Chapter 158 An Exciting Final 5
The two teams were very much the same in the game, but Jake was being calmer and managing to better organize the attacks for the Elite team, that was the biggest difference in this game, if someone from the Elite team was playing badly as happened in other games would be more difficult, but as everyone playing well Jake could do his best.
William took the ball and went to another attack for his team, reaching the three-point line he observed his players, so he pa.s.sed the ball to Gabriel, Gabriel received the ball and made a feint pretending it would turn to the left and turned to the right and then made the mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Hawks team.
Jake took the ball and calmly went to arrange another attack for his team, arriving at the three-point line he pa.s.sed the ball to Carter, Carter received the ball and did the layup to make 2 more points for his team.
Jake realized in a few moments that the team of the Hawks was thinking of changing the defense, they realized that Mark was able to make the points very easily and had Gabriel go to play a double game on him.
So, Jake who saw this pa.s.sed for the first time in the game the ball to Carter who alone can make that point, this served as a warning, if they leave a player alone to make the double play they would end up losing faster.
William who realized this did not bother, the coach had already thought about it before giving that order, but as he knew that Mark had great results in this national champions.h.i.+p it would be much more dangerous to let him score points than to leave Carter alone.
Jake knew what the opposing team was thinking and knew they were wrong, Jake did not pa.s.s the ball to Carter just because Carter asked for it in some games, he was a defensive player and wanted to save his energy to defend.
But he could attack as well as Mark, there was no one in high school who would not know how to score, only that some were better than others in dealing with the opposing defense, but leaving Carter alone was like letting the Elite team score more easily.
William reached the three-point line and pa.s.sed the ball to the SG of the Hawks" team, the SG made a feint and could pa.s.s by David more easily, Mark came to cover and SG pa.s.sed the ball to the Center who was alone do the layup to make 2 more points for the Hawks team.
Jake picked up the ball and went to the court of attack and when he reached the three-point line pa.s.sed the ball to Carter, Carter who was alone again did the layup and made 2 more points for the Elite team.
It was like Jake said if they left Carter free and defenseless Jake would pa.s.s all the b.a.l.l.s he could to him to make the points for the team.
William received the ball and began to organize another attack for the team of Hawks, he reached the line of three points and tried to pa.s.s the ball to Logan, but Jake stepped forward and intercepted the pa.s.s.
So Jake with the ball ran up to the attacking block, William who had been responsible for making the mistake ran the maximum he could to stop Jake, when he was close to the free throw line William tried to steal the ball, Jake made the bait behind his back and took William out of the play and advanced to make a dunk on his back to make 2 more points for the Elite team.
The crowd loved Jake"s moves, it was how they expected the game would never be so annoying when Jake was on the court, William was even angrier because he realized that Jake was just holding his speed to dribble on him before making the points.
In fact, it was not that, as the Elite team was winning the game Jake was not in a hurry to end the move and so it took time, he did not expect William to follow him, so he had to get rid of William to make the points.
William received the ball and went to another attack for the Hawks team, this time he was not in such a hurry, arriving in the line of three points he took a step back and made the shot from outside, Jake who was alert jumped together, so William had to make the shot faster to avoid Jake"s block.
The ball did not enter and Mark jumped to take the rebound, then he pa.s.sed the ball to Jake that calmed the move, in the middle of the third period Jake had already a.n.a.lyzed the style of game of William and so would not be caught by surprise in these moves.
At the end of the third period the team Elite team was winning by 10 points difference, could be more if Harrison and David had not lost some attacks, Jake can do 5 more steals in that period and was with 8 steals now.
In addition, he had 31 points and 22 a.s.sists, Mark had 8 rebounds now but had made no point in that period, Carter who took advantage and made 12 points in that period.
The team coach of the Hawks realized that this game was almost lost, William who was the best player of the team had lost control of the game and his emotions, so Jake can take advantage to prevent many attacks from the Hawks team.
But the Hawks" team coach had the same problems as many other teams and had no subst.i.tute players qualified for his team, especially for the best player on the team who was William.
Eric was quite excited about this game as well, Jake was very close to making another triple Double and winning another national champions.h.i.+p, Eric was happy for Jake and was even happier with the story he would write about Jake.
After that game, Jake would have 16 games in a row making Triple Double, and what was better was that next year Jake could continue to increase that sequence in the regional champions.h.i.+p that had weaker teams to face.
Eva was very happy for her son, as with all the games she accompanied with Jake these years she knew that with a 10-point lead victory was virtually guaranteed, she knew Jake deserved all the good that was happening after staying 2 years without playing and still training every day.
In the fourth period, the Hawks had not given up yet and continued to try to win the game, but Jake deliberately delayed all of the team"s possession of the ball, as the game was only 8 minutes per time he could leave each move closer to victory.
When the time was running out William began to get more anxious and Jake managed to do 4 more steals and 1 block defending against him, so after a quieter fourth period, the Elite team won the game with an 8-point lead.
After the game ended Jake first brought everyone to greet the opposing team for the good game and then everyone began to celebrate.
Everyone was shouting and wailing, smiling and crying with joy at the victory, Harrison and David were most excited about this victory, last year they were not able to play for most of the year so they were very sad when they were eliminated.
Jake went to where Eva and Anna were and gave a hug to his mother who was crying a lot of joy for Jake, seeing that Jake also started to cry, he had been strong and endured the suffering and frustration in those two years, so now it was the time to cry with joy and leave the past behind.
Anna also hugged them and cried too, so the reporters first interviewed the other players who had recovered and let Jake celebrate, Jake only stopped when it was time to grab the medal and lift the trophy as a winner.
When Jake raised the trophy and the players began to celebrate again the fans were cheering a lot too, many who came to this game were accompanying the Elite team that had the best games.
After Jake got the MVP award from the MVP national champions.h.i.+p and got more applause from everyone, the players picked up Jake and threw him up a few times to celebrate, they knew that Jake was responsible for the win that year as well.
All the newspaper reporters and some television interviewed Jake and asked about various things, Jake answered everything and was sure that the bandana and arm guard with the marks of the companies that sponsored him appeared.
After all, was over Jake was again close to Eva, his friends who came to see the game were already gone, Matthew saw with Joseph and Oliver that Jake really had a lot of basketball talent and would never give up on that to work in a company.
Tiffany and Clara were also satisfied as well as the observers of the new companies who sponsored Jake after Jake got close to Eva he saw that Eric was there waiting to do the exclusive interview.
Jake was also happy about this because he would have to talk about the new sponsors and even doing several interviews before everyone avoided the subject, but Eric had a lot more authority than the other reporters and could even talk about the companies after Tiffany and the others could just give a fee to the newspaper.
"Hi Jake, congratulations on the national champions.h.i.+p victory, the MVP award and the incredible record of 16 consecutive Triple-Double games, all of which you"ve certainly been one of the biggest highlights of recent years for youth basketball."
"Thanks, Eric, if it was not for your help maybe this would not have happened, I"ll never forget what you did for me and for all the school I could say."