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Badgers ahead by three, and the Lightning have the ball.

“The Badgers have shifted into a one-three-one trap type defense whose sole purpose is to get the ball out of Blevins’ hands. Gathers inbounds to Race, who

heads for the paint, fakes a shot, fakes a pass, then moves in again, dodging and dipping her way through the larger bodies. She lays it up. It hits the front

part of the rim and bounces straight up. Lambert and Gathers go for the rebound. Lambert grabs it and uses her sharp elbows to clear out a space for

herself. She passes to Chaney, who loses the handle.

“Toomey picks it up and shoots from the key. Scores! The lead is now cut to one with…less than a minute to play. Perfect foul situation for the Lightning.”

“Yes, just don’t foul Hodges, who is the Badgers’ best free throw shooter at seventy eight percent from behind the line.”

“Lambert takes the ball out of bounds, guarded heavily by Gathers and Holloway. Race and Blevins are all over Hodges, and Chaney breaks free, wide open.

Lambert sees her, but can’t get the pass off.

“The ref is counting down the final seconds. Lambert lifts the ball, and throws it at the belly of Gathers. The ball bounces off of her and out of bounds. Good

play to keep possession by Lambert.”

“It was a gutsy call, Ted. Gathers could have easily caught that and scored the lead basket. Lambert was lucky that time.”

“There’s a switch behind the endline as now Toomey handles the ball. Chaney sets a pick for Hodge’s defender, springing the point guard, who catches the

pass with sure hands. Turning, she sees Lambert streaking down the sideline all alone, and as the clock begins to wind down, she launches an airball as hard

and as high as she can make it.

“The ball lands in Lambert’s hands at the apex of her jump and she JAMS it through. The perfect alley oop schoolyard play, but in this case, it worked to

perfection. The lead’s back up to three.

“The Lightning race back and get the ball. The seconds are ticking down. Gathers manages to get a pass off to Blevins who is immediately fouled by

Chaney.”

“A good call, Ted. The Badgers are just at their team limit, and Blevins can sometimes be inconsistent with her free-throws.”

“It’s a one and one situation, here as Blevins steps up to the line and receives the ball. She dribbles, looks, and shoots. The ball rattles around the rim, then

goes through, cutting the lead to two.

“Pretty much everybody in the house knows this is going to be a deliberate miss, Ted. It’ll be interesting to see what the Badgers have planned. Lambert

and Gathers switch sides, ready to box out.”

“Blevins steps up to the line. She dribbles once, twice, looks, and launches a complete brick that hits the rim and bounces nearly back to her. Hodges steps

in and grabs the rebound, but has it stripped from her hands by Race. Both women go down and the ball rolls free. Lambert vaults the pile of bodies and

lands on the ball just as the buzzer sounds, ending the game, and with it the Lightning’s hope for a repeat championship appearance.”

“It wasn’t a pretty game, but it sure was a gutsy one, Ted, I’ll have to give both teams that as we watch the euphoric Badgers dogpile on their Coach who

still has the ball in her hands.”

“Interestingly, the only person who looks upset about this is Lightning Coach Merla Gibbons. The rest of the team is helping Lambert to her feet and

showering her with as much congratulations as are the members of her own team.”

“Well, she played with them for many years, don’t forget, and I think they can be forgiven for feeling some of the same excitement we feel just watching

her out on the court again.”

“Very much so, Ted. Well, that about wraps it up here at Bayou Arena, with the Birmingham Badgers coming out on top of the Louisiana Lightning 74-72.

For Ted Richardson and all the rest of us at ESPN, this is Lori Belchar wishing you all a good night.”

Cat sat in the hot tub up to her chin. Every muscle in her body hurt. Some of them hurt twice. All she wanted to do was soak, take a hot shower , crawl into

bed next to Dylan, and sleep for a week. If Dylan was in the mood to share her bed, that was. The tall coach had been very quiet during the drive home.

Part of it, Cat knew, was processing the game and her role in it. Part of it, too, was the fact that she hadn’t “come all the way back” from the Dylan Lambert

she was on court—the cold, stone-faced, nothing-but-business persona that Cat had, from time to time, caught glimpses of, but never directed at her.

The memory of Dylan’s words to her on the court still stung, even though she understood the logic of them. It was the lack of emotion behind those words

that cut into her heart and made her feel, if not unwanted, at least rebuked.

As if on cue, Dylan entered the room with two glasses of juice. Dropping her robe she slid into the tub next to the blonde, groaning all the way down. “Oh

God.”