I’ve been there

Ok Sportsfans, I have had the opportunity to watch probably one of the best three-loss teams in the area take to the court and utterly decimate their opponents.

No offense to Southside and Dallas County High, but they got rolled by the Selma Lady Saints basketball team. After losing to Jefferson Davis, the No. 1 girls team in 6A, the Lady Saints went on a tear.

The golden ladies posted a 65-22 win over rival Southside and then upended Dallas County to the tune of 72-9. They added a third win in a row Wednesday night, albeit not by as great a landslide as its predecessors, but a win nonetheless. Saturday night, the Lady Saints were searching for win No. 4 to push them to 7-3 on the season.

But, to the teams that have became victims of the Lady Saints &045; I feel your pain.

Believe me, I’ve been on the low end of the scoreboard and it’s not a happy feeling.

In my second year at what was then Troy State University, I learned that losing by 80 was a possibility and after 32:00 of play, an actuality.

The only time I had seen someone get beat down by 80 points was on Playstation 2 or X-Box, but never in real life.

I’ve been in Dallas County for a while now and as some people can tell, I’m not built for height or speed &045; being 5’9&8221; and having a body shape that is roughly equivalent to that of a football &045; round in the middle.

Given those obvious facts, I was still goaded into playing intramural basketball. Intramurals is rec league sports in the loosest sense of the phrase. A group of guys get together and play in a make-shift league for a trophy at the end of the season. However, it was a really good experience because the guys on the team had actually played basketball before so we had that going for us.

In our first game as the &8220;Parrottheads,&8221; we took on a squad that had played high school basketball together.

And it was obvious.

The motley crew that made up the &8220;Parrottheads&8221; quickly scored 10 points in the first period.

It was all downhill from there.

Our opponents pushed the ball up the floor again, and again, and again and again and then when they felt like they had a comfortable lead, they jumped out of their zone defense into a full-court press &045; in case we had a scoring outburst &045; in order to preserve their narrow lead.

At the half, it was 55-12.

We managed a basket in the second period. I was fighting for a rebound and one of the guys on the other team accidentally tipped the ball into his own basket.

Things didn’t get any better for us in the second half.

We’d inbound the ball and then they’d score with it.

We’d pass the ball and they’d score with it.

For a second, the game seemed more like a scoring clinic than an actual game, with &8220;the Parrottheads&8221; as the ones getting the schooling.

Mercifully, the period ended, but not without us attempting to shrink the Grand Canyon of a lead. We drained a three-pointer at the buzzer.

That period-ending basket helped us cut the lead to 65, 80-15.

Our opponents actually let us score a basket to open the fourth and final period. When I say let us, I mean we basically &8220;footballed&8221; our way down the floor and scored.

By the grace of all that’s good and right, the final horn sounded and the &8220;Parrottheads&8221; had taken it on the beak, 97-17.

The good thing about the loss was that it took us out of the class of teams that knew what they were doing and put us in the ones with the guys who were just playing to play.

We rebounded from the loss and went on to play in the finals of the league championship.

While there are some teams that are simply better than others, the Lady Panthers and the Lady Hornets have the opportunity to take this loss, learn from it, and then take what they’ve learned and get ready for the next opponent.

Sportsfans, always remember that you don’t get better by playing creampuffs.

Southside plays Francis Marion and Dallas County plays Keith next week – both should create interesting, yet, challenging match-ups.

To everyone involved, I offer a simple &8220;good luck.&8221;

It’s that simple.