Of all the games to miss, why this one?

There I sat, on the top row of the bleachers at Wynn Gymnasium Tuesday, listening to Mike Harbit as he tried to come up with an exciting call to a game that had absolutely no excitement.

The Nevada Lady Tigers were in the second half of their 100-11 walloping of the Southeast Lady Knights out of Kansas City.

I was having trouble keeping up with the scoring at times. I like to keep track of turnovers in addition to keeping a regular scorebook, and this game proved to be the hardest I've ever followed.

It seemed that every time a turnover occurred, scoring followed. As I tried to keep up with the play before, another turnover and score would take place.

Making matters worse was the fact that the Southeast roster that was submitted for the tournament did not match the roster on the floor.

Sure these problems are menial and insignificant, but they were nagging nonetheless.

"Nevada is now only three points away from tying the single-game scoring record in the Lady Tiger Classic," Harbit broadcast, trying to give this awful game some drama.

The Lady Tigers had 68 points at halftime. That is only 20 points from the previous record Harbit was talking about.

Nevada had scored 88 points in a Lady Tiger Classic game last season to set the mark. Their opponents? Southeast.

You could see the blowout coming during the pre-game warmups.

"They look like a middle school team," my wife said. She was serious.

I am not about to trash the Southeast team for being so bad. My guess is that school and those players have more to deal with than just playing basketball.

But I am going to wallow in my own misery a little, because while I was watching one of the biggest blowouts in Nevada history, across town there was another game going on that I would have paid to see.

The Cottey Comets were taking on North Central Missouri College at the Hinkhouse Center.

While most Cottey games this season have proven to be more frustrating than entertaining (just ask coach Dave Ketterman), this happened to be the game of the year.

Heck, it's possible that this was the biggest game in the history of Cottey basketball.

All year Ketterman had been telling his players, "We can be better than what we are."

What they were was the last-place team in Region 16.

Cottey was winless (0-6) in region play, and they happened to be taking on what many consider the class of the region in NCMC.

Tuesday Cottey suddenly became better than they were.

Ketterman said he thinks his players were tired of losing.

He's probably right.

They pulled off a 50-49 win. They did it while doing things that Cottey has not been able to do this season.

They played well down the stretch. They put together two good halves. Someone stepped up and scored when the Comets needed it the most. This team was the antithesis of what Cottey had been all season.

Now the players and the coaches have something that they can look back on and always remember with pride.

What Cottey did was prove the point I was trying to make back in the high school football season.

I was talking about giving 100 percent, mentally and physically, even if the season is winding down and your team is struggling.

At 4-15, the Comets could have packed it in. Especially coming off a three-game road trip in St. Louis that saw Cottey lose three in three days against region opponents.

They could have decided that North Central was too good, and gone through the motions on the court while the visitors put together another region win.

Nobody would have thought twice about it. Everybody would have just chalked up another loss for the Comets against a better opponent.

Instead the Comets dug deep. They continued to work hard. Their efforts during a long, rough season were finally rewarded.

The Comets will not be left wondering what could have been. They made something special happen and who knows, this could be a springboard for the rest of the season.

Most importantly, the Comets never gave up. That's what athletics are all about.