So close... yet so far.
The Bundesliga Sud leauge is all messed up right now. Top teams are losing to lower ranked teams and as usual TSV Viernheim (the team I play for) seems to continue to draw the short end of the stick. Last weekend we played one of the lower ranked teams in our league who has been consistently blown out by better teams throughout the season. Yet, unfortunately for us... the time we get to play them is the time they can swing down their First League players. This club, Rhein-Main Baskets, has a first league and second league team who practice together throughout the week. Both teams typically play on the same day, but for days they don't, they are allowed to swing down players under 25 years old to play on their second league team. I think you probably know where I'm going with this when I say we drew the short end of the stick... yes... we got to play them when they were able to swing down four first league players.
It was a tough, tough fight... especially knowing what a disadvantage we were at to start, and what the implications were for losing to a team who we should blow out. We played them possession for possession but ended up making deadly small mistakes that cost us the game in the end... further jeopardizing our spot in the rankings and decreasing play off hopes from unlikely to slim.
Fuming over the unfairness of our luck and the previous loss... the professionals (okay, okay..only Sid and myself) practiced pedal to the metal this week and have been fortunate to work out several times with a previous Serbian National Player who is now coaching in Germany. With the extra help and continued push in practice, we felt prepared and ready to go for 4th ranked Speyer at home yesterday. Last time we played this team they blew us out by 20...and were up by as much as 30.
We also got the addition of a new American guard on Friday (aka between practice and game-day, this is poor girl essentially was thrown to the wolves come Sunday). With the odds still stacked against us, we remained optimistic and fairly confident considering our preparation throughout the week.
Once the ball was tossed into the air and the first few minutes of game time rolled by we realized our commitment the previous week had given us a chance for victory. This game is just as intense and no less of a battle than last weeks downing at Rhein-Main. Throughout the game, the girls showed tremendous grit and hustle, with more people diving on the floor for balls than we've had all season, more charges taken than we've had all season, and quite possibly one of our best defensive games yet.
Despite the heart and fight the team showed.. a 3 minute drought in the second half ultimately dug our graves as Speyer hit several threes to put them up by 10 going into half time. We fought back in the second half, but their momentum behind the arc carried on and they hit big shots to finalize the score at 59-65, bad guys.
There was no self-pity once the buzzer rang... but only fuel onto an already heated fire of determination (too cheesy?). Lowered cheese factor = Seeing another single digit loss pissed us all of all over again. I guess we know now what a sprinter feels like when he or she gets second place by a few milliseconds.
What now? Well, what we always do. Rest, reflect, and then get back at it tomorrow without taking a step backwards. Next game vs. Weiterstadt at their place on Saturday. A MUST win!!
