Chapter 399 Rest and Business 3
"Welcome to everyone who is here to follow this game more in the basketball season, the Tar Heels team that comes from an incredible sequence of 51 victories in a row who will further increase this record by winning the game today."
"But to achieve this they will have to beat the Maryland Terrapins team, which has also been having a great season and was one of the most difficult opponents for the Tar Heels team this season."
"That"s right, this is definitely going to be a very difficult game for the Tar Heels team, but I think they are the favorites to win today"s game and they are unlikely to lose, this team has gone through many things and the players have even won a game in which Jake was not partic.i.p.ating proving the strength of this team."
"In this game, they have all the players and the will to win, Jake and Jamison have been the best players of this season for me among all College basketball teams, and also Carter and Williams who have been having incredible games and are fundamental to Tar Heels team keep winning."
"We will follow this game to see if the Tar Heels team will achieve this victory and continue with the sequence of games without losing, or if the Maryland Terrapins team will win and end the domination of the Tar Heels team before the ACC tournament."
This was a game where the Tar Heels team would play at home at the Dean Smith Center, the fans were still mad at Jake who hadn"t played a game to run a marathon, but how the team hadn"t lost if he continued to play so well they would forget.
The players on the Maryland Terrapins team were thinking that maybe the players on the Tar Heels team felt pressured by this winning streak and almost lost the last few games and maybe they were tired.
But early on in the game, the Tar Heels team started to press on the attack with Jake making the team play at a strong pace, so it was clear that the Tar Heels team was just thinking about winning the game.
In a play Jake received Carter"s ball in defense and went on the attack, after pa.s.sing through the middle of the court Jake pa.s.sed the ball to Williams who was back in the team, Williams advanced and before the three-point line, he pa.s.sed the ball to Carter on the left.
Carter tried a feint and soon pa.s.sed to Jamison, Jamison got rid of the defense before receiving the ball and then managed to advance easily and made a layup to increase the advantage of the Tar Heels team by 2 points.
This was another game in which Jamison was playing very well and Williams too, so Jake could count on Jamison and Carter to make the points in the painted area and Williams to help him with three-point shots and mid-range shots.
In defense the Tar Heels team started pressing to try to open an advantage in the scoreboard from the beginning of the game preventing the attacks of the Maryland Terrapins team, Jake was defending against Sarunas Jasikevicius who was a skilled player in the shots of three points.
In another move, the Maryland Terrapins team was attacking and Jake managed to intercept an opponent"s pa.s.s and quickly advanced to attack, this time Jake did not use all his speed and just waited after pa.s.sing through the middle of the court for his teammates to support in the attack.
Jake always made different plays to try to surprise his opponent and because he had confidence in his teammates, he only advanced directly after steal the ball to try to make the points if he was sure he could make it.
Jake pa.s.sed the ball to Williams on the left before pa.s.sing the three-point line, Williams held the ball and pa.s.sed and tried a feint, as the opponent was not fooled he pa.s.sed the ball to Okulaja who was further ahead on the left.
Okulaja held the ball for a while and pa.s.sed the ball to Carter further back on the left, Carter quickly pa.s.sed the ball to Jake who was further back in the middle, Jake received the ball and two players from the Maryland Terrapins team soon came to the defense against him.
Jake quickly pa.s.sed the ball to Williams who was at the bottom of the court on the left, Williams received the ball and tried a shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team, with this move everyone realized that the Tar Heels team really wanted guarantee victory quickly.
During the last two seasons whenever the Tar Heels team finished the 1st half by winning the game with an advantage on the scoreboard they won the games, the opponents knew this and therefore tried to prevent the Tar Heels team from doing this.
But with the team all right and Shammond Williams confident after the last games, the Tar Heels team was a difficult team to defend against in that game, Williams had a bad start to the season and with Jake, Jamison, and Carter playing so well he had a hard time to regain his confidence.
But in the last few games, he showed why he was one of the top players on the team last season and it was instrumental in winning the NCAA tournament, with him gaining more attention from defending opposing teams. Jake had more freedom to score.
So Jake managed to hit a lot of three-point shots in that 1st half of the game and that helped the Tar Heels team to increase the advantage on the scoreboard, with Jake playing so well that the crowd was excited again and even forgot that Jake had not played an important game for the team.
After a very strong start to the game, the Tar Heels team slowed down in the last minutes of the 1st half, yet they managed to end up winning with a good lead on the scoreboard to play the 2nd half.
In this 1st half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and made 19 points, 6 a.s.sists, 4 rebounds, 5 steals, and 2 blocks, Jake played very well in the 1st half of the game and managed to defend well against Jasikevicius and even managed to make 2 blocks.
"And so the 1st half of the game ends, the two teams played very well, but the players on the Tar Heels team seemed determined to achieve that victory and played very well and put pressure on both the attack and the defense."
"The defense of the Tar Heels team was very good and Jake had a great 1st half of the game defending against Jasikevicius, so neither the attack nor the defense of the Maryland Terrapins team managed to stand out in today"s game."
"That"s right, Jake and Jamison are doing very well in today"s game as they have done all season, Carter and Williams are doing very well and with such a team it is difficult to find a team that wins the Tar Heels team unless the players perform poorly."
"But the Tar Heels team players will still have to be taken care of in this 2nd half after all the Maryland Terrapins team is the third-best team at the ACC conference, they are one of the only teams that have the quality to beat the Tar Heels team."
Coach Guthridge said the same to the Tar Heels team players, they would have to keep pus.h.i.+ng and attacking hard if they wanted to guarantee victory in a difficult game like this.
In the first minutes, the Maryland Terrapins team started to press in the attack to try to win, in this game in which the Tar Heels team was an opponent that they would have much more confidence if they won they had to risk everything.
But the defense of the Tar Heels team was also well in the game today and Jake continued to defend well in the three-point line, in another move the Maryland Terrapins team was trying another attack and Jasikevicius tried a three-point shot and Jake got the block.
Carter still managed to catch the ball and calmly held it waiting for the Maryland Terrapins team players to move away and then pa.s.sed the ball to Jake, Jake advanced at a slower pace and after pa.s.sing through the middle of the court pa.s.sed the ball to Carter again.
Carter advanced and before the three-point line pa.s.sed the ball to Jamison farther to the left, Jamison tried again to advance to make the points, but the defense pressed close and Jamison had to pa.s.s the ball to Jake further back.
Jake received the ball and the Maryland Terrapins team defense soon put pressure on him and Williams paying attention to Jamison and Carter too, Jake pa.s.sed the ball diagonally to Okulaja on the right, Okulaja received the free ball and advanced to make a layup and 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.
Even with the Maryland Terrapins team trying to diminish the advantage on the scoreboard and trying to turn the game around, the Tar Heels team was very well and the attack was mainly very strong with Jamison trying another great performance in his career.
Jake was taking advantage of this to get more a.s.sists and also with Jamison playing so well he had more freedom to make the plays and try the shots from three points, Williams was also being well defended.
So Jake wanted to have a good team when he entered the NBA when he played with great players the opponents did not know that they had to defend against and so there was always someone with freedom to make the points.
Even though Jake was the one who scored the most points on the Tar Heels team and so it was normal for him to be the best defended, opponents could only hinder Jake in the plays and he had only a few turnovers this season.
He had more than 74 percent accuracy on three-point shots and field goals in general as well, so it was better to defend against other players who could be defended and who scored points than against Jake.
But if he were the only skilled player on the team he could never perform as well because all opponents would try to defend against him.