What, Clifton Again?

Albany, Hawkeye Pavilion – Gone from the locker room were the pre-game jokes, the casual banter and the laughter from the usual 3 pranksters Melivmbe Otumbabababawon, Humongous George and Timmy Turdburgle.  Jack “the Knife” Carter stood off to one side talking strategy with Alex Petkov and Elli.  In this place seriousness and ominous looks from Jay Wright and Elli Skotgladi if anyone got out of hand.  Needless to say there were no bars of soap filling anyone’s lockers.  Only Qinglai Huang had the temerity to crack a one-liner about George’s fuchsia colored suit, plum was George’s response to stifled giggles.  Jay sat alone at his locker as the team waited for him to say something.  When he finally did it was a simple, quiet but inspiring let’s go and you knew before hand he would not let this team lose.  The Hawks were facing a re-tooled Clifton team, one that they had beaten 3 times last season but resiliently kept coming back for more.  One that had already dispatched all comers and that the Hawks knew would bring all they had to the game.

It started ugly as both teams came out tense.  Elli Skotgladi (26 pts, 5 assists, 3 boards and a block) lost the ball out of bounds when Clifton trapped and both team missed a combined 20 shot attempts from the floor before Julia Suzenna hit a jump shot at the 8:35 mark.  At that point the Hawks were trailing 9-0 when the Hawk Coach called a much needed time out. After the break the Hawks promptly came out and Kutur Skyhook threw up a prayer 3 pointer and was bailed out by a foul on Michael Tonkin.  Kutur calmly sank all three and Albany was back within 6 and best of all, on the score board.  Mel got a rebound on a missed Kutur free throw and fed Qinglai (17pts, 8 boards, 5 assist and a steal) for a breakaway 3 pointer.  As the home crowd held it’s breath the fans, eager for any positive sign of life from the team, exploded.  Unfortunately it was not the start of a comeback.  After the game Mel said “In the first we just couldn’t buy a basket, they just kept coming at us from everywhere.  Toughest D we have ever faced”.  Finally down 19 – 15 Jay Wright took over.  Kutur picked up a block by Eddy Curry on Mel and dished to an open Jay for a jumper.  Then Jay hit another jumper on a pass from Kutur to even the score at 19.  Eddy Curry split his free throws at the other end and Kutur did the same.  With the score knotted at 20 Mel would not be denied, rebound, Kutur missed shot, Mel rebound, Mel missed shot and fouled.  A couple of clutch free throws and the Hawks escaped the first with a 22-20 lead.  The war was on.  In the first Albany had missed an incredible 29 shots and Clifton 22.  Most amazing was the Hawks failed to record a block to Clifton’s 5.

The second saw both teams spring to life.  The Hawks were boosted by the presence of Jack “the Knife” Carter (6/7 from the field) who scored 12 points and Qinglai Huang finding his range with the 3 ball.  By the 4:08 mark the Hawks had opened a 45 – 33 lead and the fans drew a sigh of relief.  Then after a block by Mel (first of the game for Albany) the Hillbillies seemed to wake up as a combination of free throws and missed shots by the Hawks brought the lead down to 9 then 7 and with 6 seconds left a wild three pointer by Julia Suzenna narrowed the margin to 4.  At Halftime it was Hawks 50 – Clifton 46.  Albany still missed 17 shots and recorded only 2 blocks while Clifton missed only 10 but lived off the boards gathering in 10 to the Hillbillies 6.

In the third it was as if two different teams took the court.  With Jay Wright on the bench the visitors took advantage and Gregor Pavlovic scored 13.  More importantly Elli Skotgladi seemed to find new life off Alex Petkov’s passes and Timmy Turdburgle loosened things up with 10 on 4 of 6.  With Elli scoring 17 and Humongous George dominating the basket and making key passes the teams battled back an forth until another Suzenna 3 pointer put the Hillbillies up by 2. After a missed counter by Qinglai Huang the Hillbillies battled back and took the lead in the game for the first time at the 6:05 mark when their SG hit a jumper over the tight defense of Cvetelin Kalinski.   With Clifton clinging to a one point lead Timmy T. found an open Elli for a jumper and the Hawks moved back in front.  The visitors made one more run to tie the game at 76 before Timmy and Cvetelin both pushed the Hawks back in front by four.  The quarter ended in a tight 82-78 score as neither team gave ground.

The Hawks again raced out to a 10 point lead on the efforts of Jay Wright and Humongous George.  Clifton narrowed it to 6 and Timmy T. dropped 4 more on them to build it back to 10.  Slowly Clifton crept back and with 4:27 left tied the game again before Elli and Q hit back to back three pointers to make it 105 – 99 as the crowd roared to life.  “I really thought that was it” said Q, “man they had more lives than a cat”.  Again Clifton came back.  Scoring the next 8 to take a two point lead with 2 minutes left.  When the Hawks used their last time out no one in the building seemed to be moving or even breathing.  “It was pretty quiet, I thought maybe they had heard Humongous George’s latest rap album” joked a relieved Timmy Turdburgle.  After the time out Jay hit two clutch free throws to tie and then a jumper.  Elli fired a pass to Q who “willed” a 3 pointer off the glass with 16 seconds left to boost the Hawks up by 6 and finally drive a stake through the collective Clifton heart.  “Man that was clutch, these guys are warriors in my book.  I would go into battle with any of them any time” said Jay.  After the game in the locker room Timmy and Mel were plotting their next prank on George and Jay Wright again sat alone at his locker.  “Tomorrow night the Tassie Devils.  Welcome to Aussie 1″ he sighed.