Basketballing Ben

• Oliver Ackland, Grade 5, St Joan of Arc School
• Short Story
• 2016

Excellence Award in the 'Top Secret 2016' competition

The car sliced through the rain into the darkness ahead. After what seemed like hours they reached the lights of the basketball centre. Ben was just starting his first American junior professional tournament, all over America kids were picked to join teams and Ben was one of them. He had met his team in a few trainings and they all seemed older and more serious than him.

The game began, they had control of the passing it dangerously around the goal looking for an opportunity to score. In the end Ben’s team won. Ben practiced hard for weeks, basketball was the only sport he was good at and he wanted to make sure he practiced hard. His team was one of the best in the league and they made sure of it with three training sessions every week.

The home and away season was over, they had only lost 2/12. They were 2nd on the ladder after Washington, Washington had won all of their games and had beaten Ben’s team twice. The first game of the finals was against Texas, Ben’s team won 57 to 12. The next game was against Washington, Washington just won with a margin of 22 to 28. The next few games they won easily moving to first place in front Washington who were now even more determined to win the grand final.

That week the team had two extra training sessions. Everyone knew how serious this was, representing America for the world tournament and being the best junior team in America is a big honour.

On the day of the big game Ben woke up early to warm up and practice. The ball was thrown up, the other team had the ball and took a quick layup but they got one back before the other team even got a chance to get to the other side of the court. At half time one of Ben’s teammates took a three pointer to bring the score to 21 to 18 with Ben’s team still in the lead.

At the start of the second half Ben’s team had the ball and were passing around the circle, finally they dribbled it in and scored. Straight away the other team dribbled up but they missed and Ben dribbled up and got his first shot in for the season bringing the score to a total of 25 to 18. But in the last few minutes the other team came back to make it a draw. Then in the last 30 seconds the other team scored to make the score 25 to 27. Ben’s teammate passed the ball to him, he dribbled up the court and passed it off but the guy passed it back and he realised he was free so Ben shot from the three, amazingly it went in. The crowd cheered and that night the team celebrated their victory.