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the paint and scores an easy layup, cutting the Lightning lead to five. And with that, Gibson calls a time out.”

“I think I need one too, Ted. We’ve been watching an absolutely amazing display of teamwork by the Birmingham Badgers these past few minutes. They’re

putting on a clinic out there.”

“Good job, guys,” Caulley said, a rare smile making an appearance as she patted each player who passed her on the way to the bench. The level of

excitement was so high from her players that she imagined she could feel it physically, like standing under a high-tension line. “Alright, now let’s not get

too cocky here. In case none of you have noticed, we’re still down by five, and the Lightning’s an experienced team, so we’ve gotta take it easy and stay

calm, alright?”

The players nodded as they toweled off and sipped from the cups of water handed to them by the trainers.

“Good play-calling, Cat,” Caulley continued, moving to squat in front of her. “Keep it up. Chaney, you’ve obviously found your range, so stick with it. When

you see an opening, go for it for as long as you feel you can. We’ll need those threes as often as we can get them. That team over there isn’t going to just

roll over and die, no matter who we put up against them.”

“No problem, Coach,” Chane replied, mopping the sweat from her braids.

“Dylan, you’ve got Toomey rattled, which is exactly what we need. Anything you can do to rattle her more, short of fouling, do. With her out of the way,

we’re much more evenly matched, height-wise.”

Her face still set as stone, Dylan nodded, piercing eyes leveled at the goings on on the bench across court. Gibson had been sending increasingly

murderous looks her way, and she wouldn’t put it past the firebrand coach to send out one of her thugs to make sure her knee didn’t stay as fine as it was

feeling at the moment. It could be easily done, foul or no foul, and she’d have to keep a watch out for it as the game progressed. When the next look came

her way, she saluted the Lightning coach with the cup she was holding, then quaffed the water and saluted again before crumpling the cup and sending it

to the waste-bag for two.

Knowing well that Cat was sitting right next to her, she turned and dropped her lover a wink, the only display of any type of emotion she’d thus far shown.

For Cat, it was as good as a grin, and she grinned back, patting Dylan’s thigh just as the whistle blew for the resumption of play.

As she took the court, Cat noticed something by the Lightning bench and reached out to place an arm on Dylan’s wrist. Cold blue eyes looked down at her

like a laser, and Cat swallowed hard. “I noticed something,” she said as softly as she could manage, given the crowd’s noise.

Dylan’s eyebrow rose in question.

“Gibbons is putting in Tanya Stephenson.” Her fingers went up in quote marks, though she was deadly serious. “The Enforcer. Please, watch out for her,

alright? I’ve got your back, and so does the rest of the team, but….”

Dylan’s smile was, if possible, colder than her eyes. “Oh,” she purred, voice dark and deep, “I plan to.”

Cat blinked, then nodded as Dylan walked away, setting up to guard against the inbounds pass. The guard exchanged a crosscourt look with Chaney, who

gave her an evil little grin and a ‘thumbs up’ gesture that let Cat relax, at least a little. Shaking her hands out, she went chest to chest with Blevins who

was looking to take the outlet from the sideline.

“I guess we’ll see if Coach Gibson’s sideline pep-talk was effective, Lori.”

“If it isn’t, putting Stephenson in for Gathers may well be, Ted.”

“This is true, Lori. Stephenson certainly isn’t known for her shooting ability, and with an average of four fouls per game, it’s quite obvious, at least to me,

what her role is going to be these next few minutes.”

“It sure will be interesting to see how it plays out, Ted.”

“We’ll just have to watch and see, Lori. The referee has just handed the ball to Holloway, who is closely guarded by Lambert. Holloway gets a pass in to

Blevins, who dribbles, then passes to Stephenson, back to Blevins, over to Race, who sets up a half-court offensive play. The Badgers are still in their boxand-one with Hodges now guarding Race.

“Race takes her time, waiting for the play to set up. Holloway moves in toward low post, then back out. She takes the pass from Race…it slides off her

fingers, ball’s loose, Blevins recovers and shoots it out to Race. Race dishes it back to Stephenson a few steps in from half-court as the rest of the players

reset. Stephenson passes to Blevins, back to Stephenson, who drives toward the paint. Chaney slides over to help Lambert. OH! Write MasterCard all over

that one, folks! She wasn’t even trying for the basket!

“Lambert and Chaney are down. Chaney pops back up…”

“Flagrant, ref!” Chaney shouted. “Flagrant! You saw what she was tryin’ to do!”

Smiling a little, the ref shook her head and called the charge as Cat ran over to Dylan. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Dylan replied, shrugging off Cat’s hand and standing on her own. She looked over at Stephenson, who was smirking at her, and held up one

finger. “That’s one,” she mouthed, pleased when the smirk faded a bit from the red-headed giant.

“You’re fucked, meat,” Chaney said, going chest to belly with the much taller Stephenson.

“You ain’t pretty enough, Chaingang,” Stephenson replied, blowing the smaller player a kiss and trotting off, laughing.

“Well, Stephenson’s showing her true colors early on, Ted.”

“You’re right about that, Lori. The referee must have been inclined to give out a freebie, because that’s about as flagrant as it gets.”

“The Badgers managed to hold their poise, though, so I guess we’ll see what else The Enforcer has up her sleeve. Cooper takes the ball and passes off to

Hodges, who dribbles downcourt and rifles a pass off to Anya, who shoots it over to Chaney. Chaney looks, dribbles, oh, Blevins steals the ball and heads

downcourt! Holloway is pacing her, but she takes it all the way, stops at the line and shoots! Score another three for Taretha Blevins. And the Lightning

crowd comes to its feet, their lead suddenly back to eight points.”

“That was a beautiful play, Ted. Blevins is the league scoring leader, and it’s because of plays like that one. She’s got the eye and the range, that’s for sure.”

“Lambert takes the in-bounds pass from Hodges, then gives it back to her. Hodges passes crosscourt to Cooper, back to Hodges, over to Chaney. Lambert

moves to low post, receives the pass and kicks it back out to Hodges. Hodges to Chaney, down to Anya who shoots a short range jumper that rattles off the

rim. Lambert up for the rebound…and Stephenson cuts her legs out from under her! Oh, that was a nasty play! Looks like Lambert might be hurt. No, she’s

up, and boy is she cool as ice, folks! Anybody else would probably have taken a swing, but the Goddess is earning her name out there today.

“She steps up to the free throw line. Apparently, this time the official saw the flagrant foul, though it would have been pretty hard to miss. She takes the

ball. It’s up, and in. Her freethrow style certainly hasn’t changed. No dribble. Just up and…in again. Four points so far for Lambert this game. And the lead is

now down to six.

“Race dribbles down the court, guarded closely by Hodges. She dishes off to Holloway who tries a twelve footer. No go. Lambert up again for the rebound.

She gets it and absolutely wings a pass to Hodges streaking down the sideline. And it’s an easy layup from the little guard from UCONN, cutting the