| Glasgow Rocks | 86 |
| Guildford Heat | 75 |
Following is Bilal's personal account of his experience in the 3-point spotlight:
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After a two-day road trip that was endured with much success (wins over Everton and Leicester on Friday and Saturday nights) I headed on to Birmingham about 40 minutes post game. The bus ride was a little less than an hour and stayed in a hotel with my fiancé - courtesy of SAMG who sponsored my entry - very nice of them to give me this experience.
The next morning my fiancé and I walked around Birmingham city for a while before heading to the gym. With lots of stores and a huge mall similar to Breahead, we had a great time window shopping.
Well, off to the event we went. I checked in at about 1.35 pm and learned that I was first shooter to get a check (tick) on the arrival list. After being told that the information meeting would be at 2.10 pm I went back to my girlfriend and watched Birmingham Panthers play up with Worcester Wolves.
On my way I met Malcolm Leak, an old BBL player and who has also played in Denmark. I had a nice talk with him about my year and the year I had last year. I met Malcolm in Denmark before I want to college in 2001 and have stayed in touch with him ever since.
I went back down in time for the meeting, meanwhile telling myself to just go down there and have fun. I saw Justin Graham there from the Sharks who instantly started clowning and had me laughing. Also Richard Midgely (Everton), who had more of a serious demeanor, had showed up.
Well we were told the rules of the competition. Numerous times the staff was asked if we would get time to warm up, but were never really met with a direct answer - even though it clearly stated that we would get 5 minutes in the guidelines that we were given prior to the show down from the BBL via our respective
clubs.
We started to change into our team kits and by then pretty much all had showed up except the three people on the court finishing their game and two Leicester players - I guess affected by the loss they took to the Rocks the night before(hehe).
We were lined up in the entrance and I met the Scottish Rockettes who all wished me luck and we were introduced. Meanwhile, Justin Graham was trying to form alliances and split the prize money with whoever were interested.
We were introduced with very dimmed lights and a spotlight entering the arena respectively representing our club teams. The place was packed to the top of the bleachers and all that was going through my mind was that we were supposed to be here to play Milton Keynes in the final, which made me a bit angry that we didn't pull through back on December 15. Nevertheless, I told myself that the prize money and winning the shootout would sort of comfort for me, my team mates and the rest of the Rocks organization.
After being introduced, we still were sitting in near darkness waiting for them to brighten the arena back up, but before we knew it we were being asked on the court to begin the competition. The first ones up were
Midgley (Everton) and Bradley (London) and the lights were the same with one more spotlight on the floor!
I Never imagined having a three point shoot-out where you could barely see the rim. On the left side of the court the spotlight was straight on your face and so if you hit from there it was mere intuition, haha.
In the first round I started really well and I hit four of five from the first rack, or should I say “ball bin.” Second I got a bit too eager because I thought to myself that I was shooting too slow if I wanted to finish all 5 racks within 60 seconds and made just 2.
The third rack was the infamous rack with the spotlight right in your face and just 1 went in. Then I went
back to the second rack and shot in 2 more to make a total of nine three balls. The 5th and final I only got one shot off in time.
Needless to say I didn't think that 9 balls was going to cut it, but I was later going to find
out that this would be the high score of the first round  Four of us had a tie of 9 connected threes and we all went into the final.
I hit a total of 12 threes in the final round, but one didn't qualify and so that made it 11. They said I didn't get it off in time, but it didn't matter because James Life (Worcester) came out right after me and hit 14. I
saw the opportunity had slipped and just sat back and watched along. The third finalist (Wardrope, Guildford) came on and hit 14 as well. The final shooter came on and I believe he had a meager 4 shots connect.
Life and Wardrope went shot for shot for the win and Life won it after four shots each where
they had only hit one.
So all in all I had a great time and it was fun. Most importantly I believe that I represented my team mates and my club well and I would do again if asked.
ONLY THIS TIME I WOULD WIN. haha!
Posted on 15 January, 2008
