Chapter 182 A Marathon to Enter History 3
Jake saw that everyone had already arrived and Coach Mike was pa.s.sing some instructions to David and Harrison and even Nathan and Lucas were there to see if they could learn anything they could do if they entered the game.
One positive thing Jake had realized was that David and Harrison did not play any bad games again after the team had Nathan and Lucas in reserve, Jake did not know if it was because they had matured in the last year of high school or if it was by pressure from can be replaced at any time.
Even though Jake thought this was the best thing for the team, Carter and Mark seemed to be very quiet for this game, Jake thought it was too dangerous to relax before a final, even if the opponent could be weaker because that could lead to mistakes.
But if neither coach seemed to care much for that game Jake could not do anything, he was at least thinking of doing his best as ever, even if this new style of team play could lessen his control in the game, Jake could Use your skills to set the outcome of the game.
The opposing team of the final of this regional champions.h.i.+p was the team Brickell, that team had three players that had a greater prominence, the PG of the adversary team that was called Ryan, was a player who liked to pa.s.s the ball very much and made individual plays.
Ryan was a player who did not stand out much in shots from outside and the team Brickell was known for miss many pa.s.ses in the games, now Jake knew why his companions were more calm, that Ryan would be completely annulled by the defense of Jake.
Another highlight of the opposing team was the SF Jaxon, Jaxon was the most skillful player of the opposing team who was very skillful in individual plays, mid-range shots and shots from outside, as well as being good at defense.
But everyone on the Elite team was accustomed to the SF of the opposing team attacking quietly and making several points so it would not be such a big problem, Harrison was the one who was sadder by the bad luck.
The other highlight of the opposing team was PF Thomas, Thomas was good at defense and in the attack, but he was no big player and everyone hoped that Carter could defend well against him, so Jake saw that the Elite team had the advantage in that game.
Even though he would still try his best, even if he was not a tough opponent, Jake also wanted to try another triple-double that would be his 21st followed, this would be a near-impossible record to be broken in the future.
After a few minutes the game of the regional champions.h.i.+p final finally began, Mark got the first possession of the ball for the Elite team, Jake received the ball and went to the attack.
Jake advanced for a time and pa.s.sed the ball to David, David advanced more to the attack and pa.s.sed the ball to Carter, Carter received the ball from the right and held it a little, Thomas already reached the defense and Carter pa.s.sed the ball to Jake who was Welcome.
Jake received the ball before the line of three points and pa.s.sed to David again that was open from the right, David made the mid-range shot and made the first 2 points for the Elite team.
Ryan received the ball and started the first attack for the Brickell team, Ryan pa.s.sed the ball to the SG of his team, the SG advanced for a while and pa.s.sed the ball to Jaxon, Jaxon quickly made a feint and easily pa.s.sed through Harrison, then Jaxon made the mid-range shot to make 2 points for the Brickell team and tie the game.
Jake got the ball and started another attack for the Elite team, after advancing until the middle of the court Jake pa.s.sed the ball to Harrison who was open from the left, Harrison advanced a little and Jaxon came to the defense, so Harrison pa.s.sed the ball David was on the right.
David pa.s.sed the ball to Mark who was more open in the inner area from the left, Mark received and using his body to protect the ball advanced to do a layup and 2 more points for the Elite team.
Mark was already one of the best in the attack along with Jake, only the rebounds he takes in the games already made him an indispensable player for coach Mike, with his good performances in matches he was already looked for by the best universities.
Jake also thought that Mark was a good player, could not be a professional player in the NBA, but if he could have opportunities to improve at university Jake was sure he could see Mark in the NBA in the future, Jake even wondered why he did not see Mark in the NBA in his past life.
Ryan started another attack for the Brickell team, this time he advanced until after the middle of the court and pa.s.sed the ball to Jaxon, Jaxon advanced to the three-point line and Harrison reached the defense.
This time, Jaxon did not attempt a single play and pa.s.sed the ball to Thomas, Thomas held the ball and Carter came to the defense, so Thomas who was receiving pressure from the Carter defense pa.s.sed the ball to the SG of his team.
The SG was open from the left of the attack and made the mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Brickell team, the opposing team as well as many teams knew what was the weakness of the Elite team defense and so could easily score points like this.
Jake received the ball and advanced to organize another attack for the Elite team, he pa.s.sed the ball to Harrison who was open from the left, Harrison held the ball and pa.s.sed to Carter who was open on the right of the court.
Carter pa.s.sed the ball to Jake who was out of the three-point line, Jake who was still far from the three-point line fired outside, so the ball came in and made 3 more points for the Elite team.
The game continued so at the end of the first period the Elite team was winning with a 5 point lead, even if the defense did not do a good job Jake got a steal and made a few 3-point plays.
Jake had made 11 points and 3 a.s.sists, all realized that Jake was doing more in this game, but Coach Mike could not complain to Jake by making a good game, Jake had already compromised much of his offensive ability with this new style of play.
Jake realized that coach Mike was again using that game to train the team more with the new style of play, but even if he did not talk to the coach he thought it was wrong to use a champions.h.i.+p final for that, so he was just doing his part for the team to win.
At the beginning of the second period Ryan went to another attack for the Brickell team, he pa.s.sed the ball to Jaxon who was more open from the right, Jaxon easily pa.s.sed pa.s.s by Harrison and pa.s.sed the ball to Thomas.
Thomas managed to get away from Carter and made the mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Brickell team, as everyone on the Brickell team was already hoping that Ryan would be overruled by Jake in the attack, they decided it would be Jaxon who would take on that role as the point guard. team.
After all, Harrison could not stop him from playing, Mark was making a good game also canceling the center of the opposing team, and Jake was having a hard time finding his teammates without leaving Ryan defenseless to score.
Jake advanced to the attack to make another move, before the middle of the court he pa.s.sed the ball to David who was ahead in the attack, David advanced a little and pa.s.sed the ball to Carter who was open on the right, Carter saw that Thomas was far away and made the mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Elite team.
Ryan picked up the ball to organize another attack for the Brickell team, after advancing until after the middle of the court he pa.s.sed the ball to the SG of his team, the SG advanced a little more and pa.s.sed the ball to the Center of his team before from David to the defense.
The center took the ball a little and pa.s.sed to Jaxon, Jaxon made a feint and pa.s.s by Harrison easily left, Jake appeared well after Jaxon was adjusting to make the shot and steal the ball.
The moment was perfect and Jaxon did not even notice when Jake had left Ryan unprotected to steal, so Jake rushed forward to the attack, team SG Brickell and Ryan were racing along with Jake to try to defend.
Jake swiftly left the opponent"s SG behind and reached the three-point line on the attack, Ryan tried for Jake with a foul, so Jake quickly crossover and pa.s.sed Ryan and resisted the pull and continued advancing into the inside area to make the dunk and 2 more points for the Elite team.
The crowd started to cheer up with this Jake play. Ryan was even impressed that Jake stayed on the same pitch even though he tried to foul, but that was normal because Jake was much stronger than all high school players and he did not want it to be difficult to make a simple foul.
The game continued like this and the Brickell team was paying more attention to Jake and making the moves more calmly, the attack of the Elite team also did not miss almost any move and so the two teams continued like this until the end of the second period.
At the end of the second period, the Elite team won by 12 points and everyone was satisfied, Jake made 4 steals in the game and was dissatisfied with Harrison"s defense, Jake had 23 points and 7 a.s.sists so far.
In this third period coach Mike decided to put Nathan and Lucas into the game, this game was easier than the last game and even David and Harrison did not care much about leaving this game.