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“Hilton? You hear that?”
Hilton nodded.
“Get it out to Shay or Layne, whoever doesn’t have the double on them.”
“Okay,” Hilton said.
They made their way back out to the court for the warm-ups, and Shay walked over to her.
“You ready?”
“I’m good, Shay. I can handle ten minutes easy. More than that – I might need a rest.”
“Not what I meant,” Shay replied.
“Oh. What did you mean?”
“Are you ready to play together the way we played at the end of the season last year when you really showed up and kicked ass?”
Layne laughed and said, “Yeah, I really am.”
“Then, let’s do it,” Shay replied and smacked Layne on the ass playfully.
“Shay!” Layne laughed again.
When Shay then wiggled her eyebrows at her, Layne’s shoulders, which had been carrying a little nervous tension in them since being told she was actually going to play today, released. She took her spot on the court and waited for Shay to inbound to her. After that, she passed it back, and up the court they went. Layne took the pass from Shay, bounced it around her defender to Hilton, and Hilton hit Shay with it outside. Shay took a three and hit it. Layne slapped her hand as they ran back down the court to play defense.
The quarters were ten minutes long. They were four minutes in, and Layne was tired, but she felt good. It was the kind of tired she wanted to be: tired from playing but not tired from whatever COVID had done to her lungs. She passed the ball out to Shay, who got double-teamed, so she passed it back to her. Layne took a quick jumper and made it. They were going back and forth, making shots until the TV time-out for a commercial break. Layne made it to the chair that had been pulled out for her and downed some water as Coach gave them instructions.
“Need a break?” Coach asked.
“No, I’m good.”
“Good.” Coach winked at her. “Go out there and have some fun. They can’t catch you or Shay when you two run, so if you two get a good rebound and take-off, enjoy that layup.”
“Yes, Coach,” they said at the same time.
The next two minutes flew by with no one scoring, but when Layne got a long rebound, she turned and knew Shay would be running. She threw the ball overhand and watched as Shay, alone by the basket as the other team tried to chase her, made the shot.
“Nice pass,” Shay told her when they went back on defense.
“Nice shot,” Layne replied and smacked her playfully on the ass, causing Shay to laugh a little.
Layne took a break when the fourth quarter started. She stayed on the bench when Shay got a breather, but with five minutes left, they both went back in to, hopefully, bring it home. Shay made her fifth three of the night. Layne made a jump shot and a layup. Hilton scored back-to-back, and they were up decisively with only a minute left in the game. That was when the other team started fouling, and Layne knew it was over. The buzzer sounded, and Dunbar had won by twelve points thanks to them making all of their free throws on those fouls.
???
“We celebrated like rookies,” Shay said with a laugh as they sat in their open doors and talked quietly.
“No, we didn’t,” Layne replied with a little laugh.
“We ran all over that court like we’d won the whole thing.”
“We’ve never been here before.”
“Yeah, that’s the rookie comment I just made, Layne.” Shay chuckled and shook her head. “We should’ve kept our cool and been like, ‘Yeah, we knew we could take you,’ told them, ‘Good game,’ and just celebrated in the locker room or something.”
“Well, maybe if we win the next one.”
