Wakeland (Texas) High's Ryan Ward hasn't officially played a game yet this season, sidelined with a cracked femur that could keep him out another week or, in a worst case scenario, two. Yet Ward still managed to have one of the biggest impacts on Wakeland's early season, connecting for a penalty kick goal in his team's semifinal of the Duncanville Kickoff Classic in a victory over the Class 5A state champions, Jesuit (Texas) School.

"I've always had the confidence to make a big, clutch shot," Ward, who wears number 6 in the team portrait above, told the Dallas Morning News. "We've been practicing them all season long ... and I tucked it away."

Ward shouldn't have been allowed to take the kick at all, given his preexisting injury. And the statistics from his connection are particularly odd, since his failure to play in regulation meant that he wasn't officially counted as a partiicpant in the game. But, according to the Morning News, the junior midfielder walked up to Wakeland coach

It's always impressive when a player racks up 100 points in a week's worth of games. What Worthing (Texas) High senior Jenzel Nash did goes beyond that: She scored 112 points in just two games, racking up a rare triple-double of 48 points, 18 steals, five rebounds and 13 assists in the second victory.

While 18 steals in a single game are enough to earn headlines alone, it was Nash's 64-point, 12-rebound, nine-assist and nine-steal performance in an 84-38 win over Washington (Texas) High that grabbed a majority of her regional attention. According to the Houston Chronicle, Nash -- who wears number 24 in white in the video above -- didn't even realize how impressive her performance had been until she was pulled from the victory with just under two minutes remaining.

"I had no idea," Nash told the Chronicle. "I knew I had played well, but I didn't know I scored that many points.

"I think it's really cool that I scored that much, but I don't know if I can beat that. It was fun, though. I

Their names are almost identical. They wear the same number, playing the same sport at the same school. They sit across from each other at dinner every night. In fact, if they weren't of the different sex, Isia and Iszia Johnson might be completely indistinguishable.

But because Iszia is the star of the Auburn (Wash.) High boys basketball team and Isia of the Auburn girls basketball team, the two leading scorers are helping both Trojans teams compete for the South Puget Sound League North title.

According to the Tacoma News Tribune, both brother Iszia, who is a senior, and sister Isia, who is a junior, are part of the uber-athletic Johnson clan, a family of six children, all of whom have first names that start with the letter "I". The initials come thanks to the inspiration and influence of their father, Ishley Johnson, though he and his wife have made it clear that the pair's athletic talent didn't come from their immediate genetic forebears.

"I have no idea where they got their

It's always impressive when a player hits a half-court buzzer beater. It's even more impressive when that shot somehow wins a game. And when that game is the championship matchup of a tournament? That's another level entirely.

With that said, it's worth taking more than a cursory look at this shot by Garber (Okla.) High star Sydney Postier, who not only nailed a mid-courter, but did so after intentionally fouling to send a Pond Creek-Hunter (Okla.) High player to the foul line for a one-and-one, taking the subsequent miss and pushing the ball up just beyond midcourt in time to fire off a shockingly composed jumper.

"I've shot five 3-pointers my entire career and two of them happened to be tonight and they just went in," Postier told the Enid News. "I didn't know how much time was left so I just threw it up there and hoped for the best."

The best was good enough for Garber to earn the championship of the Skeltur Conference tournament, despite featuring a young team anchored almost

A high school boys basketball player in Minnesota continues to fight for his life after collapsing on the court with what is believed to be a previously unknown heart defect.

According to the Associated Press and Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 17-year-old Zach Gabbard, the player to the right in the photo at right, collapsed on Thursday night while competing for his Perham (Minn.) High basketball team in a game at Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (Minn.) High. According to KARE TV in Minneapolis, an emergency room nurse who happened to be in the crowd supporting D-G-F rushed onto the court to check for a pulse, then began chest compressions on the teen when one couldn't be found. A doctor at the game helped hold the player's mouth open while an electronic defibrillator was used until emergency technicians arrived and transported Gabbard to Sanford Medical Center in Fargo, N.D., the nearest city to the Western Minnesota game.

"Game was going up and down ... and he fell down in front of (the Perham)

It's been called unsportsmanlike. It's been called ugly. The question now is whether Christian Heritage (Utah) High, which routed West Ridge (Utah) Academy, 108-3, in a girls basketball game last week, actually did anything wrong by blowing out an overwhelmed opponent.

The stunning scoreline -- from a varsity game in which Christian Heritage reportedly never used a full-court press -- nearly defies belief. As reported in the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune, Christian Heritage scored 28 points per quarter for the first three periods and 24 in the fourth, providing a consistent average of nearly two baskets per minute across the entire game. The Crusaders shut out West Ridge (pictured above running on to the court for the team's game following the rout) for the first three quarters, and Christian Heritage starter Josi Rydin even racked up a unique triple-double, with exactly 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 steals.

"I don’t know why the score was that high, or what the point was," Jamie

If there was any doubt we're in the thick of hoops season, that should be quelled by the overwhelming amount of buzzer beaters that are popping up online at every nook and cranny. We're struggling to keep up with them all, and frankly, this is what we do.

Having too many buzzer beaters also might be the world's single greatest problem, which is why we're thrilled to roll out another edition of InterTubing, which is almost entirely buzzer beaters. Ok, there are a couple dunks and another terrific soccer goal tossed in for good measure, but know that thrilling shots are just the tip of the iceberg.

• Josh Beverly, Delta (Ohio): Delta High star Josh Beverly knocked down bank-shot three as the buzzer sounded in an unnamed game. No word on whether he thanked Tim Duncan for the strategy afterward.

• John Yang, El Monte (Calif.) vs. Mountain View (Calif.): Yes, John Yang's shot off a last-second inbounds pass was impressive, but frankly we're much more impressed by the crowd reaction. Now

A teenage girl in Maryland was the victim of what some have called religious persecution in a youth basketball league earlier this week, when 12-year-old Maheem Haq, a Muslim, was forced to sit on the bench for the first half of a basketball game because of her headscarf.

According to WJZ TV in Baltimore, Haq refused to take off her headscarf when a Hagerstown youth basketball league ref requested she do so. Her refusal led the ref to bar her from the game's first half.

The Baltimore Sun reported that she was allowed to play the second half wearing the hijab after a league administrator granted her a religious exemption.

"We were very upset when we heard about it," Connie Cline, the mother of one of Haq's teammates told WJZ. "She has been able to play the entire time and there's never been a problem."

[Rewind: During Ramadan, Muslim athlete must forgo water at workouts]

While the referee's decision has been widely condemned, the official was technically within his right, because the