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“Five minutes? We’ll be in the fourth quarter by then.”
“And if you keep delaying, the game will be over by the time we get back out here.”
“Fine,” she said.
He helped her to her feet, and Shay walked, trying not to apply too much pressure to her ankle as they made their way back to the stadium’s medical facilities. Shay was told to stand in a spot and angle her foot just right. Then, she was told to move it this way and that until she was finally able to sit down and take all the weight off it.
“All right, let’s get it up to reduce the swelling,” the trainer told her. “We’re getting some ice on it, and then we’ll get it wrapped up.”
“Ice?”
“Shay, you can’t finish the game. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not broken,” Shay stated emphatically.
“I know. And I’m not sure if you’ve got a sprain. The X-ray won’t tell us much, but we can get an MRI later. Right now, I want to see the swelling go down, so ice and a wrap, and we’ll get you some crutches.”
“Crutches? What?”
“So that you can go back out and watch the rest of the game. After that, though, you’re getting the MRI, and we’re keeping you off your ankle.”
“If we win, we play in the final the day after tomorrow,” Shay said.
“I know. And there’s a chance you can play. If it’s not a sprain and you really just rolled it, the swelling will go down with some ice and you staying off it. We can wrap it up for the final, but right now, we just need to get the swelling down.”
“Okay. Fine,” she relented.
When her ankle was taken care of, Shay was issued a pair of silver crutches that she hated just looking at, let alone having to use. She did, though, as she slowly made her way back out to the court’s sideline, where she very quickly checked the score and the time left on the clock. There were only three minutes left. How had she been gone so long? It hadn’t felt that long at all. Dunbar was down by two, which meant they’d played well in her absence, but Layne was on the bench, and they couldn’t both be on the bench.
“What are you doing here?” Shay asked, sitting down next to her after making a sophomore move.
“Shit. Are you okay? What is it?” Layne asked.
“No break. Maybe a sprain. I don’t know. I’ll get the test after the game, but I’m out today. Why are you on the bench?”
“I needed a break. I… had to use my inhaler. They’ve been running us like crazy. I’ll go back in with around two minutes left.”
“Are you okay?” Shay asked, suddenly worried as someone behind her took her crutches and put them somewhere.
“Yeah, I’m okay. I promise,” Layne told her with a smile. “Just not used to this much playing time, and we’ve gone back and forth the whole quarter.”
“Layne!” Coach yelled.
“Got to go,” Layne said and tossed her towel into her empty seat.
Shay leaned forward and clasped her hands, silently praying that having Layne back on the court would help the team that was now down by four. She couldn’t help them. If this were the last game of her collegiate career, she’d go down with an injury instead of on the court, but Shay had faith. She knew Layne had done her homework. They’d talked about it during film yesterday.
In fact, the other team’s conditioning couldn’t have been as good as what Coach put them through because their opponent looked exhausted. They had all their starters back on the court, and three of them had just gotten a break, so they should be refreshed, but they weren’t. Layne, however, looked good. She looked ready, and as she brought the ball up the court, she did so as fast as she could dribble, trying to tire out Number Fifteen, who was guarding her and trying to keep up.
Three quick passes later, Layne had a jump shot swish through the net. They were only down by two. Hilton played tough defense and was called for a foul, but she’d only had three, and Dunbar had two team fouls to give before they’d be giving away free throws.
The defense held on the inbound, and when the other team finally got a shot up, it missed. Hilton got the short rebound, and she held on to the ball until the other team backed off. Then, she fired it over to Layne, who practically danced as she dribbled around the court, making her guard stay with her. Shay laughed a little because it looked silly, but Layne was too fast. She moved around her defender and passed it off to Ledger, who was beyond the arc and open just enough to shoot. When Ledger hit it, Shay shot out of her seat and screamed excitedly before she remembered to sit back down and clap and yell from there.
With thirteen seconds left on the clock a few plays later, Dunbar was still up by one. But they didn’t have the ball, so they had to play the best defense of their lives to get out of this one and fight for the National Championship that no one, including Shay, had dreamed they’d be fighting for.
The ball came in. Layne let her player catch it. Then, she tightened up her defense. Ledger hurried over to double-team. With only six seconds left on the clock, the ball was passed to their center, who tried to dribble a few times and get it over Hilton for the shot and what would be the win. Hilton stood tall, keeping her hands up straight, doing everything not to foul because a foul on the shot would mean two free throws.
When the shot went up, Hilton’s fingertips caught the ball, and it hit the rim, rolled around it, and instead of going in, it went out. Somehow, Layne was there for the rebound, and with one second left on the clock, she tossed the ball past the half-court line. It bounced, and the buzzer sounded. Dunbar University was going to the National Championship game.
