Chapter 374 Business and Basketball 8
In this first quarter, the Clemson Tigers team had a hard time defending because Jake and Jamison were the most dangerous players who needed the most defense attention, these players could easily score points if they had only one player in defense against them.
But the other players of the Tar Heels team were also high level, so it was difficult for the Clemson Tigers defense to stop them, so the first quarter ended up with a good lead on Tar Heels.
In that first quarter, Jake played for 20 minutes and scored 14 points, 5 a.s.sists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals, the good defense of Team Clemson Tigers still made the team Tar Heels to score less even though getting a good lead.
"What a great game we have been following so far, the Clemson Tigers players have been playing very well so far and can put pressure on the Tar Heels players."
"But the Tar Heels team this season is very strong with great players and even with the good defense of the Clemson Tigers team, Jake can still find plenty of opportunities to make a.s.sists and score a lot as well."
"True, Jake is for sure one of the best college players of recent years and perhaps one of the best ever, and Jamison has also been doing one of his best seasons in college every year."
"Carter and Williams are also great players with different strengths and Okulaja who is also a good player and is overshadowed by these teammates."
"In the second quarter, Clemson Tigers who are well behind the scoring will have to give up some defense and risk more attack to try to win this game and will give even more s.p.a.ce for Tar Heels to attack."
Just as the commentators said the Clemson Tigers team was having a very good game and it made it difficult for the Tar Heels team to gain the lead, but in this second quarter they would have to give up their style of play a little more to win.
That would give Tar Heels more openness to attack, Jamison, Carter, and Williams were fine in this game and Jake was having an easier time a.s.sisting even though they had a strong defense against him.
After a few minutes of the second quarter, the Clemson Tigers team attempted a hasty three-point strike that Jake could disrupt, and Jamison caught the defensive rebound, Jamison pa.s.sed the ball to Jake, who advanced slowly for the attack.
After several games at university, Jake had a lot more experience than when he came from high school and saw that it was not a good idea to always keep a fast pace or a slow pace but to better a.n.a.lyze the situation of the game and the opponent.
In the first quarter, he organized the moves at a faster pace in attack to put more pressure on the Clemson Tigers defense, but in that second quarter, the Clemson Tigers seemed to be destabilizing and losing the game so he preferred to attack at a slower pace and spend more time in possession.
After pa.s.sing through the middle of the court Jake pa.s.sed the ball to Williams on the left, Williams advanced with the ball before the three-point line and pa.s.sed the ball to Okulaja on the left.
Okulaja pa.s.sed the ball to Carter from the far right and Carter quickly pa.s.sed to Jake who was behind the three-point line, Jake received the ball freely and then attempted the shot from outside to score three more points for Tar Heels.
After that, the lead in the team"s Tar Heels score continued to increase even if it didn"t get in a way that made the Clemson Tigers team lose hope of winning, even though the Clemson Tigers team gave up defending as in the first quarter the team"s defense still continued strong and with that the team Tar Heels also missed some attacks.
Thus the game continued intense and Jake was able to further disrupt the Clemson Tigers team by making steals and getting a.s.sists and hitting three-point plays increasing the advantage for the Tar Heels team.
So the game ended with the Tar Heels team winning with 85 points against Clemson Tigers team"s 67 points, this was the last game of the visiting team He had two home games so they wouldn"t have so much difficulty winning the games.
In this second quarter Jake played for 20 minutes and made 19 points, 6 a.s.sists, 4 rebounds, and 5 steals, he got another double-double and with that he and the Tar Heels team started very well this year.
"So one more game ends this season, in the first game of this year the team Tar Heels gets a victory that was not easy even if there was a big difference in the score."
"Team Tar Heels has a great offense and a good defense, if the defense plays regularly even if the opposing team manages to defend as well as the Clemson Tigers team they will still get the win."
"Also, since playing for the first time on the Tar Heels team Jake hasn"t had any games that could be considered bad, he"s had a few games that were below his very high average, but he"s still one of the main players by the Tar Heels team victories."
"It"s true, with one more double-double Jake got another game with more than 30 points and 10 a.s.sists, if it goes on like this and with Jamison also playing so well I think the Tar Heels team is again the biggest favorite to win the NCAA tournament this year."
"That"s right, after that victory the Tar Heels team comes from a 15 straight winning streak and no losses this season, it"s half of the games that the Tar Heels team will have before the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament, so it"s hard not to mention the favoritism of this team and the great work of Coach Guthridge. "
As commentators had said the Tar Heels team was already one of the biggest favorites to win the NCAA tournament, not only for the great season so far but also for winning the NCAA tournament last year and having Jake as the best player university student today.
After this game, the players returned to the university where they would have another 5 days of rest and training until the next game, late 1997 and early 1998 had plenty of time for players to rest between games in preparation for a large amount of games that were left over the next 3 months for the team to reach the NCAA tournament final.
While the team was getting ready to train a lot over the next 5 days, something else was also making everyone anxious this week, after a few days it would be Jake"s 19th birthday.
Jake"s friends were preparing a small party for him at Zack"s family home because Zack"s parents asked to do so, after all besides Jake"s three roommates the basketball team and some friends from his university certainly saw on His birthday and the university room wouldn"t be enough for so many people.
How Zack and his family insisted on doing so Jake had to accept the good intentions of their friends, and that was the right decision because Eva and Anna also came the day before Jake"s birthday by surprise.
The idea was that they would come on Jake"s birthday day for the surprise to be bigger, but Anna was already older and it would be very exhausting for her to do so many things in one day, so she and Eva would be almost 3 days in one hotel near the university.
In addition to these people, Jake was very happy to see on his birthday his new friend Haruto also came to the birthday as did Coach Davis and his family, with the people from the basketball team until Zack"s family house had gotten small for this party.
Matthew, Oliver, Emily, Clara, and Tiffany couldn"t come to Jake"s birthday because they were busy running the balance sheet companies that had been done at the end of last year.
Still, Jake was happy because more people he thought came to his birthday, after the end of the day he was very happy when he returned to his university dorm.
Jake couldn"t help but think that this year would be 9 years since he went back in time for his second chance, a lot of things had happened and he knew that had changed the lives of many people besides his in those years.