"He Shoots, He Makes It, The Cats Win in Overtime!!!!"

Wow, I still can't believe the game we watched last night.
The boys must've been fueled pretty well the night before, (see previous post) because they never ran out of gas.

They came out all fired up and then let 5 point get scored on them in the first 30 seconds. This opponent has 3 starters and 1 other player who were on Michael and his teammate Jeff's AAU team last summer. They traveled with these guys, ate, slept and played at various tournaments with them, and got to know and appreciate their games and personalities. They are pretty good friends. So both sides really want to win.  We have had a hard time beating Palo Alto in basketball for some reason over the years, so there's that incentive as well. It also was our first league game of the year.

As they settled down, we could see that Michael was not going to have a stellar night in the point department.
The leading scorer on the team, he averages 22 points per game, but at half time he had 2. Yes, two points at the half for the top point maker. The rest of his game was looking good. He was making a few steals, having some beautiful assists, and stopping Paly's smooth scorer for the most part.

Where he usually shoots a lot of free throws, (a couple weeks ago he made 16 of 17 tries from the free throw stripe), last night he got to that same line a total of 0 times for free attempts. ZERO!

(Non of these pix, taken by The Hubby, are from last night but 

they do add some spice to the story. Right?)

He did make a nice little jumper and a layup.

My Michael was a bit frustrated and I was calmly screaming for him a little louder in my head and heart with each minute gone by.
Nick L on our team scored a 2 pointer after rebounding a missed 15 foot jumpshot by Michael with 5 seconds left in the game. Paly tried for 3 at the buzzer but missed.
The forth quarter ended in a 54-54 tie, forcing an overtime matchup.

The true test came when M's buddy Nick missed a 3 point attempt with about 6 seconds left. N had made 3 gorgeous three pointers throughout the second half and this one looked good from the start, but it bounced off the rim and straight to Jeffery for an offensive rebound. Michael, who was back at the far side three point line, hollered at J and got the ball with maybe 3.5 seconds left. M pump faked it to throw off the Paly defender and put up a nice smooth shot for the 3 points and a win.

Final score 62-61. Los Gatos wins.
Good game boys.

For all you cousins out there that want to keep up with his games online. Go to the stats pages on MaxPreps.com.    Here is a more direct link.