96 Isabella POV 4

We played five more games which Susan, Bianca and I continue to get better at and scored more points in. On our 7th game was the hardest of them all as we were playing against an inner-city team and they were pretty rough and tough. Daddy and his crew had shown up to all my games which surprised Mommy due to Daddy having a busy schedule but was still able to show up show that he really loved me and supported my dream. I had gotten better, faster and stronger throughout these weeks and we only had three more games left and in this game, we were tested to the max. The team we were playing against this time was called the Do-Gooders, they were an inner-city school team and had nothing but black girls on the team. I was surprised by this but ignored it as I got ready, we did stretches and went to practice are shots before the game started. This team was also undefeated going into this game and a lot of the opponents were very intimidated by them. Su and Pam were pretty nervous but Bianca, Susan and I were just as tough as them as we started the game. Bianca won the jump ball and passed it over to Susan who did her signature rush in and lay it up on the first play, but was quickly blocked by the do-gooder's point guard.This surprised everybody, we were playing an away game so most of the fans for the do-gooders where there as they cheered louder than our fans. I was also surprised that somebody was able to block Susan's shot with her being so fast but her opponent this time was even faster than her. After blocking the shot the point guard passed it down to their power forward who was all the way on the other side of the court for her to lay it up. Their teamwork was flawless as they continue to put up points. I was able to get in a few points here and there but they were extremely hard to get. Susan has completely shut down this game as she didn't score a single point yet and kept trying eventually she gave up and started passing the ball more to the rest of our team. Bianca being bigger than her defender was able to take advantage of this and get in a few points to at least keep us in the game because at one point we were down by six points. The do-gooders were surprised by how good we were able to keep up with them because normally they would be blowing everybody out by now by at least 15 + points, so us being down by only six points surprise them as they played even harder and took the game more seriously. They were having quite a hard time defending my shots as every time I got the ball I shot it and made it, they began to play harder defense on me so I started to pass the ball around more. Su had luckily got in a few points and so did Pam. We needed everybody to be on board in this game. I was able to score 22 points during this game which was the highest I've ever scored in a game due to the team being in a desperate situation. Susan was choking because she had finally met her match. The game eventually ended as we took our first loss, we had lost by only two points which had surprised the do-gooder's Team, as they thought that we were probably the best team that they had ever played. They continue their undefeated ranking as we finally took our first loss. Everybody was sad about this as we had never experienced a loss before. At the end of the game, we showed our sportsmanship by shaking the other team's hands and we could even see that they had respect under eyes for us as they thought that we gave them quite a hard time and played with our heart and never gave up, unlike other teams that they played where some girls had even started crying before the end of the half. I ended up becoming friends with some of the team members as Coach Gabby came and gave us a little pep talk after the game. She told us that this loss was good for us as everybody has to experience a loss once in a while, and this would allow us to be humble. Not a lot of the girls understood that but I surely did as I knew that I played with my heart and tried my best.When we met with our family members Daddy was still so happy and was cheering for me, he said: "man you went for 22 points that's a high score for you and we got to go celebrate because of this". I was surprised because I thought daddy would be disappointed in me but even when I took a loss he still took me out to go celebrate. Everybody was still so happy as we all left to go out to go grab something to eat. Bianca and Susan had joined us too but Susan was completely out of it as she thought that she had failed the team. She was a little sad about not being able to score a single point in this game. We are comforted here as we told her that some games she would be good and some games she won't. Not everybody is perfect, that's when Bianca opened her big mouth to say " not everybody is perfect like Isabella who never misses a shot", causing everybody to laugh. After the celebration Daddy came to spend the night with me and told me that he would leave in the morning, which made me happy as we happily slept in each other's embrace. The next morning when we woke up Daddy had cooked some breakfast for us before school as he left a little bit late because he wanted to talk to Mommy so they both went in the same car as they drove me to school and dropped me off.