Well, we made it! The Lady T’s are officially in the Elite Eight. Here’s how it all went down.
Holli asked me, again, if I wanted to accompany them back down to Iowa. And I thought, “Why not? Maybe there will be chinese food this time.” (There wasn’t. We had Taco Bell, which, I have to admit, is better than Taco John’s, even to someone who isn’t a big fan of mexican food.) So, we all headed back down to Hawarden, again, but this time we were minus Jen’s sister, Kim. This time Jen was driving. We got there, imparted upon Larry the second season of Arrested Development (of which we watched the blooper reel and then Holli and I watched three episodes when everyone went to bed), and I showed some videos I have been uploading to my YouTube account. I’m working on finding a good way to convert my videos so they look right when they upload. I’ll keep you posted.
The next morning was much the same routine, minus the fake parking ticket, and Jen drove us into Sioux City, while I on-and-off slept. By now we were pros at this, and they escorted us to our seats. “Oh, the fans are here. Right this way, sir and madams.” They offered us dishes of chinese food, but I had to decline, it being a Friday in lent.
This time the Lady T’s played quite well. The crowd was a little thicker, but there was still a considerably larger crowd for Tabor College, across the way. But we have moxie. My own personal observations were that Tabor started out very aggressive, but they either got tired of it or they just assumed (since they were winning for a short time) that we were pushovers. In any case, the Lady T’s pushed back, and harder. We pushed up to a nice six point lead, which still felt uncomfortably close.
At halftime the score was Trojans: 39 – Tabor: 31. After halftime, it seemed like they had us again. The lead lessened and almost evaporated. But the girls wanted this bad. They fought through some poor calls, and some good basketball. There was a lot of excitement in the air. The lead stretched until, by the end, Trojans had won: 77 to 58.
There were some real suprising performances in this game by the Lady T’s. Some players who I didn’t see play in the first game really made some magic happen out there. It was really exciting to watch it all come together.
After the game, we waited to congratulate the players, who were celebrating. Holli talked to her boss, who had been covering the game, and they made plans to get her out of working on Saturday so she could attend. That means that I’m writing this from the comfort of Larry and Carol Gregg’s place in Hawarden, Iowa, and tomorrow morning the Lady T’s are doing it again.
Elite Eight: Saturday at 1:00pm.
You wrote this at my parents’ home? I didn’t even see it happen!