Chapter 98 National Champions.h.i.+p 10
Jake that ran like never before did not receive the mark of the opposing team that was in shock by this stolen of his ball, so he as before stopped in the line of 3 points and made the shot of the outside again to score 3 more points and to diminish the advantage to 2 points.
The grandstand that watched the game was crazy, this final that seemed to be already defined was now an attack to define the champion when Jake"s ball entered the basket Foxes team players woke up from their states of shock and everyone looked at the time.
It was 35 seconds to finish the game if the Foxes team made the points the game would end this time the Elite team opened the defense and everyone was preparing to score who was with the ball.
This time even the Foxes team were nervous, to make sure they did not lose they left Max back, so if Jake somehow stole the ball for the last attack it was Max"s mission to stop him.
Jack had his confidence shaken by this last move, but it was still he who commanded the attack, Jake was not marking him closely as if he were challenging him to shoot himself if Jack had the guts.
Even though Jack did not lose his temper anymore he was still forced to hear several people from the grandstand calling by the name of Jake in the crowd, Jack again spent the time because it was the only thing they could do.
When the time of possession was over, the Foxes team were scared to risk the shot from outside and took advantage of the open defense of the Elite team, Jack gave the pa.s.s to Sam that had left David behind in the mark, this was missing 8 seconds to end the game.
When Sam would do the layup to score the 2 points and ensure the victory, Carter appeared and did not try to make the block and was soon doing the fault to prevent Sam from making the 2 points.
So Sam had to hit the 2 Free Throw attempts to win the game, he hit the first one that left all of the Foxes team happy and the Elite team nervous, Jake was waiting in the middle of the court and Max was still on the defense court.
Maybe the pressure was too great Sam missed the second attempt, Mark took the rebound and gave a long pa.s.s to Jake who was waiting in the middle of the court, 6 seconds left to finish the game and the Foxes team were 3 points ahead.
Jake got the ball and ran to the attacking block, Max was waiting for this and got ready, Bryan who had come back tried to push Jake to make the foul and win the game but Jake held him off with his strength and did not fall.
So the referee let the game continue, missing 4 seconds Jake reached the 3-point line a bit far from the line and further away from Max if Jake hit the shot from outside the Elite team would tie and so the game would go to overtime.
If it was for overtime the Elite team would probably win because Jake who made the points was full of energy and everyone on the Foxes team was exhausted, so Max did not want to risk it and so he tried to hit Jake"s arm after he had jumped to do miss and prevent the 3 points.
But even with Max hitting Jake"s arm after the shot from outside was executed the ball still went and Jake hit the 3 points drawing the game in the final, had 1 second on the clock still and beyond the 3 points, the referee scored the foul for the Elite team made by Max.
Seeing that everyone in the crowd was crazed with this unexpected end of the game, Jake in the last minute of the game hit 3 shots from outside making 9 points to recover from the 9-point advantage that seemed guaranteed the advantage for the Foxes team.
Carter risked a foul to stop Sam"s attack at the end and it worked well since Sam missed one of two attempts but Max, who tried to do the same, could not stop Jake from making the 3 points and drawing as he also gave the chance of victory to the Elite team.
Those who understood basketball were impressed by the physical form of Jake that only got that chance to run and to force 2 times more than the other players and still have the persistence to hit that shot from the outside even having suffered two attempts of lack.
Not many players would be able to continue running after being shoved, so now Jake had the chance to lead the team to victory.
So Jake received the ball and waited for the referee"s authorization to make his Free Throw attempt and lead his team to victory, Jake received the authorization and so calmed down with his strongest ability that was always SS gave confidence to Jake who made the shot and hit the post on the scoreboard.
When Jake hit the Free Throw and so made the point, his team went ahead and the clock that was less than 1 second cleared, so the Elite team was this year"s national champions.h.i.+p.
Elite team players started shouting and celebrating and Jake even knelt on the court after hitting his last shot, everyone was crying from the two teams, the Elite team cried with joy and relief and celebrated the victory so disputed.
The Foxes team wept with sadness, the trophy were in the hands of their team, just a little effort and they would win, with 8 points ahead with 1 minute to finish the final they relaxed and paid the price.
Jack, Max, and Sam who made mistakes in the last minute mainly and Bryan also felt guilty for missing this game.
On the side of the Elite team, although they were celebrating and happy now, the players knew that because of them they had almost lost this final if they had played normally with the perfect performance of Jake the victory would leave naturally, but the pressure affected the performance of the players.
The best performers were Mark and Carter who despite not having much attention in the game did not make mistakes and in the end, helped in the defense and rebound for Jake to win.
So after Jake got off the ground and stopped crying his teammates lifted Jake and threw him up in celebration a few times, everyone knew that without his captain they would not have won.
After being put on the ground and having celebrated with his teammates, as the organization of the champions.h.i.+p would still take time to arrange delivery of the trophy, Jake ran to where his mother was and celebrate with her.
Eva was also crying along with the players, she knew how much Jake wanted to win this game and she overheard the reporters saying from the second period of the game that Jake"s team would lose.
As a mother she was distressed and did not want to see her son crying again for being defeated and it was her last chance to win this champions.h.i.+p at Middle School, and what made her sadder was to hear that her son was playing well, but the rest of the team did not.
It was like listening to what happened last year again when Jake played well and carried the team on his own and the others were not doing their part, and Jake had said several times that this year was different than they had a team.
The only thing that made her calm down and continues to cheer was that all the fans were cheering and saying the name of her son too, Anna, Clara, and Tiffany were also distressed and happy for the fans to give recognition.
So she can only relax when in the end her son managed to seek victory, now crying she hugged Jake, Anna, Clara, and Tiffany also embraced the two was an exciting moment after an exciting game.
Eric was on the side just taking the best pictures and filming everything, he had already been able to interview the other players while the other reporters only went after Jake to get nothing, all Elite players said they were happy, they made a dream and that this victory was thanks to his captain.
So Eric was very happy with the end of his long story, but he thought it would be worth it, it was hard for an entire team full of talented players to praise a player with the same words and in separate interviews.
Jake"s team-mates last year found the game exciting and saw that even at his new school Jake was still leading his team to victory, they were very happy that Jake had managed to be the champion, he deserved it.
Joseph and Oliver also thought for a long time in this game that Jake could not win after getting behind the score were excited and Oliver who was older felt that Jake really could be an NBA star in the future if he had a few more games like that.
After celebrating with his mother his friends Jake answered some questions to the reporters who left him satisfied, then Jake reunited his players who were with their families and took them to greet the Foxes team players who made a great and clean game, and at the end of that game, they deserved all the respect.