Chapter 178 New Game Style 7
Jake who saw this can not help but smile, it seemed that he was the only one who understood the thoughts of coach Mike, in a difficult game like these coach Mike would not risk changing two players of the team who were having a good game by two that came from the Middle School.
Exactly as Jake thought coach Mike only spent a few plays with David and Harrison and neither thought to put Lucas and Nathan in the game, with all players besides Jake did not understand why.
Coach Mike was worried that the team would become unstable with two players with less experience in a difficult game like this, even though Lucas and Nathan are even better at defense, their attacks may end up failing because of nervousness.
If the Elite team was losing the coach could have to make the change to improve the defense of the team to try to win the game, but with the team winning was more difficult, after all the advantage was only increasing with the pa.s.sing of the game.
With that David and Harrison played more excited with the confidence of the coach and Lucas and Nathan had to understand that this was the coach"s decision and they were still new players who were already lucky to have the opportunity to play.
At the beginning of the third period Allapattah Team PG started another attack for his team, he was the one with the most pressure on the team because besides not having the confidence of his teammates was still being defended by Jake who could steal the ball with any carelessness of it.
The PG pa.s.sed the ball to Joshua who was on the team"s attacking block, Joshua advanced and felt that Harrison was better in defense for that period, so he pa.s.sed the ball to his team"s PF.
The PF kept the ball while keeping the distance from Carter, so the PF pa.s.sed the ball to Levi who was more open to the right, Levi pa.s.sed the ball quickly before the defense came to Aaron.
Aaron made a feint and moved away from Mark"s tight defense to make a mid-range shot and make 2 more points for the Allapattah team.
Jake got the ball and started another attack for the Elite team, he advanced to the attacking field and pa.s.sed the ball to Carter who was more open to the right, Carter made the feint and pa.s.s by the PF of the opposing team finished the move with a layup to make 2 more points for the Elite team.
Carter was much more confident in his attacks after the team changed the style of play, many plays like this where the inside area is almost empty are perfect for Carter and Jake to try the individual play.
The opposing team"s PG started another attack and after advancing for a while pa.s.sed the ball to Levi, Levi advanced calmly and pa.s.sed the ball to Joshua again, Joshua tried to get rid of Harrison.
But Harrison was well on defense and Joshua tried to pa.s.s to his team"s PF instead of pa.s.sing to his team"s PG who had lost the confidence of his teammates, but Jake hoped for it and intercepted the pa.s.s by making another steal in the game.
Jake did not rush into the attack and pa.s.sed the ball to David as he went into the attacking court, David pa.s.sed the ball to Jake again and went to the right side of the court, so Jake pa.s.sed the ball to Harrison who was free on the left.
Harrison thought about trying the mid-range shot but did not try because he saw that Joshua was waiting for that, so Harrison pa.s.sed the ball to Mark in the inside area, Mark who was well defended by Aaron pa.s.sed the ball back to Jake.
Jake pa.s.sed the ball quickly to David who was free after Carter set the screen, David received the ball and made the step back to try the shot from outside and make 3 more points for the Elite team.
By the end of the third period, the Elite team was winning by 15 points difference and had virtually guaranteed victory, Jake had 29 points and 12 a.s.sists throughout the game, during that time he pa.s.sed the ball over to David and Harrison who were morally higher and so did not score so many points.
Jake also had 8 steals now and was close to another Triple Double, he had been the main responsible for the team to increase the advantage by disrupting the opponent"s attack, so the Elite team had a bigger advantage.
For the fourth period coach Mike placed Lucas and Nathan since the game was practically won for the Elite team, David and Harrison came out satisfied knowing they did their best in the game.
For Nathan and Lucas who were coming in now would try their best to have coach Mike observe their skills and could trust them to enter a game like that in the future, Jake thought that was the right mindset if they wanted to join the team.
Jake received the ball and started the attack in the fourth period, he advanced and pa.s.sed the ball to Nathan before the middle of the court, Nathan who was in the mood to play well if they controlled and advanced calmly to the attack.
