Godfrey overthrows and the ball bounces off the backboard. Sam steps into the paint with a feeling of something like reverence. One big hand collects the pumpkin and he pivots to face the Greenspark goal, knowing already the plays that will consume five minutes. Woods is already backpedaling past half court. Sam slings the ball and Rick is already turning as he receives it, surging into overdrive down the middle, and Malenfant arrives in time to feel helpless. The ball drops through.
For another four and a half minutes the struggle continues. Sam rejects two attempts by Godfrey, Starbuck fouls out and Gramolini makes the free throws to bring Greenspark ahead. Malenfant shoots a three. Gramolini takes an elbow in the nose and is benched by the rule that forbids flowing blood on the court. A pumped-up Alquist replaces him. A moment later, under the post, Sam’s attempt to answer is fouled by Godfrey. At the line, Sam swooshes in another two.
Thirty-seven seconds remain in the game. Malenfant takes possession and heads down court. Rick lunges for the ball and trips on his own feet, into a header skid that leaves him on the wrong side of center court. Malencourt corners trickily between Alquist and Kasten and is suddenly in the paint, going for a jumper. Starbuck is just as suddenly between Bither and Malencourt and Sam is too close to the post. Malencourt’s shot is a tight high arc that kisses the glass and drops through.
Sam takes the rebound and slings it overhead toward Rick but to Rick’s surprise, Tozier shoots out of the traffic headed his way and strips him. Spinning, Tozier drops a three through the rim. Sam claims the ball again and this time hurls the ball from one end of the court to the other. It strikes the backboard at the Greenspark end of the court and falls off the rim—no good—as the buzzer sounds, leaving the game tied.
The Ferrymen have earned themselves an OT. Three more minutes. Each team returns to its bench for instruction and then the clock resumes. The tip goes to Greenspark but Alquist can’t keep it; Blood and Malenfant are on him like wolves on an isolated lamb. Now Derry has possession, they find the Greenspark Indians, defending fiercely man to man, sticking like Velcro, between them and the goal. Every bit of energy is being expended as Greenspark stalls the Derry offense outside the paint and frustrates its three shooters with equal ferocity. Malenfant takes a furious desperate shot that whangs off the rim and bounces into Kevin Bither’s hands.
A stunned grin freezes Bither’s face as he hugs the ball for dear life. The official’s whistle awards Greenspark possession and Bither delivers the baby to Rick with huge relief. The dangerous trek down court begins, Derry sniping and grabbing and bushwhacking, throwing up a half-court trap, and then all five Ferrymen align along the stripe like a line of cavalry on the horizon. The line falls back into a zone defense. Rick and Bither and Kasten on the outside play pass around to choruses of boring! from the crowd.
At a minute three on the clock, Rick begins to drive down the middle, meets Malenfant, Tozier and Blood, feints left as if to Kasten, stops, feints left again and steps back. The three move with him but he pivots and moves the ball back out to Alquist, who bounces it under to Bither. Malenfant, Tozier and Blood follow the ball and Rick moves suddenly inside, waiting for it as Bither spins around to hand it to him. Rick tries for a quick jumper but Godfrey is there, throwing him off, and the ball falls away.
Sam, on the rise, hooks it cleanly from above the forest of outstretched hands. He comes down, scattering bodies around him. He hears the thud of contact, the panting, grunts and gasps. Hears sneaker squeak and boards protesting and the punctuation of the ball as he drives it down. Hears limbs flailing around him, hears someone sob, hears a heartbeat as he rockets up. He jams the ball and descends into the roar of the crowd.
Time-out, with seven seconds left.
Tozier returns the ball to Godfrey and Godfrey makes a frantic pass to Malenfant, waiting at the Derry three-point arc. Malenfant spins and shoots and the ball goes flying past the glass and off the court.
Was it ever in doubt? the media cowbirds ask Sam later. Of course the game was in doubt. Derry played hard but Greenspark won, 77–75. They are all gamers, those boys from Derry, and nobody had a bad night. Derry just didn’t have a good enough night. Greenspark scored when need be, and Derry didn’t, and that’s the game. It always is. And then it’s over.
In the sea of celebrants Sam lifts Deanie to his shoulders. Like a princess in a howdah, her naked skull gleaming in the lights like the gold ball, she rides there regal and happy a moment—and then suddenly climbs to her feet and sways there on the broad plinth of him as he hastily grabs her ankles to stabilize her. She clenches her fists in triumph before straightening her legs to slide down onto his shoulders. At Sam’s side, Reuben holds out his arms for her. Totally trusting, she lets go; he catches her, bounces her gently, and sets her on her feet.
The microphones bristle in Sam’s face.
“Is this the most exciting moment of your high school career?” a young woman with TV hair asks.
He is supposed to say yes but he is so high he just blurts the first thing that comes into his mind. “No,” he grins. He pauses for mental accounting. “It was third.”
While the woman is blinking in astonishment, he takes the opportunity to escape. For the next few days, his teammates will speculate endlessly as to
