Flagrant Foul (gxg)

Chapter 41

"Every time we play a game, I tell you the same thing!" Coach Bates announced in the locker room before the game with NC State. "It's just another game. Don't make it out to be anything more than it is. Well tonight, I'm not going to say that. You know they're our rivals, you know what they've done to your teammates. This one is going to be personal, but do not let it get messy! If they try to provoke you, just laugh. They're going to be motivated too, to prove everyone wrong. They're going to come out hot, so be prepared. Don't lose focus, and don't lose heart. Let's play a good, clean game out there and kick their asses!"

Tegan hadn't been playing as well as she normally did, but Jen and Tia were both playing better than in the past, and it turned out that Melissa was playing really well too. Game by game, they'd crawled up the rankings. At one point we were all the way up to number three in the country but had fallen back after the Notre Dame loss dropped us to number five. NC State was just below us, ranked number eight nationally, having only lost to Virginia Tech. It should be a good game.

I walked over to Skye before the game, handing her my engagement ring because I didn't want anything to happen to it. "I hate taking this off, but I do kinda like that you can put it back on me over and over again." I leaned in for a quick kiss.

"Kick ass out there, babe! Don't let her get in her head!" It was funny she said that because I once more remembered last year's NCAA tournament when Tegan struggled because girls were getting her frustrated, I was pretty sure I had more than enough ammo to get her riled up today!

I'd like to say there were handshakes and all that before the game, but there weren't. Tegan looked pissed, along with Tia and Jen. Leah and I didn't care. Everyone watching the game, and there were a lot because this was a juicy nationally televised matchup, knew about the bad blood. The game began with a bad toss on the jump ball, and NC State started with possession.

As Tegan jogged down the court, I quickly matched up on her, with Imani taking Jen and Leah taking Tia. I could see Tia frown at that, as Leah had chewed her up in the scrimmage. Tegan wouldn't look me in the eyes, and just set up on the post, no doubt thinking she could score on me there. Unless she had a whole arsenal of new moves, that wasn't going to happen.

"We're going to kick your ass today!" she muttered as she backed into me, holding her hand up for the ball.

"Oh please. You may not have been good at going down on me, but your whole team is going down today!"

Jen did finally pass the ball to her, and she tried to hit a fadeaway jump shot that I quickly blocked. Unfortunately, the block rebounded right to Melissa, who hit a little jump shot over Bryn. NC State was up 2-0, but it was the last time they had the lead.

Maybe it was the motivation, maybe it was me asking Tegan if she found a new rapist to date since Gabe had broken up with her just before getting arrested, or maybe it was because Imani and I were just on fire during the game, but it was a blowout. It had been big news the previous day when I said that NC State fans might not want to tune in to watch, but it turned out to be true. We crushed them.

I just wish I'd been there to see the end.

In the middle of the fourth quarter, we were treating them like a high school team and winning 92-40. We had a great chance of breaking 100, which would have been an amazing feeling, when I got a breakaway. Leah had gotten a rebound, and I ran down the right side of the court with Tia in pursuit. Leah lofted a perfect pass, and I gathered it up, taking two steps before throwing it down for a dunk that got the crowd on their feet. I hung on the rim for just a second to make sure I didn't land on Tia, who was still under the basket, when I felt a pair of hands shove my ass, lifting my feet and causing me to fall straight down onto my back from the hoop.