Trophy Time! (Saturday, Sept 25)

With the 4 teams in the tournament, the final game came down to us and the home team, which I do actually know are called the Košice “Good Angels”. We had both gone 2-0 in our first games so this was an unceremonious championship game. To preface the game, let me set the mood. I mean it when I say this was the home team. On the drive to the gym there were at least 3 billboards with the team or players on them. On the outside of the gym are huge murals of 5 of the star players. In the gym itself one whole wall is covered with banners that have pictures of the team post- league championship wins- holding trophies and flowers with nets around their necks. They apparently have won their league for the past 6 years in a row (at least). And if the team marketing wasn’t intimidating enough, the girls women, on the team were. They were on the court before or after us each shootaround and each game, so we had run into them often and watched them play a little. They seemed bigger, faster, stronger, you name it. Each one looked like a seasoned vet and they all had a tough, Eastern European look about them- with dark eye make-up and either slicked back hair in a pony or a very unlady-like Ellen DeGeneres haircut. They all had matching new shoes and nice warm ups while we are more of a rag-tag team of varying attire. Their crowd is rowdy and there was even a section of guys with big drums that they banged at the opponents for most of the game. So got the picture? Intimidating.

However no one on our team seem fazed. From the start we simply played our game. With luck, we were up by 12 after the 1^st quarter and up by maybe 8 at half. We were playing well, offensively and defensively but knew that they would come out with vengeance in the second half. And boy did they ever. There were times that they made us look plain silly. For one stretch it seemed like they were doing full court lay-up lines on us, scoring at will. They had the lead for awhile, I think getting it up to as much as 6. But remember, I said my team was good. I still don’t remember exactly how, but we fought back. We had some good shots fall and got big stops and rebounds when we needed to. And when that final buzzer went off, we had squeaked away with a 3 point win! And of course in Lithuanian laid-back fashion, there was no big dog pile or chest bumps but rather just simple smiles and high fives. But that was enough for me. The great team win was enough.  And for icing on the cake, we even got a nice sized, FIRST PLACE, trophy along with it. Although I loved my time at SLU more than anything, it has been awhile since getting a 1^st place trophy so the feeling was pretty awesome. I think our coach summed it up best after the game when he said (in broken English), pointing to his chest, that we proved today that your heart is the most important muscle in basketball. (Man, I knew I liked this guy…). GO VICI!!

Us with our first place trophy!!

 (And if you can't tell, it seems that Europeans aren't big on open-mouthed smiles. So yes, it looks like I'm cheesin extra hard! :) )