Time marched on, quickly approaching the end of the first quarter. The score was 27-24 in favour of Campbell’s team.

It was a close game the entire way. Every time that they scored, the enemy team would score back.

The only reason they were currently three points ahead was because they had only just scored to break the tie.

Campbell had scored six points, while his brother had scored ten. Dylan had been subbed off about a minute ago, and thus wouldn’t have any chance to score again for the rest of the quarter.

The rest of the points were split between everyone else.

Campbell was keeping constant track of not only his points, but also his brother’s. He didn’t like it, but he made a conscious effort to hold himself back by a few points, just so that he couldn’t break past his brother’s score by scoring once.

He didn’t know what the consequences would be if he did get past his brother’s score. He didn’t know if the game would end as soon as he did so, meaning that he would die. Or if it would continue like normal and only the final point tally mattered.

He really hoped that it was the second one. He also hoped that he wouldn’t be punished for going over, even if the second one was the case.

So just to play it safe, he tried his best to feed points to the rest of the team.

There was less than a minute until the first quarter was up, meaning that the enemy team had enough time to catch back up, while they wouldn’t be able to score back after.

We have to stop them.

The enemy’s centre currently had the ball and was posted up just outside the paint, ready to force his way in.

Campbell was guarding his man on the opposite side of the paint, meaning that although he couldn’t leave right now, he would be able to help defend should the centre push in any further.

The two guards crossed over just inside the three point line, swapping places as they tried to shake off their defenders and create an opportunity for the centre to pass the ball back to one of them.

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The attacking centre had a lot of options to choose from. But, upon seeing the shot clock dwindling, he ultimately decided to go for the less risky option and pushed in himself.

He pressed up against his defender and stepped into the paint, he was already in the low post before, so just one more step and he would be directly under the hoop.

Crossing under the hoop wouldn’t do him any good here, so he jumped from where he was, hoping to bounce the ball off the backboard and get it in.

He went to lift the ball above his head and go for a hook shot, but at the same time that he jumped, so did two other people.

His defender jumped up, blocking from the front with his hands raised to cut off the path to the hoop.

At the same time, Campbell had took a step and jumped up, closing the gap as his hand reached out to smack the ball out of the guy’s hand.

The centre didn’t have enough time to move the ball, and watched helplessly as it was sent flying.

They all landed on the ground one after the other and watched as the ball bounced off the ground, just missing the attacking point guard’s hand as it went out of bounds.

Phew. Campbell breathed out and gave himself a moment to rest while the referee ran to get the ball.

He had to time that jump perfectly. If he moved too late he wouldn’t have been able to block the shot, and if he moved to early, the centre could’ve just passed the ball to the power forward who would have easily been able to score.

His team didn’t manage to get the ball, but neither did the enemy team, so he was fine with the outcome. There were still a few seconds left on the shot clock, meaning that they would have to take the shot almost as soon as they passed the ball back into play.

Seeing that the centre had stepped out and was now holding the ball, Campbell caught back up with his man.

He didn’t fully stand between them to prevent the pass since, if he did, his man could just run back and the ball could just be lobbed right over his head. That way, they would be completely free to score and his previous efforts would have been wasted.

Instead, he stuck tight to his man’s back, standing between him and the net as he waved his hands out in front to try and swat the ball away should it get passed over to him.

Everyone shifted around a bit, trying to get open so that the centre could pass the ball, but the defending team stuck tight to their men, making it impossible.

Reluctantly, the centre passed the ball off to the point guard, who, although was still being guarded, was the only one in a safe enough position to be passed to.

The point guard immediately jumped as soon as he got the ball and tried to take the shot. But unfortunately, he was just a little off, and the ball bounced off the hoop.

They tried to get the rebound and hit the ball back in, but they got boxed out by the defending team.

The shot clock went off while the ball was falling to the ground.

It’s our turn now. How long do we have? Campbell’s eyes flicked over to the scoreboard as he jogged to the other side of the court in preparation for their play.

The score was still 27-24, and they only had ten seconds left to spare.

The ball quickly went into play and the point guard picked up the pace.