During a high school game about a year ago, an errant shot left the basketball wedged between the side of the rim and the backboard.
The 10 players on the court shrugged their shoulders, giggled and waited. The referees scrambled for another ball to throw up there to jar the ball loose and get the game moving again.
Out of nowhere -- except perhaps central casting -- came Janai Crooms, then a 5-foot-9 freshman point guard for St. Andrew's School (Barrington, Rhode Island).
Crooms, a cousin of 11-time NBA All-Star Allen Iverson, had the answer (pun intended). She sprinted off the bench and past coach Andrew Schirber, who was afraid she might get a technical for running on the court.
"I was thinking, 'Let me go do it,' " said Crooms, who simply leaped to dislodge the ball. "I just went and did it, and they said, 'Good job.' "
Crooms, who is now 5-10 and coming off her sophomore season, hears those words a lot.
She heard it last week in Colorado, where she played well while attempting to earn one of the 12 roster openings on the USA team that will compete in the 2016 FIBA Americas U17 championships June 22-July 2 in Zaragoza, Spain.
Crooms, 16, didn't make the cut -- there were nearly 150 players battling for spots -- but she said she was reassured by how she competed against the elite.
"Way more," Crooms said when asked if she gained confidence by participating in the tryouts. "[Getting cut] bothered me, but as long as I played well, that's all that matters."
Crooms, who was named first-team All-USA Today in Rhode Island this past season, is the No. 10 prospect in the espnW HoopGurlz Terrific 25 for the 2018 class.
What makes Crooms so good?
Beside her athleticism, Crooms is the consummate point guard who would rather pass than shoot. She nearly averaged a triple-double last season, putting up 13 points 12 rebounds and 8 assists.
"She could hog the ball, but she doesn't," teammate Makda Yemane said. "Before every game, she says, 'Today, I will get 15 assists.'
"Janai asks us what our goals are -- she thinks about other people and not just herself."
Crooms helped St. Andrew's finish 20-10 last season, winning the Southeastern New England league and reaching the semifinals of the New England Class C prep championships.
St. Andrew's has 200 students in high school, about 80 of which are boarders. The rest -- including Crooms -- are day students.
But even though Crooms is not a boarding student, it seems she's always at the school. As a freshman, she played goalie in soccer and lacrosse -- sports she had never tried before -- merely to be around her friends.
"Janai is full of life," Schirber said. "She doesn't want to miss out on anything."
Crooms, a native of Providence, Rhode Island, lives in Cranston, about 15 minutes from campus. An only child, Crooms lives with her mother, Lisa Robertson, who said she is her daughter's No. 1 fan.
When Crooms arrived at St. Andrew's as a freshman, Robertson told Schirber that her daughter would have a major impact on the program.
"Janai's mom said her daughter would do for us what Tony Robertson did for our boys' program," said Schirber, referring to the former University of Connecticut standout who led St. Andrew's to the 1998 New England prep championship.
"And Janai has done that -- she's a magnet for other girls who know her from AAU ball. Some of those kids have come or want to come to our school."
As for Iverson, Crooms has only met him three times, most recently on March 1, 2014, when she posed for a photo with him at his retirement ceremony at halftime of a Philadelphia 76ers game.
Robertson, a single mom, said her daughter has patterned her cross-over dribble after the one perfected by Iverson.
"It's sick," she said of Crooms' crossover. "It's mean."
Crooms wasn't always this good -- and Robertson would be the first one to admit as much. When Crooms started playing in fifth grade, mom was not impressed.
"I told her, 'Maybe you shouldn't play. You are horrible. Oh my God, you are so bad.' I thought she should find a different sport."
In this case, mom did not know best.
A year later, Crooms had improved tremendously.
"It was like she was a different person," Robertson said. "She started playing against boys, and she was busting them, crossing them over and everything."
Robertson said Crooms' passes are so good she is known in New England as the Tom Brady of girls' basketball.
"If her teammates are not paying attention," Robertson said, "they are going to have a Spalding tattoo."
Crooms said she "has no clue" how she got so good, but colleges have taken notice. Rhode Island offered her a scholarship during her freshman year, and many other colleges have joined the pursuit.
While it is still very early in the recruiting process, Crooms said she likes Maryland, Rutgers and Georgetown as possible destinations. Scott Hazelton, who coaches her on the AAU circuit with the Mass Rivals, said Crooms has even drawn interest from UConn.
"She's a big, strong kid who has a lot of God-given ability," said Hazelton, a former McDonald's All-American who played college ball at Connecticut and Rhode Island. "She's smooth.
"The biggest thing about Janai is she has fun playing. She takes chances and does some exciting things like a flashy pass, a Euro step and all kinds of up-and-under moves and reverses.
"I love kids who can score the ball, and she fits that mold."