Jason Rowe, the former Traditional standout, begins his eighth
season of playing professional basketball overseas. Rowe, who is the
starting point guard for Banco di Sardegna Sassari in Italy, will keep
us updated throughout the season with a blog for Sports, Ink.
I can't lie, as soon as the last game of the season was finished I wanted to jump right in the first game of the playoffs. I didn't want to wait a week . The anticipation was too great for me. I felt like a kid waiting on Christmas Eve for Christmas morning. All week long I tossed and turned in the bed because the butterflies were so great. It's been a long time since I have been this excited.
Our opponent, Jesi, is a team we split with during the regular season. Both teams winning on their home court. Good thing for us we start the first two games of the best -of-five series at home. There are many underlying stories between these teams. We have two players who played for Jesi in the past and Jesi beat Sassari six straight times the previous season (including a 3-0 sweep) in last year's playoffs.
Game 1, (finally LOL) we jumped out on Jesi early and took control of the game from the opening tip. In my opinion this was one of our best games of the season, by halftime we were up, 48-21, and finished the game winning, 94-67 (19 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assist). I knew Game Two would not nearly be this easy and I knew we would have to be prepared for a battle in game 2. I think we just caught them on a very bad night.
Game 2, was a the complete opposite. Jesi took an early lead and we could never recover. To the surprise of us and our fans we headed to the locker room after the game with a 78-68 loss (13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists). and heading to Jesi for two games, a place where we have not won this year.
No one could help to wonder if we let a good thing slip away by losing Game Two.
We knew going to Jesi and winning would not be easy, but not impossible, The goal? Get one victory and make sure we come home for Game 5.
Game 3, was the same story ... for Jesi. Again, from the opening tip they were the aggressor both offensively and defensively, We lost 89-81 (22 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) and now we find ourselves down 2-1 facing elimination on the road.
Because of how often we play there is really little time for feeling sorry for yourself there was only 48 hours after Game Three until Game Four. The only thing you can do is watch video and mentally and physically prepare yourself for the next game. One of the things I told some of my teammates was that our mission is far from finished. Our goal was to come to Jesi and get one game. No one said it had to be Game 3, so fortunately we have another chance at winning. I told them the key to winning was to be ready from the opening tip, and not wait until we are down to start playing. Let's keep the crowd out of it, and not give Jesi any extra motivation. I also told them that although we have pressure, Jesi has more, they really don't want to come back to our place for a Game 5.
For me, I felt like I was trying too hard to win, so I needed to calm down. My adrenaline was racing all week and as a result, towards the end of games, I would be tired, so i had to find some way to relax. Luckily for me there was a spa attached to our hotel. so needless to say. I spent some time away from basketball for a few hours
When Game 4 started I was so relaxed and ready to play. I felt normal and not like so high strung like the previous games. Immediately it was a different game and as a result we were down by one point at the end of the first quarter, a good sign for us considering we were down by double figures in the previous two games. Myself I didn't get off to a great start but we were in the game
I only had 11 points in the first half, but more importantly we were winning by seven. I knew when we came back on the floor the first five minutes of the third quarter would be important. As expected Jesi came out and close the gap to just one. Now the pressure is on. Mentally, I was thinking about how much of a waste this season would be to lose in the first round and we have had too many heartbreak loses and this one was not going to be another one. I wasn't ready to come home either. I love my vacation time in the summer but not right now, I feel like we have something special going on and the vacation will be there. I am not sure when I will get close to a championship again.
We beat Jesi in overtime 109-107, in that game I set a team record for most points in the playoffs (38) ,and I also set a personal record of eight three pointers . The stage of now set for Game Five at home on TV. Just the way I like it (LOL).
Game Five, in front of a sold out crowd is every athlete's dream. You win you advance, You lose you go home and think about "what could have been". Losing is not an option for me right now..
I knew the game plan of Jesi, was to play me physical and not allow me to make so many shots as I did in Game Four. My game plan, simple, just win. However , whatever.
Again we came out the aggressor and never let up. We controlled the tempo of the game and Jesi never could find their rhythm , for 40 minutes. The result, Sassari, 78-66. It wasn't my best shooting night but , I didn't care we won (11 points, 6 assists, 5 steals, 3 rebounds). Semi finals are next leading up to the first semi final game this team has seen since 1995, has been crazy. Fans have been stopping me on the road congratulating me and wishing me good luck for the next round. I have been signing autographs' in the grocery store and in my own apartment building. My Facebook friend requests have tripled (LOL) . One guy even told me that if I led them to the championship he would build a statue for me outside of the stadium ( I am thinking its a recession where is this guy getting this money from? Give it to me LOL!!!).
Seriously its incredible, I wouldn't trade this for anything right now. Another women emailed me and told me that her family is going through hard times, yet for two hours when they watch me play all her struggles are gone. These are the moments, that sometimes get overlooked as an athlete. You never know what someone is going through and to be able to provide some type of relief to their life, I can only thank God and feel fortunate for what he has giving me another best of five series is ahead of us now, This time Scafati. We lost to Scafati, twice during the season once at the buzzer and another by four. They finished ninth and got in the playoffs on the last day. Scafati upset the second place team in the first round, so again it won't be easy for us, but I am not ready to come home yet (LOL).
---Jason Rowe
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