Chapter 113 The Tournament in Europe 1
Tiffany was still busy solving some more problems in her company, as she spent much of her time in that year helping Clara, she ended up leaving some work unmade.
So Tiffany could not go to Europe to see Jake"s tournament in Spain, she had to finish everything in time for the opening of some stores in Europe that would be in a few weeks.
Clara also could not go to Jake"s tournament, as Tiffany was busy helping her out this year, Clara decided she would organize the details of the store openings alone, so she could just go in time to see the final.
Jake did not care much about it, he put on the s.h.i.+rt with the sponsors and the bandana and the arm protector, as this was an open tournament he could wear whatever he wanted so he did not need to hide the marks of the companies.
As this was the day of the games of the age of 14 years, they had many more people than yesterday in the bleachers, after all, today it should be more exciting than yesterday.
Jake long ago did not mind the audience during the games, he heard from one of the organizers that he would have to play 6 games today, this showed that many young people had signed up for the tournament.
Jake"s first game was early on, his opponent was a young man who was much smaller than Jake last year, it was different from the experience of being bigger than his opponents for him.
Jake got the ball and then shot outside to score 2 points, as the other tournament the score would go up to 10 points, who did first win, and shots from outside were worth 2 points.
After he regained the strength he had in his past life and even outperformed after training for a year, Jake was much more confident in shots from outside now.
In addition, Jake was very excited after spending almost a year without playing so he did not think of making it easy for the opponent, he would play the best he could every game and would do a better advertis.e.m.e.nt for his sponsors as well.
The opponent was surprised by this then tried to press more defending more closely to not give s.p.a.ce to Jake give the shot out, Jake also realized this and made a feint, when the opponent fell on the feint Jake did the dribble and then ran to do the layup and 1 more point in the game.
The opponent thought he had been inattentive and paid more attention in the other attack, so Jake made a feint and the opponent did not move, so Jake made a step back and tried another shot from outside to score 2 more points.
In less than 1 minute Jake had already made half of the points needed to win, but the opponent seemed to forget the score and just wanted to stop Jake once.
Jake, who was also focused on winning, soon set off for the attack once more, this time the opponent was doing a better job in defense and Jake could not pa.s.s easily, so Jake got a small s.p.a.ce and did a quick set shot to make 1 Score.
After Jake made a cross jab in another move and pa.s.sed by the opponent to make another 1 point.
In another move, the opponent realized that he could not compete with Jake"s speed and thus stayed a little further to react, and so Jake stepped back to be able to make 2 more points, and the opponent than just let Jake pa.s.s to make the final point and win the game.
The opponent had to admit that Jake was much better than him, so the defeat was well deserved for him, Jake also greeted the opponent and was very happy after playing and winning after such a long time.
So Jake returned to his mother to wait for his next game, he also took a look at the games that were being made, but could not see anyone who stood out from the start.
After a few tens of minutes, it was Jake"s turn to have his second game, this time the opponent was bigger than him, but it seemed that it depended more on his height to play and was not very good.
So Jake can depend on his much superior speed to always go through the opponent and make the 10 points with his layups, this had been an easier game than the first.
Jake won again but could not be very pleased because he found the game very easy, he wanted more difficult opponents to have a better game.
After a few more minutes it was Jake"s turn again, his opponent was smaller than him this time too, but seemed to be faster than his previous opponents, this time the ball began with the possession of the opponent.
Jake was no longer so confident in his defense after reaching high school, so he concentrated much more than when he attacked, the opponent began to feel some pressure coming from Jake and was more excited to play.
He made a feint and Jake ended up falling, so he ran to the diagonal on the right and then made a mid-range shot to make the 1 point.
Jake was not much of a freak, but he was so focused on the opponent"s movements that he fell, this time Jake relaxed a little, the opponent tried another feint Jake did not fall.
So the opponent tried to use his speed to pa.s.s through Jake and also did not get it, so he who started to get agitated forced the mid-range shot and missed the shot, Jake took the rebound and returned to the line of three points to make his attack.
The opponent was more distant, so Jake took advantage and made the shot from outside to make 2 points and pa.s.s the front on the scoreboard.
The opponent did not expect Jake to take the shot off and hit, but now he would be more attentive in defense against Jake, Jake in the other attack threatened to make the shot and the opponent fumbled, so Jake just advanced and made the mid-range shot to make 1 more point.
Then Jake started the attack again and saw that he had s.p.a.ce, and with confidence, he shot the outside, but this time he did not hit the shot and the opponent took the rebound, so Jake prepared to defend next.
Jake"s opponent hoped to have some s.p.a.ce to attack, but soon saw Jake coming to defend and make pressure, so he shot the outside and ended up hitting and making the 2 points.
With the game tied again Jake"s opponent was more confident and attacked again calmly, Jake did not see the opportunity to steal the ball, he had to admit that the opponent this time was difficult.
After trying several things and not being able to get through Jake the opponent tried the mid-range shot again and hit the fourth point in the game and going forward again.
Jake was still calm, this was what he wanted a rather difficult game to train his defense, the opponent tried several things and again cannot pa.s.s through Jake and so tried another mid-range shot, Jake was waiting for it and jumped along to do the block.
The opponent did not expect their attack to be rejected and only reacted when Jake was again in possession of the ball, this time Jake did not try another shot outside and played calmly until making the 10 points and win the game.
The opponent this time also had to recognize that Jake was stronger than he, but he thought more than if he had not played so badly in the attack he could have won.
This third game gave Jake a new idea, as he wanted to practice his defense more, he would give the ball to his opponent at some point and would train his defense, of course, he would do it only if he had confidence that he could win.
After a few more minutes when it would be Jake"s turn to make the fourth game the organization of the tournament announcement that would have 30 minutes for the players to rest, Jake was not tired, but that was because he had won his games easily.
The other games were more intense, and after 3 games everyone was a little tired, so just Jake was more upset with this 30-minute break, Eva realized that this decided to talk a bit with Jake until the time pa.s.sed.
"Jake, are you hungry?"
Jake really was not hungry anymore as he knew his mother just did it to cheer him up. He nodded, so Eva took some sandwiches he had made at the hotel for Jake to eat.
So Jake ate and got a little more relaxed, of course, it was not because he was eating, but because he liked his mother worrying about him.
In fact, Eva was a bit worried about Jake these days, and all this was after the conversation they had at Anna"s house, she remembered that Anna told Jake about dating and also that he should spend more time with people his age.
So she was wondering if after Jake got older he would not want to spend so much time with her anymore, after all, it"s normal that after the kids grow up they do not want to spend so much time with their parents anymore.
So she was a little sad because she would lose this special relations.h.i.+p she had with her son, since long ago Eva always knew that she was very lucky that her son treated her with such care.
So Eva was preparing herself mentally so that her son would gradually move away from her and begin to live his own life.