Chapter 94 National Champions.h.i.+p 6
But Jake who was the captain of his team had the courage and called David a few weeks ago to talk about a problem.
Jake said he realized that sometimes David in some games was very agitated without realizing and soon lost control and lost his head a little and did not defend right and played well with the team and just wanted to know to score points and win.
David had never noticed this before Jake mentioned it, and since David"s previous team was full of players who were weaker than him, his teammates did not mind that David did it all by himself sometimes.
But since the Elite team had better players like David and also had a PG equal to Jake who liked to be able to totally control the team in the game, they could not ignore it anymore, and Jake had to talk to David.
David who did not know this before understood that this was wrong in a basketball game and promised that he would be careful not to do it anymore, but in this game, as the opponent was stronger and challenging, David unknowingly began to lose control and Jake who realized did not pa.s.s the ball to him.
But Jake knew he could not stay the whole game with a player unless he could count on the attack and so he decided to talk to David.
"Now I understood what I did wrong, I"m sorry it will not happen the same in the third period."
Seeing that it was not intended and that David apologized and said he was going to change Jake did not want to continue with this subject.
"Well, try to control yourself, I need to count on you to attack so we can go to the final."
So David nodded vigorously saying that he had understood, he had been thrilled that Jake not only did not quarrel with him but also said that the team needed him for this game, now David would fight more for the win.
So in the third period, the Dogs team went all the way up to try to score more points and victory in the game, Elite team defense also put more pressure, especially David who received a vote of confidence and Carter who was annoyed at not being able to steal any ball until now.
So Mike who also had confidence in his team pa.s.sed the ball to Troy, David tightened more in the score but Troy just turned the body and made a 2-point shot, despite striving David"s strength was not in the defense.
Jake also knew this and patted David on the back to encourage and started the attack, who saw the game and even though that Jake was comforting David who was having a bad game since he did not pa.s.s the ball to David.
When Jake reached the three-point line he stopped, Mike was intent on not being pa.s.sed without realizing it, Troy who scored David was still intent on his defense even though David did not receive any pa.s.s in the game.
Even though Jake pa.s.sed the ball to David, so David who had received the confidence of his captain remained calm but was full of energy, and so he made a feint when Troy just shook David sped and made a dribble for Troy.
Troy tried to recover but David had already gone and ran to do a layup and his first 2 points in the game, Jake had a lot of expectation in David"s potential if David learned to channel his energy and use in his plays with a calmer mind he would become an excellent SG.
Although the Dogs team saw David score they did not care about it, so Mike started another attack and soon advanced to the three-point line, Mike had already realized that David seemed full of morale and will for some reason and so pa.s.sed to Lucas attack.
Carter saw that Jake should have managed to calm David at half-time and thought the victory was practically decided, but he felt ashamed not to have stolen any ball in that game as soon as Lucas received the ball Carter instead of tightening the mark gave s.p.a.ce.
Lucas, seeing that he had s.p.a.ce, did not have to turn or defend the ball and just gave the shot and scored the 2 points, Jake went and started another attack and pa.s.sed the ball again to David who received and gave the shot from outside to make the 3 points.
Mike resumed the attack and as soon as he reached the 3-point line saw Lucas with s.p.a.ce again and so pa.s.sed the ball, Lucas received the pa.s.s and made the 2-point shot.
Jake had confidence in Carter and did not care much about it, Jake left for the attack and Mike and Troy prepared for David"s attack, Jake made for the first time the pa.s.s movement he invented the and in time the ball went to David went to Harrison who was already unmarked.
The pa.s.s was so surprising that Harrison almost did not hold the ball, but he soon concentrated and soloed the mid-range shot to make the 2 points.
Most of the players and the public thought it was an accident and they did not care much, only Jake was more excited because it was the first time that he made a move of him in a game, and it seemed useful, of course, that would not always be so, but at least the defense would not try to intercept his pa.s.s without thinking twice so as not to be deceived.
Then the game remained the same and so when the third period ended the Elite team was ahead by 10 points, at this point in the game the Dogs team were already starting to get desperate to recover on the board and take the advantage.
During the third period, Lucas was the focus of the Dogs in the attack, so Lucas was starting to feel tired, Carter, on the contrary, seems to have taken advantage of this third period with the advantage to rest and now besides Jake was unmatched in endurance, Carter was the one who had the most energy.
In fact, Jake had long since acc.u.mulated more than 100 stamina bars, but at this point, he did not need more for the Middle School games, so besides spending a few to fulfill his desire to run longer on the treadmill he just kept.
Jake knew that when he got to the NBA with the intensity of the games even a thousand bars of stamina would be few for him, so he needs to keep doing the shots of 3 when he had free time to acc.u.mulate more.
So at the beginning of the fourth period, Mike pa.s.sed the ball to Lucas who more relaxed now tried to give the 2-point shot, Carter who was waiting for it came up and gave a block, so Jake took the ball and ran to do the layup and more 2 points.
After this move, Mike began to hesitate sometimes without knowing who to pa.s.s the ball, in one of these hesitations Jake stole the ball and ran to score another 2 points, so in the middle of the fourth period the Elite team already led by 14 points, the team of the Dogs began to discourage.
It was to see that they did not have much opportunity to recover in the game and to obtain the victory, so in another of the attacks of Dogs Carter stole the ball of Lucas and only thus it felt a little better in the game, Jake that received the ball made a bait behind his back and gave Mike a dribble and then fired a shot from outside to make 3 more points.
Many of the reporters had already noticed and even commented on this in their stories, Jake was a player who was very aware of his abilities and so in some games he had an average of more than 80% correctness in his attacks, because he only attacked when he was pretty sure he was going to get it right.
So this was incredible, even if his media was a bit lower today, Jake was the player who had scored the most points against the Dogs, so today the biggest contribution to his team"s victory was Jake.
Eric thought that now that Jake scored again normally despite not being at peak performance, he looked more like an MVP than the regional champions.h.i.+p and the state champions.h.i.+p, and in fact, many commented that if the Elite team won the trophy, Jake was the one who deserved the MVP.
If that happened it would show that the organization I gave the MVP award to Jake at the regional and state was right because it would be a bad joke if the MVP of the national champions.h.i.+p did not win the smaller prizes before him.
Thus the game ended after a while with the victory of the Elite team that gained an advantage of 18 points, even with this expressive advantage everyone could say that it was not the case of the team of the Dogs being a weak team but of the Elite team being strong and now favorite to the trophy.
Jake who was very happy after celebrating with his teammates for a while rushed home, he had to tell his mother that he should be anxious that in a few weeks she would have to go to the final game because he won.
Although the reporters thought about stopping Jake for an interview, it did not make much sense since they did not know who the opponents of the final were to ask the questions, and in a few weeks would be the right time after the final.