OU Falls to 4-4 After Disheartening Loss

***Special Report From ESPN The Magazine Contributor, Boston Globe Correspondant, and Origins Unknown "backwards-4" muscle, Pete Martin***

April 20, 2006
Reading, MA - It's not apparent how Origins Unknown fell to the unheralded Val Squad, who only brought four men (two goofy) to the court. Most fingers would point at the abysmal play of Peter Martin. Martin took one three-point attempt, and it was more than enough. Max could've shot it better ... left handed.

Playing comfortably in the first half OU seemed to have a grip on the game, but it became hectic and blurry in the second, with the lead bouncing and dipping on the whim of erratic turnovers.

Dan Fisher was hot from the field, and although he grumbled about missing free throws down the stretch, his stellar play carried the team's scoring for several runs. Fisher hit pay dirt from all angles, the jumper, the bank, the drive, at one point soliciting the compliment of a middle-aged man with headphones who stopped-in to watch -- "Damn, he's shooooot'n."

Jim "Stretch" Hogan III played tough down low and couldn't be matched, but didn't see enough touches. His foul shooting was also silky, high arcs splashing net.

The team play seemed uninspired at times, frustrated at others, with a general malaise related to the attitude --- "we should be killing these guys." The team was also without their anchor and Capt’n, Mike Nolan, who should not have been required to dispatch of the 1-6 scrub squad.

In the final minutes OU asserted its authority and looked poised to squeak past the plucky bottom-dwellers, but a Val three-pointer, followed by a contorted scoop shot, and lose ball scrambles, knotted the game with less than a minute to go.

Stretch, as he did several times in the game, made a block and a steal and seized the ball with about 5 seconds ticking towards overtime. He zeroed in on the rim and measured his steps for a heroic game-winning gallop to the wrack, cherry-topped by a thunderous dunk (or backboard-slapping layup). Then, the calls of "time out!" "time out!" were shouted by several, to remain unnamed, players. A technical was issued because OU had already used its two time outs.

The Val sharp shooter hit two free throws to seal the game as OU milled around center court trying to remember their first time out, which seemed like a long, long, long time ago.

After the final buzzer resounded defeat in their battered egos, OU players shook hands and separated to mutter alone. Martin reckoned that he was slow, fat, unfocused, and if he had left a bead more of sweat, an ounce more of effort on the court, OU would've likely won.

The defeat drops OU to 4-4, their worst record ever, with the playoffs fast approaching, and the team beginning to wonder --- can we still rev the engines to win in the playoffs? Do we still have the teeth of two-time YMCA champions? They hope so, but it will take a gut check and grit.