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court. Her knee doesn’t look to be bothering her in the least right now.

“Hodges dishes to Chaney, who tips it back to Hodges who rifles a no-look bounce pass to her left, directly to Lambert who goes up for the layup, and

scores! Very nicely executed fast break.”

“Blevins takes the ball behind the endline and waits for her players. She’s guarded by Lambert, which looks like something out of David and Goliath. The

rest of the Lightning players are being well guarded as the ref counts off the seconds. Blevins thows up a desperation pass, oh…Lambert tips it right into the

hands of Hodges, who turns and rifles a pass to Chaney just outside the three point line. Chaney looks, shoots, and scores!! Beautiful shot.”

“Great display of teamwork too, Ted. And in just…one minute and ten seconds, the Badgers have managed to take a fifteen point deficit down to ten.”

“With Dylan Lambert a part of all five of the Badgers’ points, Lori. If she’s rusty, she’s surely not showing it to this crowd here tonight.”

“I’ll have to agree there, Ted. The Badgers look really pumped, but then again, who wouldn’t, with the Goddess on their side?”

“Not me, that’s for sure.”

The censor shot a glare at the announcer, who returned him a lewd grin and a waggle of his eyebrows.

“The Lightning are past mid-court. Toomey sets up a screen on Lambert, and Blevins passes a quick one to Holloway who fakes a shot and passes back to

Blevins. The Badgers are set up in a two-three trap zone, now they switch to a box and one, with Hodges out guarding Blevins, who is a distinct three point

threat, with four threes already this game. Blevins passes the ball to Gathers, who dishes it to Race, who tries a shot from behind three point range and

misses completely.

“The rebound is gathered in by Anya, who passes to Hodges who calls out a play as she dribbles quickly down the court. The Lightning are back quickly this

time and set up in a one-three-one. Hodges passes to Lambert, who avoids the trap and drives in toward post, then steps back and fires over the Lightning’s

heads to Chaney who’s as open as an all night tavern. One look and she shoots, and another three is up on the board for the Badgers! Shaniqua Chaney is on

fire tonight! Two threes in the space of less than a minute! The Lightning are starting to look a little frazzled as their lead has been cut in half, now in the

single digits.

“Race gets the ball to Gathers, who passes it back to her, and—oh no! Hodges came outta nowhere to steal that one, ladies and gentlemen! She drives into

the paint and scores an easy layup, cutting the Lightning lead to five. And with that, Gibson calls a time out.”

“I think I need one too, Ted. We’ve been watching an absolutely amazing display of teamwork by the Birmingham Badgers these past few minutes. They’re

putting on a clinic out there.”

“Good job, guys,” Caulley said, a rare smile making an appearance as she patted each player who passed her on the way to the bench. The level of

excitement was so high from her players that she imagined she could feel it physically, like standing under a high-tension line. “Alright, now let’s not get

too cocky here. In case none of you have noticed, we’re still down by five, and the Lightning’s an experienced team, so we’ve gotta take it easy and stay

calm, alright?”

The players nodded as they toweled off and sipped from the cups of water handed to them by the trainers.

“Good play-calling, Cat,” Caulley continued, moving to squat in front of her. “Keep it up. Chaney, you’ve obviously found your range, so stick with it. When

you see an opening, go for it for as long as you feel you can. We’ll need those threes as often as we can get them. That team over there isn’t going to just

roll over and die, no matter who we put up against them.”

“No problem, Coach,” Chane replied, mopping the sweat from her braids.

“Dylan, you’ve got Toomey rattled, which is exactly what we need. Anything you can do to rattle her more, short of fouling, do. With her out of the way,

we’re much more evenly matched, height-wise.”

Her face still set as stone, Dylan nodded, piercing eyes leveled at the goings on on the bench across court. Gibson had been sending increasingly

murderous looks her way, and she wouldn’t put it past the firebrand coach to send out one of her thugs to make sure her knee didn’t stay as fine as it was

feeling at the moment. It could be easily done, foul or no foul, and she’d have to keep a watch out for it as the game progressed. When the next look came

her way, she saluted the Lightning coach with the cup she was holding, then quaffed the water and saluted again before crumpling the cup and sending it

to the waste-bag for two.

Knowing well that Cat was sitting right next to her, she turned and dropped her lover a wink, the only display of any type of emotion she’d thus far shown.

For Cat, it was as good as a grin, and she grinned back, patting Dylan’s thigh just as the whistle blew for the resumption of play.