The Beasts ran on offence while the Jesters ran back on defence.
Joseph brought the ball up, Toby(PF) ahead of him.
Leonz stood at the right corner, Hatchet standing at the left. Toby and Crox were inside, all of them mostly at the baseline.
Joseph assessed the situation, especially with his defender in front of him.
Joseph made eye contact with Toby.
"Right screen!" (Thomas)
Joseph drove to his left, where Toby had set a screen up for him. Harley hit into Toby, unable to get around him. Samuel(PF) stepped up to try and defend Joseph.
Joseph started driving to the basket, trying to draw as many defenders onto him as possible.
He managed to get past Samuel, driving to the basket. He jumped for a layup, Thomas jumping too to block him.
It was an easy dish. Joseph handed the ball off to Crox, who had his hands outstretched. Crox grabbed the ball and jumped, dunking the ball in effortlessly.
Joseph landed and instantly ran back on defence.
"Good pass." (Crox)
"Yeah, but our defence needs work. Especially against that guy." (Joseph)
Harley held the ball in his hands, the defence still getting into place. Harley extended his right arm backwards and threw the ball the moment he got the ball inbounded.
The ball was thrown long.
Joseph tried to intercept it, but it was too high.
Crox ran to where the ball was headed.
Thomas jumped high, reaching high above the rim, higher than where Crox could reach.
Thomas caught the ball and slammed it in.
He hung on the rim, his entire body swinging on it before he dropped down. Thomas bumped Crox out of the way before running back on defence.
Harley and Thomas did a small celebration together.
Joseph looked at the clock.
***
Time: 10:36
Score: 10-5
***
Not a single person had missed.
Joseph brought the ball up, trying to figure out the Jesters.
According to Dom, the highest ranked freshmen they had was No. 66. However, from what he saw of Harley, he seemed more of a top 10, hell maybe even top 5.
Harley stood in front of Joseph, eyes attached to the ball.
Joseph saw Hatchet running up to him. Joseph passed to him, wanting to get the ball out of his hands before Harley did anything weird.
Hatchet caught it and did a pump fake, getting Leonard(SG) in the air. Joseph walked off to the side, still outside the three-point line. Harley had sneaked over to Hatchet.
"Pass!" (Joseph)
Hatchet noticed how close Harley had been to him and threw the ball over to Joseph.
Joseph was left completely open.
The supposed help defenders, Ainz(SG) and Thomas(C) did not leave their marks. Joseph was wide open as a result.
Joseph transitioned into a shot, aiming to cut the deficit by three.
He released the shot and took a few steps back, feeling the shot.
"Short!" (Joseph)
Crox boxed Thomas out. Thomas tried getting around him, but Crox was too massive.
The ball passed under the rim, going out of bounds.
Air ball. Nothing but net and air.
Joseph simply ran back on defence, trying not to let the miss disturb him too much.
The rest of the Beasts ran back on defence, none of them saying much.
Leonz picked up Harley full-court again.
Joseph pointed around and behind him, instructing the defence. Joseph himself was guarding Ainz because of the height difference between their Shooting Guards.
"Careful of that lob! Communicate! Call out screens, call out switches!" (Joseph)
Harley dribbled the ball, a smile still on his face.
"What a game." (Harley)
Harley extended his right arm back, staring at the rim where Thomas was. Leonz knew that if the pass was able to be thrown, Thomas was too athletic for Crox to be able to disrupt the alley-oop play.
Leonz jumped out, hand extended to block the pass, when he saw Harley swinging his arm.
Harley stopped the ball before it could leave his hand with his left arm. In momentum, Harley threw the ball off Leonz's right thigh. Harley grabbed the ball again and ran past Leonz.
Leonz landed and ran after him full speed. In the previous possession, Harley had been too fast for him to keep up with, but this time, Leonz was actually catching up.
Leonz ran up full speed to Harley's side.
Harley tried to give a burst of speed of his own, the both of them already at the three-point line. Leonz stuck close to him.
Harley took a hard step with his left leg, stopping his entire body. Leonz was to the right of Harley.
Harley brought the ball back, a left to right crossover.
Leonz, who had been running full speed, could not stop himself. When he tried, he noticed what had happened.
