, whispering something else.
"I want you to make it look like a Pick and Roll though." (Joseph)
"Sure." (Crox)
Joseph turned back to the game and passed the ball to Asher, who tapped it back to him.
Leonz observed, somehow tasked with guarding the massive Crox.
When Joseph started dribbling, Crox stood beside Asher.
"Left screen!" (Leonz)
"Switch." (Asher)
Crox was on Joseph, but there was an obvious gap between them. Leonz had been behind Crox, so when he had to guard Joseph, there was too big of a distance for Leonz to effectively guard him.
Leonz ran up to Joseph, who had stopped to shoot a shot.
Joseph released the shot, leaving his right arm in the air.
"Short!" (Joseph)
Leonz ran towards the rim, where Crox had already gone to. Asher was behind the big guy, prepared to jump.
"There." (Asher)
Asher pointed at the left corner, not looking at Leonz, but Leonz managed to get the message.
Leonz ran to the corner three instead. Joseph followed not long after, trying to cover Leonz despite the late start.
Asher jumped for the rebound, his athleticism beating the height of Crox. Asher tapped the ball back, towards where Leonz was.
Leonz caught the ball, noticing Joseph running towards him.
Leonz went through his normal motion as per usual, going from his hip to his eye level.
Joseph jumped for the block, as he had done so previously.
Leonz brought the ball back down, Joseph flying past him. Leonz resetted his shot before raising his arms again.
Joseph, who had just landed, reached out towards the general direction Leonz was in.
Joseph ended up dragging down Leonz's arms, having caught Leonz on his upward shooting motion.
Leonz jumped, his arms flailing as the ball landed somewhere to the side.
'BEEEP' (whistle)
Leonz picked the ball up, hanging his head. It should have been an easy shot, but their possession got reset instead.
"Shooting foul, #1. Good foul, Joseph." (Coach)
In a full court game, that would have been three free throws.
Leonz stood back in the corner after handing the ball back to Joseph. In the paint, Crox was being defended by Asher.
Joseph checked the ball with Leonz.
Leonz looked around, not too sure what to do as the point guard.
In his moment of hesitation, Joseph tapped the ball away from Leonz. Leonz, in a panic, tried to grab the ball that Joseph had gotten his hands on.
'BEEEP' (whistle)
'Reach-in Foul, #22." (Coach)
Leonz nodded, feeling bad about the bad play.
Leonz checked the ball with Joseph again, this time, Hoseph had the offensive possession.
The moment Joseph got the ball in his hands, he scooped another pass to Crox.
"Alley!" (Joseph)
Asher, seeing the same shot, walked away, not wanting to foul Crox in an attempt to stop them. Even if they scored, at least Asher would have been able to have offensive possession once again.
Crox jumped for it, grabbing the ball high in the air before dunking it in with force.
"Nice alley!" (Coach)
11-6
Asher stepped out of the three-point line, to where Leonz was.
"Play the point." (Asher)
"Me?" (Leonz)
"Who else?" (Asher)
Asher walked away, stepping into the paint once again.
Leonz stood at the top of the three-point line, checking the ball with Joseph. Joseph stuck close to Leonz, not letting Leonz have any easy threes.
"Ain't letting you get that shot." (Joseph)
Leonz saw the two behind Joseph.
Asher had his back against Crox, extending his right arm. Leonz threw the pass, passing slightly further from where Asher was so that Crox was unable to steal it.
Asher took hopped away, catching the pass and bringing it close to his face.
Asher turned his body and slammed his right shoulder into Crox's bigger frame, dribbling the ball with his left.
Crox managed to hold strong, only getting pushed back slightly.
Asher faked a spin to his left by twisting his upper body, making Crox shift slightly. Asher turned back and took a step away with his left foot, grabbing the ball.
He stuck out his right leg as he leaned back for the shot.
Crox reached out, accidentally leaning too close to Asher.
Asher, even after being pushed, shot the shot.
'BEEEP' (whistle)
Asher fell backwards, landing first with his legs. He used his hands to push his body backwards mid fall, sliding backwards on his ass.
Asher looked up at the rim.
The ball had bounced about, but eventually, it bounced in.
13-6
"That's a Flagrant 1* Crox. You shouldn't have leaned into his landing spot and push him in the air." (Coach)
* Unnecessary contact committed by a player against an opponent
"It was by accident." (Crox)
Crox extended a hand to help Asher get up, but the guy got up himself, brushing himself before walking back to the three-point line.
"Do that again and I'm stopping the game." (Coach)
"Understood, coach." (Crox)
Leonz looked around before Asher pointed at him again. Asher looked slightly tired, his breathing more laboured. It made sense since he had done so much.
Leonz checked the ball, Joseph scratching his head.
After the ball was checked, Leonz did not instantly play because Joseph looked away.
Joseph had reacted to the Coach.
"What's the score?" (Coach)
"13-6, we're down." (Joseph)
"You're getting destroyed by freshmen, how does it feel?" (Coach)
"Shut up man." (Joseph)
"Lovehart, how many have you scored?" (Coach)
Leonz tried thinking about it, but he soon realised just his little he scored.
"3?" (Leonz)
The coach gestured in Asher's direction.
"You let that guy score ten on you both? He ain't even seeing correctly." (Coach)
Joseph looked back at Leonz and gave him a friendly smile.
"Ignore him, please. Actually, I insist that you ignore him." (Joseph)
"Okay…?" (Leonz)
The coach decided to remain silent afterwards