It was October 7th, 2014. One of the chilliest, drawn-out, and dullest day of my 7th grade school year. That day was the most exciting days of my life; it was game day. But not any game day, it was championship game day. My middle school team Carver Cougars vs. our school rival Cherokee Indians.

Both Carver and Cherokee 12-0 for the season. Even though Cherokee was in the trouble free district, and they had the most players in the city. Carver Cougars repping white and navy for the game, and the Cherokee Indians wearing their maroon and white uniforms.

The start of the game Carver began really sluggish on both offense and defense sides of the court, Their offense was working slower than a turtle. Shooting low percentage shots and not producing enough points to keep up with the tough Cherokee Indians. On defense Cherokee was receiving anything they wanted on the exhausted Carver squad.

By the end of the first half the score was 14-36 Cherokee in the lead. Heading into the locker room the weary Carver crew shuffling with their heads on the ground and faces slouched.

But the head coach, Mr. Walker going to put up with our attitudes and expression. He spoke about what he notices in our game and how we can fix it. “We prepared two months for this one game, the one game that truly counts and we havent looked like ourselves at all the first two quarters. Now you have two options; either you fix our mistakes or we can go out their and compete.” After that we chose the second option and we weren't going to give up just yet.

Coming out of the second half Carver appeared as a brand new team. They turned all their mistakes into success, getting bucket after bucket, and cherokee didn't know how to respond to this new appearance. Starting point guard, Tre Warren knocking down four straight three pointers to bring the Carver team back in the game. At the end of the third quarter the score was 46-39 Cherokee Indians still in the lead.

In the huddle Tre warren was hollering “This is what we are used to, now let’s finish this.” With 33 seconds left in the fourth quarter 52-50 Carver barely trailing and began to worry. Jammarre Sellers, starting SF for carver comes up with a clutch steal with 15 seconds still on the clock. Tre warren contains the ball and the game in his hands. He calls for a screen from his his center, Clifton saul and the worried Cherokee defense reads it wrong. The whole gym screaming, “3….2...1” Tre let’s the ball fly with the buzzer just sounding off and all you hear is “swish” with the ball going through the net!

No matter what the situation, no matter how hard the task is people should never give up. Although it was only a 7th grade basketball game, and it was three years ago, I look back at it when I feel as if I can’t accomplish a hard task and think about how I attacked this situation and succeeded. Usually kids under the age give up on tough situations more than more mature people because they feel as if they can't accomplish the difficult task. People's moods can switch very quickly if the situation is going their way.. The fastest ways moods switch is through motivational actions or very inspiring speeches from elders. Through this experience I learned that basketball is more than a game or sport, I learned that you can have fun, and learn life lessons at the same time.