His decision to change motion so drastically had been too sudden, and as a result, his legs froze up. Leonz fell to the ground.
Ankle-Breaker.
Harley took the easy midrange shot which Joseph had tried to help on defence.
The shot went in.
The people who had been watching the game went wild. The Jester bench started cheering as Harley went back onto their side of the court on defence.
The Beasts helped Leonz up.
Joseph pulled Leonz onto his feet.
Leonz stood up, feeling somewhat embarrassed that he was ankle-broken in such a fashion.
"Don't mind it. You're doing alright." (Joseph)
Leonz took a step forward with his right foot before his leg buckled.
The first to see was Joseph, the second was Dom.
"Timeout!" (Joseph)
The Jesters went ahead to celebrate while the Beasts went over to their bench where it looked grim.
Time: 10:01
Score: 12-5
They gathered at the bench. Joseph and Dom both forced Leonz to sit down.
"What?" (Leonz)
"Sit the fuck down." (Joseph)
Joseph had everyone in a group huddle, Dom trying to think.
"You said their highest ranked freshmen was No. 66. What the hell was that guy?" (Joseph)
"I don't know. We don't got a manager, do we?" (Dom)
"Neither do they, and they're doing way better." (Joseph)
"Anyone of you recognise the guy?" (Dom)
"I think I do." (Hatchet)
"What rank is he?" (Dom)
Hatchet scratched his head.
"He was my junior back in middle school. I only knew him cause he would play basketball with some of the Basketball Team boys, a few pickup games. Other than that, I don't know much about him." (Hatchet)
"So he didn't play in middle school tournaments?" (Dom)
"I think so, yeah." (Hatchet)
Dom smacked his face and sighed.
"Of course there're going to be folks like that. Unranked freshmen. Who knows how good he actually is. And judging by how all of you are getting your asses beaten, he's damn good." (Dom)
Dom pulled his clipboard out.
"Topac, get ready to sub in. Hatchet will go back to running the 2, Topac will sub in at the 3." (Dom)
"Wait, I can still play." (Leonz)
"Shut up, look at your ankle." (Dom)
Leonz looked at his right ankle, the ankle which he had stressed with stopping his momentum. It was swelling, and by quite a bit too.
"We'll run our usual formation." (Dom)
'BEEEEP' (whistle)
It was the end of the timeout.
Substitution:
#22 6'2 Leonz Lovehart substituted with #99 6'5 Darius Topac
Leonz sat on the bench, hanging his head. The bench guys weren't talking to him much, especially because of how embarrassed Leonz was.
"We're going to need to get that ankle checked. Make sure it isn't a fracture or anything too serious." (Dom)
Leonz nodded.
Dom looked around.
"Of all the times. We need a damn manager. Totem, go get Lovehart to the infirmary of the school." (Dom)
Rodney Totem, one of the bench guys, helped Leonz onto his feet and supported his weight as they walked. Some guys from Homer helped them locate the infirmary.
Leonz Lovehart, ranked No. 43, leaves the game 1 minute 59 seconds into the game. Reason for departure: Ankle Injury.
Back to the game.
Joseph walked up with the rest of the boys, feeling slightly concerned as to how they were going to do.
They were okay at best. They were able to win a few games the previous season because of the seniors. But without their seniors, they were absolutely worthless. They had some hope with the talent in their freshmen, but with both not in the game, Joseph was getting concerned.
"Calm down boys!" (Joseph)
The rest of the guys nodded silently.
Toby(PF) inbounded the ball before running towards the paint.
Joseph dribbled up the court with the ball, surveying the court. Harley stood some distance away.
"Let's take it slow, try to have fun!" (Joseph)
Joseph scooped a pass the moment he finished speaking. Harley was too far away to stop the pass.
Crox boxed out Thomas who was trying to disrupt the play. The ball arched high in the air and down towards where Crox was. The ball was almost vertical as it fell.
Crox jumped in the air, grabbing the ball with both hands before slamming it down, shaking the entire backboard when he did.
Crox landed, the ball bouncing off to the side.
He bumped Thomas aside as he ran back on defence.
"We may be short handed, but like hell we'll just fall over and die!" (Joseph)
Harley brought up the ball.
***
Time: 9:48
Score: 12-7
***