Behind The Cameras

Chapter 19

Peyton POV:

The game is very stressful. It's 59-52 with 4:45 left in the 4th quarter. Paige gets a steal and dribbles up the floor and does a no look pass to Christyn who gets the layup which makes it 61-59 and Tennessee calls a time out.

As the teams go back to their benches I notice Paige is limping.

"She's hurt" I say

"What?" Kate asks

"Look she's limping, she probably hurt her ankle during the play with Christyn"

"Knowing her though she's gonna stay in" Tori says

"Yea but that might not be good"

After the timeout Paige is still playing but is noticeably limping when she jogs back onto the court.

She hasn't scored a lot today, she has 6 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals. So it looks like she listened to me when I told her she could contribute in other ways than just scoring if she had an off night.

Tennessee makes a 3 so now the score is 61-55. Evina inbounds the ball to Paige as she dribbles up the court.

Tennessee notices she's limping so they come out to pressure her before half court so Paige has to pass it to Aliyah in order to not get called for the time violation.

Aliyah passes the ball back to Paige who immediately passes it to Olivia. Olivia can't get around her defenders so she passes it back to Paige. Paige is having a hard time moving with her ankle so she passes it to Evina.

Paige continues to limp as she jogs over to the other side of the court as Evina misses the 3 but Olivia gets the rebound and gets the layup. So now the game is 63-55.

Uconn plays good defense as Olivia gets the block and Evina dribbles back up the court and then passes it to Paige who just holds the ball as Geno calls a timeout.

Paige POV:

Once Geno calls the timeout I couldn't me more happier. My right ankle hurts so bad, I don't know what I did to it but on the no look pass to Christyn it turned a weird way and now it hurts a lot.

I walk back over to the bench to huddle during the timeout but I can't help but limp because of the pain.

Janelle the athletic trainer comes over to me and asks "What's wrong"

I bend down and hold my leg. "My ankle, I don't know what I did" I say before quickly focusing back on what Coach is saying.

Once we break apart from the huddle Geno tells me to sit down.

"What why" I argue but it's no use because he's talking to christyn now.

CD comes over and tells me "if you want any chance of going back into this game you need Janelle to look at your ankle"

"Oh come on!" I reply. All I wanna do is play, there's 3 minutes left why can't they just look at my ankle after.

I end up jogging down the tunnel so Janelle can wrap my ankle because I know there's no point in trying to argue with them.

As i'm getting my ankle wrapped Tennessee scores so now the score is 63-57. Geno calls a timeout and I'm hoping if Janelle finishes wrapping my ankle I can get back out there during this time out.

Luckily for me, Janelle finished and I jog over to the huddle. My luck ran short though because Geno has me on the bench. As I walk over to my seat I try not to show I'm still in pain but I am.

While I'm on the bench we miss a three and Tennessee gets the rebound and scores so now it's 63-59.

"Paige go in for Aubrey" Geno says

I quickly stand up and make my way to the scorers table and crouch down waiting for the next whistle. But then Geno calls another timeout.

"Aubrey, Aubrey, I got you" I say to Aubrey so she knows I'm subbing in for her.

Once the timeout is over I walk back onto the court and Liv (Olivia) inbounds it in to me as I come up by half court. I make my way to the free throw line but so can't take a shot because of my defender so I quickly turn around and pass it to Liv who sets a screen as she passes it back to me.

I try to go in for the layup but now i'm being triple teamed so I pass it out to Anna who's on the wing who passes it Liv and she misses the shot and we don't get the rebound.

Tennessee dribbles up the court and drives for the layup so now it's 63-61 with 55 seconds left.

We get the ball back and are passing it around trying to get a shot out but we can't and they show clock is winding down. Christyn tries to go for a layup with 8 seconds on the shot clock but gets double teamed so passes it out to Evina who passes it to me with 3 seconds left on the shot clock, so I quickly pull up from the 3 and shoot and just as the shot clock expires the bench erupts into cheering as I make the basket making it 66-61 as Tennessee calls a timeout.

It was so relieving making that three because I haven't been making shots tonight.

Tennessee inbounds the ball and goes in for the floater but misses and I grab the rebound, passing it to Christyn who dribbles up the court and gets fouled. Then shortly after Evina gets fouled and makes one of the foul shots so it's 67-61 with 14 seconds left.

Tennessee shoots a three and misses and we get the rebound as time expires and we beat Tennessee 67-61.

The bench clears as they come running over to us cheering before we make our way back the locker room.