Jumping Jack Flash in a Sea of Green!

December 13, 2004 --

We're off to the place I least like to play -- Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Not that Tahlequah is a bad town or anything. It's just so far away from home. We usually play games on Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons. But, because of finals, we were forced to play this 2-game roadtrip on Saturday afternoon and Monday night. We lost the first game of the roadtrip to Central Oklahoma 84-81. We were up 4 at the half but tanked in the second half. Needless to say, momma was not happy that weekend. On top of that, we had to travel to Tahlequah to play Northeastern State University (NSU), the #1 team in the LSC North. We had a little revenge on our mind since they knocked us out of the LSC playoffs the year before on a last second shot. Heartbreaking!

NSU (their school colors are green and white -- hence the title sea of green) plays in a very small gym, very similar to a small airplane hanger. 1000 people is about all it can hold. They have great fan support and a band that makes the place deafening.

When the game started, we came out flat. The loss 2 days ago to Central Oklahoma and the upcoming Christmas break seemed to have us distracted. NSU led by as many as 10 points before settling for a 42-36 halftime lead.

In the second half, we never let their lead grow as we continued to chip away. ACU pulled even at 53-53 with 11:11 to play in the game. From there, both teams traded buckets before NSU made a couple of free throws to go up 2 points with :56 seconds left on the clock. We missed a basket as did NSU. This gave ACU the ball back with :16 seconds to play down 2 points. After a timeout by ACU, we ran a play that could give us either a shot by a post player to tie the game or a 3-pointer to take the lead. We worked the ball down low but they completely smothered our post players. Thankfully, Stephanie Riles kicked it back out to Alex Guiton (freshman) for a wide-open 3-pointer.....splash! With 4.1 seconds to play, ACU has the lead 76-75. NSU inbounded the ball and their guard took the ball the length of the floor and tried a desperation off-balanced layup as the buzzer sounded. No good! But wait, the referee has blown his whistle! Unbelievable!! Reach-in foul on #24 Stephanie Riles. NSU's best free throw shooter will get two shots to win the game. I am completely beside myself. Cara Buson steps to the line and misses her first shot. Whew. Now, the best NSU can do is send the game to overtime. Cara makes the second shot and we'll play 5 more minutes.

Overtime begins and NSU scores the first 4 points of the game. ACU battles back to tie the game at 82-82 with :36 seconds to play. NSU has the ball and the opportunity to run out most of the clock before taking their last shot. With :13 seconds left in overtime, ACU is whistled for a foul and NSU will get two free throws. They make them both to take a 84-82 lead. ACU gets the ball to halfcourt and calls a timeout. We have :9.1 seconds to try and score. Shawna draws up the same play that sent the game to overtime. We'll try to tie the score and go to a second overtime, or we'll try to win it on a 3-pointer. After nearly throwing the ball away on the inbounds pass, Meredith Doyle takes the ball and tries to drive to the basket. Realizing she cannot get there, she jumps, turns and fires the ball to Ashlee Barr (freshman) who's standing 1 1/2 feet behind the 3-point line. She gets the ball and with less than a second to play, rips a shot that hits absolutely nothing but net. ACU wins the most exciting game I have ever seen 85-84.

So, how do I factor into all of this? Being that this game was on a Monday night and 5 hours away from the DFW metroplex and 8 hours from Abilene, I was the only ACU fan in attendance. Each game, the home team is required to tape the game and provide the visitors with a copy of the game. I was sitting in the first row directly behind the ACU bench. Both 3-pointers (Alex's to send the game to overtime and Ashlee's to win the game) happened right in front of the ACU bench. So naturally, the camera caught my reactions to both shots. I'm not kidding you. I looked like a 5 year old at Christmas getting that shiney new bicycle he always wanted. I was jumping up and down uncontrolably. I was so out of control that I nearly passed out. It's completely embarrasing.

It's time like these when I wonder how I will react when we win the Lone Star Conference tournament. I hope to find out sometime very soon!

Next Blog: Shawna, I'm a coach too!