The Mighty Macs Page #6

Loose ball!

The Macs have it.

Shot!

No good, no good.

No good, and we're headed to

overtime, but wait, wait

The Referees confer.

What's wrong, Coach.

Before the end of regulation,

foul to one.

The Macs have one more chance.

Number 12, you pick the court.

Trish Sharkey's going to

go to the line for mo.

Going to make that

Ionely walk out to the free throw line.

There's a lot of

pressure on a young girl.

And she misses.

Time out, time out. Come on.

Have a seat, have a seat.

l'm fine, l'm fine.

Here's some water.

Listen to me, you can do this, Trish.

Just trust your shot,

bend your knees.

And, don't forget to breathe.

All right? Good.

All right, let's go.

Here we go again,

Sharkey walks the plank.

She's now four for nine

from the Charih stripe.

She dribbles.

Shoots.

lt's good.

Yes. Yes.

Finally, Immaculata College

is going to the finals.

One more.

Light another candle, Sister Regina,

this dream is still alive.

What if they full court press?

We go upside down, oven mitts on,

center and forward bring the ball up,

Trish and Rosemay are

speed to go to the basket.

What if they don't press?

We put the winter clothes on.

l don't know that one.

lt means, it'll be a cold day in hell,

she'll never adjust.

l think we're ready.

Guess we're about to find out.

No matter what happens tomorrow,

l want to thank you for

what you've done for me this year.

You are a team player,

you have helped the helpers.

No. You don't need to...

No, no, no, no.

You listen to me, Cathy Rush.

You taught me,

that not only is change possible,

it's as vital as breathing.

And, not only that,

you also taught me and all my Sisters

that sometimes Angels

wear high heels.

This is the corniest thing

l have ever heard.

Do you not know that in a race,

all the runners compete.

But only one receives the prize.

So, run that you may obtain it.

Corithians.

You've earned the right to run tonight.

And it's okay to want the prize.

Lizanne, do you know

why teams get to the championship?

Trust.

Yeah, that's why they

get to the championship.

Do you know

why they win the championship?

Anyone?

l want all of you

to point to yourselves.

That's right.

Look where you're all pointing.

This.

This is why, this is

where championships are won.

One team, one beat.

This is what keeps us alive,

but we can't even see it.

It's not about what we wear

or where we live,

or how much money we have.

That's how they see us.

That's how they judge us.

None of that matters.

Because, what they don't know

is that we will win tonight.

And we will win because of

the things they cannot see.

One minute.

Coach.

Eveyone. Take a knee.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,

and welcome to

the First National Championship

for Women's college basketball.

Tonight, it's histoy in the making,

as the Golden Rams of

West Chester State College

face the Macs of

Immaculata College.

The tension is building here inside the arena

as the Immaculata faithful rise to their feet.

And the Mighh Macs

are taking the floor.

This is one of

the most improbably championship

match ups in sports histoy.

The pint size Papal institution

received one of the four large bids

and was seated in number fifteen

out of sixteen teams.

lt was just one week ago

that these mo teams

played for an automatic

bid to the Nationals,

and Immaculata lost

by fom-mo points.

How will this faimale end?

Will the glass slipper fit head

Coach Cathy Rush

and her little sisters of the floor?

The anmer lies somewhere

bemeen Heaven and the hardwood.

You got to go.

Westchester State

usually ins the championship.

lt's pushing forward.

That's an easy layup

...setting up the defense.

Macs are fighting to get open.

Get it to her...

And a... they're tying to

get it in, passed the ball to...

and the Golden Rams steal it.

To the net... to the net. The net.

Macs stay in bounds,

quick passed the middle.

Vey nice.

...move the ball up the floor.

Here's another pass and they score.

Yes, that's teamwork.

Here we go. Yes. Yes, yes.

lmmaculata pressuring the ball.

The Macs are all over the floor...

coasted free.

And the floor, picking up loose ball,

bounce by layup, score.

They're putting the ball around.

Moore pass the ball down to

Trish Sharkey...

Yes, yes, there we go.

Macs tie it up.

Westchester wastes no time

getting down the floor.

They shoot. And a foul.

Are you kidding me?

Come on!

Head Coach Rush doesn't like that.

Westchester dribble, mings it,

Macs rotate to help,

there's Moore with a steal.

Passes the head,

Macs look to push over half court.

Exhibit... rainbow.

And a pot of gold.

The Macs tie it again.

Westchester controls.

Slide your feet...

Yes, stay right there.

Open jumper, she nails it.

Westchester leads by mo

in a minute

and a half left to go on the game.

Find Rosemay, Gail.

Find her. Search.

Jump shot. We're tied again.

There we go.

That's it.

Macs with the ball, a chance to lead,

time's running down.

Sharkey, a jump shot,

and it drops through.

Macs take the lead by mo.

Thim five seconds to count.

Westchester in ah...

foul line, jumper.

Good.

We are tied.

Sixteen seconds.

Fourteen.

Thirteen.

Bring it in, bring it in, bring it in.

Time out, Cathy Rush.

Jen, you're in. Okay, listen up.

We'll start fourteen low.

Rosemay, l want you to

hand off to Gail.

Trish, l want you to flash to the ball.

They're going to be

overplaying with Jen.

l want you to set a back door screen.

All right.

You need to trust

that Trish will be there.

Let's do this.

Be strong, Trishy.

-All right, on three.

-Ready?

One, mo, three, charge.

Come on, let's go.

Here we go, for evey team that

thought they never had a chance.

Twelve seconds.

Ten.

lmmaculata sets up along the baseline.

And now they motion.

Five seconds.

Sharkey lays it up.

lt's good.

Yes, yes.

lmmaculata College

has won the National Championship.

The Mighh Macs are number one.

Nice game.

We did it, we did it.

Congratulations, Coach.

When l look back,

l'm not sure any of us could explain

the mystey of how we won,

or why we won.

But maybe,

all we did was look around us

to see other women committed

to something they believed in.

Somewhere along the way

you forget how important that is.

As a team,

we must have learned from that,

because in the end,

it proved to all of us

that anything can happen

when we're committed to our dreams.

lmmaculata College survived

the turmoil of the early seventies.

ln 2005, it went co-ed and is

now thriving as Immaculata Universih.

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