Nathan pa.s.sed the ball to Carter who was again open on the right to receive the ball, Carter pa.s.sed the ball to Lucas who was on the left, Lucas pa.s.s by Joshua and advanced to the inside area and did a layup to make 2 more points for the team Elite.
The Allapattah team"s PG advanced into the attack, he pa.s.sed the ball to Levi who just as his teammates had not yet given up on the game, Levi advanced and soon felt that Nathan"s defense that had entered now was much better than David.
So Levi pa.s.sed the ball to the PF his team, the PF who also had difficulty the whole game with Carter in the defense pa.s.sed the ball to the PG of his team, the PG quickly pa.s.sed the ball to Joshua.
Joshua felt a huge pressure coming from Lucas in the defense and felt that he could not pa.s.s for him, but the time of possession of the ball was ending so he tried a shot of mid-range with Lucas pressing.
As Joshua was already tired in the fourth period of play and with pressure from Lucas defense he ended up missing the mid-range shot, Jake went up to get the rebound as Mark and Aaron were getting in the way.
So Jake advanced calmly to arrange another attack for the Elite team, he advanced until after the middle of the court and pa.s.sed the ball to Lucas who was more open on the left, Lucas held the ball for a while and pa.s.sed to Carter who was on the right.
Carter grabbed the ball a little and pa.s.sed Jake who was off the three-point line, Jake quickly pa.s.sed the ball to Nathan who was free in the corner on the right side, Nathan received the ball and made a mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Elite team.
Jake was working more on the plays with Lucas and Nathan to give more confidence to them in an important game like this and the two were not disappointing him, Jake could feel that Nathan was improving a lot with each game and getting used to the rhythm of the basketball in the high school.
Jake could already see why he was the MVP of the Middle School National Champions.h.i.+p last year, the opposing PG started another attack on the Allapattah team, he advanced for a while and pa.s.sed the ball to Joshua on the right.
Joshua held onto the ball for a while and tried to make a feint to fool Lucas who stood firm in defense, so Joshua pa.s.sed the ball to the PF of his team, the PF kept the ball for a time and pa.s.sed to Levi, Levi who did not managed to get rid of Nathan"s defense pa.s.sed the ball to Aaron who turned well and did the layup using his body to protect the ball and got 2 more points for the Allapattah team.
Nathan and Lucas were very good at defense, Nathan could be at Mark"s level if he did not consider the position in the team, as MVP of the national champions.h.i.+p was normal that he knew how to defend well.
But Lucas was even better than Nathan in the defense, Lucas was at a level that surpa.s.sed Carter when Carter was in his first year after all Lucas could also play as PF because of that.
Seeing that the Allapattah team was struggling to attack using Levi and Joshua, so they had to bet on Aaron who was being better defended by Mark, but Aaron was getting more advantage in the game.
Mark realized this and did not like it because he thought he was being underestimated, Jake got the ball and advanced for another attack, he reached the attack and pa.s.sed the ball to Nathan who was more open on the right.
Nathan pa.s.sed the ball to Carter who was on the right too, Carter held the ball a little and then returned to Jake who was out of the line of three points, Jake received the ball and made a shot from outside with a set shot to make 3 more points for the Elite team.
The PG of the opposing team began to organize another attack for the team Allapattah, after pa.s.sing in the middle of the court he pa.s.sed the ball to the PF of his team, PF held the ball a little and had to pa.s.s to Joshua on the right because Carter was arriving to defend.
Joshua tried to make a pa.s.s to Lucas, but Lucas was firm in defense, so Joshua pa.s.sed the ball back to Levi, Levi quickly pa.s.sed the ball to Aaron in the inside area.
Aaron made a turn and tried to dunk, but Mark who was paying attention in the move jumped in time to make the block and reject the attack of Aaron, this time he managed without a foul.
Jake got the ball and saw that this was Mark"s way of telling Aaron and the Allapattah team that they would not let them do whatever they wanted with him on defense.