Jeremiah Boswell (J-BOS) Bball, Music, Writing & Adventures

A pep-band got everything turned up a notch as we started the game.  The other team (Ovche Pole) came out strong and seemed to make every shot they took.  We settled down and so did their shooting percentage and we went into halftime trailing by 5.

As we did our two lines of warm-ups to get ready for the 3rd quarter I heard a loud noise; then I heard the crowd cheering.  I turned around to see what had happened and the rim had fallen off the basket. Nobody dunked, nobody grabbed the rim, it just fell completely out of the backboard to the ground…pure ridiculousness.

Finally an hour later, it was replaced and the game went on.  We continued to play hard and fight our way into the game, and as the 4^th quarter came to the last moments, we found ourselves taking the ball out of bounds at half-court with the score all tied up.  There was 3.5 seconds left and coach drew up a play for me to get the ball.  I felt good.  I hadn’t been making shots, but I felt good.

I caught the ball at the top of the key, about 5 feet behind the 3-point line.  I took 2 dribbles to my left and went up for a shot, but the defender fouled me on the way up.  Naturally I think, game over. I’ll make at least 1 of the 3 free-throws and we’ll go home.
The referee decided the foul was on the floor and I wasn’t shooting.  So we got the ball back with .5 seconds and couldn’t get a shot off.  Overtime carried on much the same.

This time down 2 with 15 seconds I had the ball for a pick and roll.  I drove hard down the lane and went up for a short shot.  With some contact the shot went of the back of the rim.  But a hustling teammate (Marcus Neal) grabbed the rebound and layed it in.  To double OT it went where center John Chappell continued to handle business and we took the win.  It was another very positive victory for our team.

Our game last night was actually supposed to be played on Wednesday.  But apparently the other team heard that our Americans had travel plans on the 23rd and decided to change the game.  Another crazy rule here is that the home team can change the date of the game by 24 hours in either direction.  Needless to say, we were unhappy with the change.  I had to cancel my trip to Milan 😦 and others had to re-book flights which wasn’t easy because of the holiday travel, fog and snow delays over here.

So we gave them a good lesson by winning 86-64.  The win moved us into 5th place and we should continue to be solid when we return from our break.  I am very happy to be flying home to see family and friends a few days after Christmas!

Here is a link to a brief article about the game.  It’s in Macedonian but if some computers will translate it.

http://www.basketball.org.mk/?ItemID=085EA5369A7FA446BDAE7FB8AB520831

I just experienced one of the craziest games I’ve ever been a part of.  We won 90-78 but it was interesting.  First of all, it decided to finally get cold here (photo below) and as we walked into the gym, it was about 35-40 degrees!
After a thorough warm-up, it was time to go. I was happy to be sitting on the bench in a jersey instead of street clothes (my knee is getting better). The rowdy crowd of about 4,000 were right on top of us and making their presence felt with jeers throughout.  But from the tip we played beautiful basketball. We played great defense, shared the ball and made shots. We had a 35 point lead and went in to halftime perhaps shocked at how good we were playing.
The 2nd half wasn’t as easy as the game became very physical and dirty, and they cut into the lead.  Fans in Eastern Europe are very rowdy and they proved it by throwing bottle tops and anything else they could at us. They also shared their saliva with anyone near enough. And unfortunately the refs didn’t seem to care that the other team was actually kicking, holding and shoving.
One of my teammates was elbowed in the head. He was hit so hard that it probably broke his nose and a bone over his eye in his forehead. He had to go directly to the hospital and may need surgery. Another teammate left the game with a sprained wrist.  And our center, Big Chapp, got kicked in the back of the leg, shoved in the back multiple times, pulled, held and punched. Though these aren’t the best basketball techniques, when the ref allows, they’re pretty affective.
I got to play down the stretch of the game. And though I could not really drive hard or jump well, I think I was able to help the team on both ends of the court in other ways.  But the bottom line was we won!
To top it off, after the game when we were showering in the locker room, the boiler/hot water exploded. Not only did it prevent showers, but created a fog throughout.

First Macedonian Snow

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Needless to say, the last 3 weeks has been eventful.  Thankfully, I think everything is settling down now.  3 weeks ago, I hyperextended my knee in a game.  It felt pretty bad but I hobbled around and played a few more minutes in the game.  When I went to see the local doctor, he just poked and prodded and said, “rest for a week.”

A week later I tried to play and still had significant pain with jumping and running fast.  So I asked to see a different doctor.  This led me to Skopje and the best sports doctor in Macedonia.  He did the standard procedures and took an MRI.  He then told me I should have arthroscopic surgery that would include micro-fracture surgery.  I never imagined my knee was bad enough for surgery but based on the MRI he felt I should. The findings from the MRI were an intense bone contusion, a lesion on the bone, some fluid in the knee and some retracted ACL Fibers.

That’s when I contacted doctors in America.  All 3 doctors told me not to have surgery!  So now, I am doing rehab according to their plan and hope to be back in action soon.  Thank you for all of the prayers and support.