Chapter 387 The Last Major Marathon 1
But that was not what was really happening, it was Coach Guthridge who asked them to start the game cautiously against the Wake Forest team, it showed how the Tar Heels team respected the opponent and tried their best to achieve victory.
Jake advanced with the ball and after pa.s.sing through the middle of the court he pa.s.sed the ball to Williams from the left, in that game Coach Guthridge asked Williams not to try too many three-point shots and stay more within the three-point line.
This was not because the coach did not trust him, but so that Jake had more freedom to try the three-point shots and had more s.p.a.ce to get rid of the opposing defense, Williams understood that Jake was better than him in the three-point shots and accepted that.
Williams advanced the ball to the three-point line and pa.s.sed it to Carter who was on the left, Carter received the ball and held it a little before pa.s.sing it back to Jake who was further behind.
Jake received the ball from Carter and he was the only player on the Tar Heels team outside the three-point line and only one player on the Wake Forest team was defending against him, Jake made a feint and managed to get rid of the opponent with ease by going to the right.
Jake tried the shot from outside and scored 3 more points for the Tar Heels team, that was the strategy of Coach Guthridge who trusted Jake who had the skill and speed to get rid of the defending opponents.
After 10 minutes had pa.s.sed in the 1st half, the Tar Heels team had already achieved a small advantage on the scoreboard, but the Wake Forest team was also very well and was having a game played against the Tar Heels team.
In another attacking move by the Wake Forest O"Kelley attempted a three-point shot again, but this time Jake was close and got the block, it was already Jake"s second block in the 1st half and the Wake Forest team understood how it was difficult to make three-point plays against the Tar Heels team.
In another attacking move by the Tar Heels team Jake received Carter"s ball behind the three-point line, Jake had already hit 3 shots from three points and so two players from the Wake Forest team came to defend against him.
Jake was quick and made a pa.s.s to Okulaja later that had been free, when a defense player tried to defend against Okulaja he pa.s.sed the ball to Williams who entered the middle, Williams received the ball and advanced until he made the layup to get more 2 points for the Tar Heels team.
Williams was not attempting many three-point shots, but he was doing well in layups and mid-range shots, as well as with the Wake Forest team making a little mistake, the Tar Heels team still finished the 1st half ahead of the score.
In that 1st half Jake played for 20 minutes and made 15 points, 6 a.s.sists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 blocks, it was a good 1st half of game for Jake, but the Wake Forest defense was fine and even Jake was with difficulty making st.i.tches.
"What a great 1st half we had in that game, the Wake Forest team as everyone expected comes strong and the players are very confident, their defense is doing a good job and the attack also doesn"t have many mistakes."
"The Tar Heels team managed to finish this 1st half by winning with a small advantage on the scoreboard, but despite Jake"s good defensive game, the Tar Heels team players seem timid in this game and are not going to attack at all."
"That"s right, the pressure of being in so many games without losing is affecting the performance of the Tar Heels team players, but I think that the Tar Heels team will still win that game."
"Jake and Jamison see having great performances throughout the season and even when they don"t play very well they still score a lot and help the team to win, and the whole team is also in a great phase, so I think they will win this one game."
"It"s true, and Jake has been showing along with Williams how the defense of the Tar Heels team is good against teams that attempted three-point shots this season, Jake managed 2 blocks in that game and they and Williams hindered several players on the Wake Forest team."
In the 2nd half the Wake Forest team came back playing the same way as in the 1st half, even though they were losing the advantage of the Tar Heels team it wasn"t that big and they thought that if the opponent missed more they could win.
Unfortunately for them, the Tar Heels team had come back differently, they started slowly because they were being careful with the opponent, but after 20 minutes of play, they no longer needed to be careful in this 2nd half of the game.
So the Wake Forest team would have to pay more attention to the defense if they didn"t want to lose the game quickly, Jake also started to speed up the game, the players of the Tar Heels team were rested and had to win this game.
In another move, the Wake Forest team was attacking and Jake was quick and managed to intercept an opponent"s pa.s.s and started the counterattack, there were only two players from the Wake Forest team in front of him preventing Jake from running directly to make the points.
Even so Jake decided to accelerate and try to gain speed to make those points in this play, O"Kelley who was one of the two players in the defense realized that Jake was faster and would pa.s.s him and tried to delay Jake in the play.
Jake reacted quickly and made a quick crossover when O"Kelley tried to defend against him which caused O"Kelley to fall to the ground, even so, Jake lost a little speed making this dribble and could not make the points without pa.s.sing the last defender of the team Wake Forest.
The last one in defense was Tony Rutland who also tried to hinder Jake to prevent him from making the points, Jake saw that the rest of the defensive players on the Wake Forest team were coming back and he would have to set up the play quickly.
So he decided to use the dribbling movement that he himself had invented and used a few times, it was the Ghost move that was a move in which he moved the ball in a way that the opposing player in defense could not see the ball for a moment and Jake would pa.s.s him.
Jake did this and for a moment Rutland could not see the ball anymore and thought that Jake had missed the move, only after he saw that Jake pa.s.sed him and made the dunk to make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.
Rutland couldn"t understand how Jake did it, but everyone in the crowd and his teammates had seen what Jake had done with the ball, the Ghost move was a dribble that Jake didn"t use often even though he had invented it because opponents would expect this.
The defense of the Wake Forest team was very good, but the intensity of the pressure that the Tar Heels team was putting on the attack was very great and little by little the advantage increased on the scoreboard.
In another move, Wake Forest had hit a three-point shot and Tar Heels was attacking soon after, Jake stepped forward and pa.s.sed the ball to Williams who was on the right before going through the middle of the court.
Williams wanted to redeem himself because it was he who failed to defend and gave Rutland the freedom to score three points from an outside shot, Williams came forward and pa.s.sed the ball to Carter who was on the left.
Carter was not performing well in the attack in this game, but he still helped the team a lot, after holding on a little he pa.s.sed the ball to Williams again, Williams received the ball and tried a mid-range shot.
Williams missed his shot and Jamison managed to catch the offensive rebound, Jamison didn"t even catch the ball and just touched it to make the 2 points for the Tar Heels team, Jake asked Williams to have more patience and the team went back to the defense.
With the Tar Heels team pressing in the attack in the 2nd half the Wake Forest team was unable to recover and so the Tar Heels team won the game making 88 points against 69 points of the Wake Forest team.
In that 2nd half Jake played for 20 minutes and made 14 points, 5 a.s.sists, 4 rebounds, 5 steals, and 1 block, as well as another double-double by Jake, the Tar Heels team won a difficult opponent and kept the sequence of games without lose.
"What a great game we are watching here today, an exciting game in which the Wake Forest team, as expected, played very well and made it difficult for the Tar Heels team to seek victory."
"At the end of the 1st half the difference in the score between the two teams was not very large, but the Tar Heels team put more pressure on the attack in the 2nd half and thus managed to win after an exciting and disputed game."
"The Wake Forest team did very well in that game, but the Tar Heels team is very strong this season and even managed to hinder many Wake Forest team three-point plays."
"Jake also played well in defense and had a good performance in this difficult game and even made 3 blocks in the game, Jamison had a good performance and Williams too, just Carter who was not doing so well and left Jake with fewer attack options."
"That"s right, the Tar Heels team"s next game will also be a challenge for the players, we hope that Jake and Jamison continue to play well and that the Tar Heels team can continue this incredible winning streak."
The players were relieved after that victory, even though they were good players, the pressure of having to win with this winning streak was hindering their performance in some games.