Fun Win

Denzel Acha gives his thoughts on the boys basketball season

As a member of the Albert Lea boys basketball team getting that first win of the season was amazing. Anywhere from the final plays leading up to the win, to the crowd storming the court and congratulating the team. The feeling of breaking that streak could not be copied or imitated; it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

      The streak had been going on for more than two years, from Jan. 31, 2014, to Feb. 1, 2016. I wasn’t around for the zero win season of 2014-15, but coming back this year for my last season I knew we needed to pull one out.

      We had so many close games this season.

      The loss to Stewartville on Jan. 7 was honestly one of the most heartbreaking games of the season. As the clock was running, fans cheering, and our hearts beating, we had a  chance to go into overtime for our first win. The game was tied during the last possession of the game, Stewartville had the ball, and as they brought the ball up the court I was the one stuck guarding the last shot. I stayed on my opponent tight and actually blocked his initial shot, hearing the final buzzer sound. After the buzzer sounded a Stewartville player tipped the ball in to try and win the game, which everyone witnessed clearly after the buzzer, but the ref thought differently and called it as good.

      I remember thinking the game was going to overtime so we would have a chance to win. I don’t think I’ve been so mad about a basketball game in my life. I ended up punching a wall, senior Jared Schmidt threw a chair, one of the coaches kicked a chair.

      We wanted an answer from the refs on this call. Instead, it lived on in video. I watched those final seconds more than 100 times on video the next day reliving that tragic loss, with the feeling that it was stolen from us.

      The buzzer beater loss to Rochester Century on

      We had the younger players encouraging and looking up to us. We had our tough but fun coaching staff pushing us to better our game and ourselves, and we had our amazing crowd of family and friends cheering us on the whole time.

      Anyone who watched us play can say we were the typical underdog story. The odds were against us, and our backs were against the wall. We pushed ourselves to our limits, and regardless of the record we never gave up.

      The night of Jan. 31, the team talked amongst ourselves, and it all came down to one thing: Why not? After that we went out there and proved all of the doubters wrong, showing them we weren’t just the underdogs, but that we could win, too.

      Regardless of only winning one game this season, it still meant the world to me and the rest of the team. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, and I am more than glad to have been able to experience it with my team.