It didn't matter that his DeKalb, Ill., High School basketball team had ridden a bus two and a half hours to get to Milwaukee, then waited another hour past game time to play.  Nor did it matter that the game was close and that this was a chance to beat a big city team.

Something else was on Dave Rohlman's mind when he asked for a volunteer to shoot two free throws awarded his team on a technical foul in the second quarter.  His senior captain raised his hand, ready to go to the line as he had many times before.  Only this time it was different.

"You realize you're going to miss them, don't you?"  Rohlman said.

Darius McNeal nodded his head.  He understood what had to be done.

It was a Saturday night in February 2009, and the Barbs were playing a non-conference game on the road against Milwaukee Madison.  It was the third meeting between the two schools, who were developing a friendly rivalry that spanned two states.

Hours earlier, the mother of Milwaukee Madison senior captain Johntel Franklin died at a local hospital.  Carlitha Franklin had been in remission after a five-year fight against cervical cancer, but she began to hemorrhage that morning while Johntel was taking his college ACT exam. Her son and several of his teammates were at the hospital late that afternoon when the decision was made to turn off her life-support system.  Carlitha Franklin was just 39.

"She was young and they were real close," said Milwaukee coach Aaron Womack Jr., who was at the hospital.  "He was very distraught and it happened so suddenly he didn't have time to grieve."  Womack was going to cancel the game, but Franklin told him he wanted the team to play.  And play they did, even though the game started late and Milwaukee Madison dressed only eight players.

Early in the second quarter, Womack saw Franklin enter the gym.  He had come there directly from the hospital to root his teammates on.  The Knights had possession, so Womack called a time out.  His players went over and hugged their grieving teammate.  Fans came out of the stands to do the same.

"We got back to playing the game and I asked if he wanted to come and sit on the bench," Womack said.

"No," Franklin replied.  "I want to play."

There was just one problem.  Since Franklin wasn't on the pre-game roster, putting him in meant drawing a technical foul that would give DeKalb two free throws.  Though it was a tight game, Womack was willing to give up the two points to allow Franklin to play.  It was more important to help his senior guard and co-captain deal with his grief on the court by playing.

Over on the other bench, though, Rohlman wasn't so willing to take them.  He told the referees to forget the technical and just let Franklin play."  I could hear them arguing for five to seven minutes, saying, "We're not taking it, we're not taking it," Womack said.  "The refs told them, no, that's the rule.  You have to take them."

That's when Rohlman asked for volunteers, and McNeal's hand went up.  He went alone to the free throw line, dribbled the ball a couple of times, and looked at the rim.  His first attempt went about two feet, bouncing a couple of times as it rolled toward the end line.  The second barely left his hand.  It didn't take long for the Milwaukee players to figure out what was going on.  They stood and turned toward the DeKalb bench and started applauding the gesture of sportsmanship.  Soon, so did everybody in the stands.

"I did it for the guy who lost his mom," McNeal told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  "It was the right thing to do."

Milwaukee Madison rallied and broke the game wide open in the second half to win 62-47 with Franklin scoring 10 points.

"I got kind of emotional but it helped a lot just to play," he said.  "I felt like I had a lot of support out there."

DeKalb went home with a loss, that night.  "This is something our kids will hold for a lifetime," Rohlman said.  "They may not remember our record 20 years from now, but they'll remember what happened in that gym that night."  It was a moment when a team and a player decided there were more important things in life than winning and having good stats.

Good night, gentlemen.

Note: Carlitha Franklin was laid to rest that Friday, and the school turned out for her and her son.  Cheerleaders came in uniform, and everyone from the principal and teachers to Johntel's classmates were there.  "Even the cooks from school showed up," Womack said.  "It lets you know what kind of kid he is."  The Knights were 6-11 in the season and they were beaten badly by Milwaukee Hamilton in a lop sided 71-36 loss the following week.  It wasn't greatest season for the team.  "Maybe we don't have the best basketball players in the world but they go to class and take care of business," Womack said.  "We have a losing record but there's life lessons going on, good ones."