A Little Excitement

Time keeps getting away from me to be able to blog, and much of my sewing time is now going toward birthday and holiday presents. So at some point you'll get more posts on sewing, but for now here's something a little different.

I'm fortunate enough to live in a beautiful city. In fact most of our whole state is lovely. And here in this state we have a love for one sport over the rest: basketball. Sure, there are a lot of football fans, but here people love basketball like the whole rest of the world loves soccer (football/ fútbol). 

our fair city

 My husband and I are not big into sports in general, but we are not immune to this love of athletes running back and forth over a wood floor trying to get an inflated object through a small ring. But alas, it is usually way out of budget for us to enjoy such festivities.  And so we hadn't paid it much attention because we knew we couldn't be a part of it.

So recently, when we got some nearly-free tickets, we were delighted to be able to go see our WNBA team, The Indiana Fever, play a game.
 

the fieldhouse

Five minutes in and I was hooked.  It wasn't just that they were handily trouncing the opposing team, the Tulsa Shock, it was that they were doing it with energy, style, and teamwork. They were playing the game as it should be: a team sport.

Indiana Fever vs Tulsa Shock

I stopped paying attention to men's basketball several years ago because the game seemed to have just become a one-on-one game between each team's star player where some other people also just happened to be on the court. There's so much testosterone-fueled grumpiness throughout the whole thing, and no one seems to have class or style anymore. 

Well, these ladies have it in droves.

 

Davenport sinks another freethrow. Fever won 91-58

What can I say, I'm hooked. My husband's hooked. We've become "Fever Believers."  By the end of the first game we had already started learning some of the players' names (we knew a few beforehand because they've been with the Fever so long) and had each picked a few favorites.

Totally hooked

So when my mother-in-law offered to take us to the next home game for my husband's birthday, we jumped at the chance.

Halftime shows are... interesting. This lady is juggling a table with her feet.

Though my husband shouted and cheered himself hoarse, and though the Fever played a great game, that evening they lost to the Atlanta Dream 66-75.  At this point we began to follow the games online, hitting reload on the web page every minute or so to get the play-by-play (we don't have the expensive cable channels that carry WNBA games and not every game is broadcast on the radio, it's such a shame) and reading it out loud to each other and cheering. The Fever went on to beat Atlanta on the road 103-88 and back at home 75-64.

Beating the Dream meant that the Fever moved on to the final pairing of the playoffs against the Connecticut Sun.  And since there had been a small glitch with the previous tickets, the Fever gave us tickets to see the first game agains the Sun. It was a seriously unbelievable game. I think I spent the entire game on my feet or close to it.

January goes down after some dirty move that didn't get called a foul

There was some real hustle by these women throughout the close game, including an awesome play where Larkins took the rebound, January hustled the ball down the court faster than I've ever seen in a game before, and Phillips put it in for another 3 points. The game ended with a last-second shot by Zellous to win the game by just two points 78-76. The place was roaring so loud I could barely hear for two days.

They played one more against Connecticut out east in which one of the veteran players and leading scorers, Katie Douglas, was out of the game early with a nasty ankle injury. (Video here if you can stomach it.) 

But the whole team rallied, moved some people around, and really just went for it. By the end of the night they were officially the Eastern Conference Champions, having beat the Sun 87-71.  This meant they were headed to the final matchup to see who is the best team in all of the WNBA.

pic via the Fever's fb page

The final matchup was against the Western Conference Champs, the Minnesota Lynx.  The series was best 3 out of 5 games. Fortunately, the game was broadcast on the radio as the first couple of games were in Minnesota.  And while the fever won one of the two games up there (won the first 76-70 but lost the second 71-83), we had begun to worry.  The worry was not because the fever weren't playing admirably, but because the other team seemed to be playing dirty, intentionally trying to cause injury.  Jeanette Pohlen was down early in the second game with a torn ACL.

got there early enough to see January warming up before the game

So the team came home down one more player, but fired up to take the Lynx down on home turf. And again, we were lucky enough to get to go (this time a very early birthday gift to me).  The crowd was a sea of red (at the team's request all Fever fans came wearing red) and loud and supportive the whole game.

Briann January passes the ball to a teammate

With some unbelievable defense and a really just WOW 30 points scored by Shavonte Zellous, the Fever took the Lynx down 76-59 that night.  Two days later the Fever prevailed at the final game beating the Lynx 87-78 and securing their place in history as the 2012 WNBA Champions.

pic via [source?]

So, for the last few weeks I've been scrabbling around trying to figure out a way that we can fit season tickets (or at least several games) into our budget.  I'm not sure it can happen without some additional income, but I know we'd both like to try. And being the silly sewing person that I am, my mind keeps rolling around ideas for a fun fan outfit to wear to one of their games next year. lol

There should be more sewing to share next week, but in the mean time I hope you've enjoyed this little side story.

Have a great weekend!