As stated in my previous post, in the Lithuanian League, yes we are Goliath. But in the Euroleague we are most definitely the David with a few meager stones. So of course it’s only fitting that we open up Euroleague play against the Russian Spartak team right? And yeah the ones who are the defending 4 time Euroleague champs. THAT Spartak. Those in the “women’s basketball loop” know how much of a powerhouse they are, but to give some perspective to those back home, let me give some analogies:
Spartak is to Vici as….
Wolf Branch is to Pontiac
Althoff is to Belleville East
Xavier is to SLU
Yankees are to Cardinals
Basically they’re the biggest rival possible (yes, I know Cards/Cubs but I needed a rival that actually wins :)). They’re the team that is ALWAYS good, no matter the year. The team that is always cocky. The team that you want to beat more than anything in the world...
Of course all the basketball websites and reports have been saying we’d be lucky to win any games in our Euroleague pool, let alone against Spartak. And I do have to say that although Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson (arguably two of the best female basketball players in the world) still haven’t joined the team yet, they are still loaded with Americans Noelle Quinn and Epiphany Prince and some of the top Russian players. Kind of like if you were playing UCONN this year and Maya Moore was out for the game- it’s still UCONN. Since everything’s bigger in Euroleague this also meant that we played in the bigger arena in the city which added even more of an aura surrounding the game. The place was pretty packed, including tons of screaming kids that were all given balloons when they came in (which of course theypopped loudly every time Spartak shot a free throw. I love kids! :) )
But everything we've done- every practice and every practice game was in preparation for this. We knew we had nothing to lose and all the pressure was on them. Even though maybe no one else believed in us, we were confident in ourselves going into the game and even all these laid back Lithuanian girls had more of a sense of urgency. Now, Coach's pre-game speech was...interesting. He came in with his clip board like usual but then put it down and said he wasn't going to talk about basketball. He then proceeded to COMPLETELY butcher the whole "life is a game of inches" speech from Any Given Sunday. Even though I knew that's where he was coming from (and that video/speech really gets me pumped), his interpretation was so confusing and the Lithuanian girls especially had no idea what the heck he was talking about. But basically he ended it with “do you want to lose as individuals or win as a team?” and we all just shouted “team”! Haha.
Anyways, I still don't know how, but we started off hot and led the entire game. Our shots were all falling. We were playing great team D. Everyone was intense. The bench went crazy with every shot we made. The crowd was huge and really into it. It was awesome! We were even up by 19 at one point! They would make little runs but we kept putting them back down. At the start of the 4th quarter we were up by 16 still. And thennn...the other shoe finally dropped. We were tired and shots weren't falling. Prince and Quinn were more aggressive and taking our girls to the hole. They kept chipping away and ended up tying it at the 2 minute mark. It went back and forth a bit and then their big girl got an and-1 put back with like a minute left. Ugh, right?! You could feel the tension on the court, on the bench and in the gym with everyone thinking there’s no way we’ve come this far, no way we’ve played this well all game, to let this opportunity slip away. Enter Ausra Bimbaite (and a little, or a lot, of luck).
The big Russian girl makes her free throw so we're down 3. After running through our staggers play, Ausra nails a step-back 3 to tie it up. Booyah! With deafening shouts of “GYNYBA! GYNYBA! (Defense! Defense!)” ringing throughout the gym, they’ve got the ball with about 30 seconds left. After they had scored on us what seemed like the past 6 possessions, we somehow got them to have a shot clock violation. Our ball, 3/4 of the court, 6 seconds left. We call timeout to set up a play. Get it past half court and they had a foul to give and used it. So our ball just inside the half court line, 4 seconds. Everyone is on their feet. We on the bench are half bent over with anticipation and nerves, almost too scared to watch. And then, it’s just like a movie- Rima inbounds to Ausra. She drives on Quinn for a lay-up. And as if to suspend the moment in time even longer, it hangs just a bit on the back of the rim, and then IT’S IN, right as the buzzer goes off. WE. GO. CRAZY!!!!! Girls on the court take Ausra down as the bench is clearing, with everyone sprinting towards the madness. This was my first ever team dog pile and it was as crazy and amazing as you’d think! Then we all get up and lift Ausra up in the air and toss her up and down. I swear it was like we won the national championship! We pause our celebration to shake hands with the upset, but poised Spartak team (who were actually pretty humble losers unlike what I think of some of the other before-mentioned rival teams). We then run to half court to do our usual post game “Vici” cheer, except this time we were all jumping up and down and almost in tears...
Yes it’s just one game. And it’s the beginning of season. And they didn’t have some of their best players. And in case you were wondering, I didn’t get a single tick of playing time. But to me, and to all of us, none of that matters because it is absolutely a game, a moment, and a feeling that I will remember for the rest of my life.
And although this video captures everything perfectly, I chose to leave it til the end so you’d have to read my play-by-play perspective first. :) But the video is great, even with all the Lithuanian commentary. I’ve literally watched it over 30 times by now and every single time I get chills and a huge smile across my face when her lay-up falls and the buzzer sounds. And honestly, I think I always will. :)
http://www.basketnews.lt/news-33752-bimbaite-ir-vici-aistes-parklupde-daugkartines-eurolygos-cempiones-video-foto-komentarai.html (Video is at the bottom of the article. The last-minute excitement I described starts at the 50 sec mark)
Also, here are other websites with links to the stories if you're interested. Of course they’re in Lithuanian so you’ll have to hit your translate button, but they’re still pretty cool and have some good pics. My favorite quote has got to be: "It was a sensational result for the home team who were playing in Kaunas for the very first time and even the fact the visitors were without world stars such as Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson won't stop the shockwaves of this result reverberating around Europe and beyond." Pretty awesome.
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| Dog pile! |
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| Team love, excitement, tears :) |
So although our Coach used the Any Given Sunday motivational ploy for this game, the one that keeps coming to my mind is from Miracle. “If we played ‘em 10 times, they might win 9 of them. But not this game. Not tonight.” Do you believe in Miracles? :)
Good post B! Congratulations!! That sounds so awesome!
ReplyDeleteI had quite a few people tell me this weekend that they REALLY enjoy your blog. You're not too shabby of a writer! :) Keep it up and we'll be seeing you NEXT MONTH! (almost!)