Chapter 140 Time of Changes 2
Even with this great advantage at the end of the second period Elite players did not relax, Carter and Harrison were the ones who were less happy in this game because even trying their best in defense the opponents still made points.
Jake did not care much about this and was more worried about Steve in this game, he had heard that the opponent PG was very fast and tries many individual plays and was worried about it.
Jake thought Steve was being very conservative so far in his plays, so Jake was thinking that Steve was expecting something to start attacking.
But Jake was wrong, Steve has been trying too much in these first two periods of play many attacks, but Jake did not fall into his feints and Steve realized that using speed did not work against Jake, so he did not try to force the attacks because he knew that Jake could end up stealing the ball.
Steve was very talented and so he also knew when he had to retreat and so he was pa.s.sing the ball over, but in that third period, he had to take a chance if he wanted to win the game with his team.
So Steve started the third period in the attack, he reached the three-point line and pa.s.sed the ball to Lucas, Lucas got the ball and then shot the outside to make 3 more points for the Sharks team.
So Jake got the ball and started another attack for the Elite team, reaching the three-point line he saw Carter freer and pa.s.sed the ball, Carter received the ball and did the layup to make 2 more points.
Although Robert was very good at attacking he was weak in defense but Carter was not very good at attack so Jake had no way to take advantage of many opportunities to score more points.
Steve received the ball and went to the attack, reaching the line of three points he saw that this time his teammates were well defended by the Elite team, this was normal after all the team of the Sharks can only reach the final counting on the individual plays of Steve.
So Steve saw that he had to risk the individual play, he tried to make some feints and Jake did not fall into any, seeing that it did not work Steve tried to dribble using his speed, but Jake just kept the distance short.
Seeing that Jake did not try to steal the ball Steve tried to go to the inner area to try the layup, Jake who learned some things with Mark used his body to close the way, Steve tried to push Jake to get closer to the basket, but Jake was stronger and drew Steve out.
As he saw that the time of possession of the ball was ending Steve forced the mid-range shot and managed to make the 2 points before the time was over, Jake did not care and got the ball to start another attack.
But Jake did not know that after that move Steve and his teammates who realized that Steve could not advance against Jake gave up the victory, they would still try, but they knew that without Steve"s moves it was much harder.
Jake advanced to the line of three points and pa.s.sed the ball to David who cleared himself, David received the ball and made the shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Elite team, and the game continued so point to point.
Although Jake almost gave up Steve kept trying to pa.s.s by Jake in the attacking moves, but Jake waited for the whole game and fought harder in defense, so after Steve"s third attempt, Jake could finally get the hang of it and made the steal on the opponent.
After stealing the ball Jake ran up to the court and only stopped after doing the dunk and 2 more points for the Elite team, then in the third period, Jake made 3 more steals in Steve and 1 steal in Robert.
When the third period ended Elite team were 18 points ahead on the scoreboard and virtually guaranteed the victory, once coach Mike asked what Jake thought when he played in defense, the coach asked this because he wanted to know what was the motivation to play so both in defense and in the attack.
Jake replied that because he was bad at the defense he had to work harder than the others to keep from getting in the way of the team, the coach realized that Jake thought he was poor in defense and so he trained and tried harder than his teammates.
So he did not correct Jake not to discourage him, but even if he corrected Jake would not agree that it was good because his target was the NBA and not the high school, and Jake knew that he would improve much more slowly in defense than in attack.
In the fourth period despite knowing that could not win the Sharks team fought to the end, the Elite team also struggled, Jake and David continued to make the shots out and Jake still made the steals, so the game ended with the team Elite winning with 26 points in front of the Sharks team.
Jake was able to make another Triple Double and everyone started celebrating the state champions.h.i.+p victory, everyone hugged and celebrated jumping a lot, then Elite players greeted the opponents who made a good game.
Everyone took lots of pictures, Jake was wearing the bandana and arm protectors with the brands of sponsored companies that would appear in the photos so he took out all the reporters asked for.
After Jake went to hug his mother and celebrate a little with her, he also hugged Anna that was close to Eva, so Jake stayed with his mother and Anna until the time to lift the trophy.
Tiffany was seeing everything from afar and had no intention of joining the celebration around Jake, so she just saw the game was already good, Eric also did not come down and just took several pictures, he wanted to interview Jake only after he won the game national Champions.h.i.+p.
After Jake was called and the elite team players received the medals and Jake received the champion trophy to lift, so everyone celebrated together again after Jake received the MVP award from the state champions.h.i.+p which no one was against.
After all the celebration Jake went home with Eva when they got home Jake was very tired and went to rest early.
The other day Jake was calmer and went to eat what his mother had prepared after all Jake had already won more than 10 champions.h.i.+ps if he had the individual, he would always be happy to win sooner would calm down the other day.
"So, Jake, did you think it was good this year, winning the second champions.h.i.+p?"
When Jake heard his mother"s question, he paused to remember a little all he had to go through these last few years to get here.
"I think it was pretty good thinking that I was thinking about even switching from school to playing again, but that year will be much better for all of us."
When she heard Jake"s response, Eva thought she was talking about her teammates, she could never think that while they were chatting her restaurant was being renovated and would be ready next year.
After Jake only had to wait for the end of the year and he could travel with Eva out of the country, Jake had already organized every trip and had even talked to the travel agency, the place where Jake would travel with Eva on that vacation would be Brazil.
It was a beautiful country in South America, Jake always wanted to meet, but he did not feel like traveling there alone, and as he had not learned the j.a.panese language he could not visit j.a.pan.
Another reason Jake did not visit Brazil was that the country was very large and did not have many train lines that pa.s.sed through cities as in Europe, so he decided to make this trip different this time.
But it was still a few weeks before the holidays began, before the holidays of that year as he knew that Jake planned to spend his birthday again outside the country, Joseph decided to plan to go to a restaurant to have a couples" dinner before the holidays.
As Jenny and Liza were friends they agreed and so Jake who was last warned had to agree too to be annoying, so the day of the dinner arrived and Jake put on a social outfit and prepared to go to the restaurant.
Arriving at the restaurant Jake realized that it had been the last one to arrive, but as it was not yet the appointed time, he did not care much about it.
Contrary to what Jake had expected the dinner was very enjoyable with many jokes, but soon came to a subject that interested Jake, Joseph was about to tell how it was when he and Liza met their parents and told them they were dating.
"After a few months we were dating, Liza had already told this to her mother, so one day her mother met the two of us when we were at a dinner and said she would book a dinner so that I would officially meet her and her husband."
"As it was by surprise that we met I confess that I was very frightened when I met Liza"s mother, so I was even more nervous for this dinner."
"But as Liza had told her mother before that she was very kind, everything was fine, but Liza had not told me she"d done this before."
"At dinner, her father was also very nice and I felt really good, so it was with her parents, with my father it was easier, after talking to Jake before I booked a dinner."
"Liza is a little nervous because it took me a while to introduce her to my dad, but when I told my dad that Jake thought she was cool my dad accepted it right away."