CLEVELAND - For one day, the Wood County Christian boys and girls basketball teams got to be the stars of the NBA.
On Friday, Jan. 20, the Wildcat boys and girls were given the opportunity to play at Quicken Loans Arena, the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
And while there may not be a Lebron James in Cleveland anymore, there are plenty of other players to get young kids excited about the game of basketball.
If ever there was any doubt of that, Wood County Christian senior Josh Ungar ended it before he ever got off the court.
Following the conclusion of Friday's boys' game, which the Wildcats won 55-47, Cavalier forward Antawn Jamison came onto the court to warm up and began taking jump shots as he prepared for the game against the Bulls that evening.
And there was Ungar, talking to him like they were best friends as he walked off the court to the locker room.
Back in the hallway as he and teammate Kalen Gandor were interviewed by the media, there were frequent stops as players like Luol Deng, Anderson Varejao and Omri Caspi walked through the hallway.
Every one of them had to receive a greeting from Ungar, who was having the time of his life.
As Caspi walked past him, Ungar called out hello, and the Cav star came over to bump fists with both he and Gandor. When Ungar informed Casspi that he had just finished playing a game on the Cavalier court, Casspi replied, "Cool. You guys win?"
Not every kid in high school gets to have an NBA player ask if they won a basketball game.
In fact, almost none of them do.
But for one day the kids at Wood County Christian were given the chance to be on the NBA stage.
It was an exciting time, and something those kids will never forget.
"We're just a little Christian school from Williamstown, but we get to play at the Quicken Loans Arena," Ungar said.
Although, it was a tad bit intimidating at times as well.
Wood County Christian senior Maddie Mason said she was nervous playing in an empty arena, but then had to laugh when girls' coach Dave Weekley pointed out it was the biggest crowd she'd ever played in front of as more than 500 people attended the games between Wood County Christian and Ohio Valley Christian, which is based in Gallipolis.
The Wildcats gym over in Williamstown would be hard-pressed to fit the amount of people that attended the game on Friday into it, and would probably come pretty close to the fire codes if it did get everyone inside. On a stage as grand as The Q, everything seems a little bigger as the court's longer and wider, and there are many more seats.
None of those seats could fully contain the excitement that followed a group of high school students from Williamstown to Cleveland.
"Me and my dad have been big Cavs fans," Mason said. "When we were playing it was kind of surreal."
