Chapter 149 The National High School Championship 6
Jake was annoyed to be fighting for the rebound for nothing after the ball came in after Jake picked up the ball in the bottom line and passed to his team's PG, then he started to run without looking back until he reached his position.
Jake did not want to know how to score in this game so he told his team's PG not to pass any balls to him, unlike his team at school, the imagery training teams did not have a very fixed positioning.
However, Jake did not manage to connect with it, as his teammates had hoped, and the ball went out of his way. they did not know what was going to happen.
But for this, the team had to train a lot and everyone had to have an IQ basketball high to make these plays, after all an error and the player with the ball could be surrounded, in addition, Jake liked to have control of the plays.
If the opponent can start reading his plays and is no longer working, he could think about changing the team's style of play, but for now, it was better to keep it that way.
While playing as Center he understood how difficult it was to play in that position, he had even more respect for Mark, yet the training in that first game did not work out as well as he thought.
He managed to train a lot to get the rebounds, but apart from the positioning it was very dependent on luck to get the rebounds, but he did not get any chance to make the block in that game.
Even so he tried again with another game, he purposely asked his team's defense of these more spaces so that the opponents tried to score internally, and this time he also wanted to try the plays of strength in the inner area to try to make the points as a Center and so he asked for the ball more.
So he can make more moves in that position, in attack and defense Jake had some difficulties, he was stronger than his opponent in the moves, but often he ended up making fouls trying to attack or defend by using excessive force.
So he thought it good that he did this in training and not in games, in the block was easier, he had done several times in the games, he just had to hit the time and so he could play the ball and not the opponent.
If the opponent made more elaborate moves to move the ball more Jake would give up trying the block, in fact once talking to the system he discovered that he had enough facilities with block, steal, dunk and layup because his intelligence and agility statistics were higher.
Thus both his agility and his speed of thought were faster and easier for him to guess the time of the ball, but to use the force to attack or defend if he learned only with experience, that is what Mark probably meant.
As Mark knew Jake would not play Center's position he thought Jake could never get the experience of playing in that position, so Jake would never be better than him, but Mark did not know Jake had the system.
Even so Jake understood that Mark must have talent as a defender, and also to know the right time to get the rebounds, which was something that Jake had more difficulty, but he had a lot of time in his training of imagination to learn some techniques to use in games.
When Jake's game day arrived it had already improved a lot as Center but was compared to an amateur and not to Mark, but Jake did not plan to use what he learned in that same game room, Jake thought he could use some of what he learned in the semifinal or in the very end.
After eating breakfast and saying goodbye to Eva he went to the playground, this time only coach Mike and Mark had arrived, in training during the week before the game Jake can see that his teammates seemed more focused on the training.
As he had been previously dismissed by the coach, Jake did not know what the coach talked to the team after the last game, but it seemed that he had motivated the players, yet Jake intended to rely on Mark for that game.
Mark was in good shape in the last games and Jake thought it was best to pass the ball so Mark would score more points and gain more confidence.
After a few minutes everyone had arrived for the game, Jake saw that everyone looked good in this game, he would have to see after the game began, he would pass the ball to David and Harrison to see how they were for that game.
Carter was important for him to be better on defense than on the attack, but he would find an opportunity to see how Carter was on the attack for that game, the game was about to start and Jake decided to speak with Mark shortly before the game.
"So, Mark, how are you feeling today?"
"Well Jake, I think today's going to be another good game."
"Great then, you know that our teammates have had some games down, but you're the player I trust the most, I do not want to give more pressure, but I'll pass the ball to you and the rebounds are yours okay?"
"You can count on me, Jake."
"Fine then, come on."
While the players were all set to start the game, Mark was more excited than ever, he never said that but Jake was an example to him on the team, he thought Jake would surely be a professional in the future.
Even though he did not plan to be a pro too, he wanted to at least be on the same level as Jake, which is why he was struggling so hard in training, and after two difficult years, he was finally at his best this year and was proud.
But after the last game that his teammates had problems he saw the team almost being eliminated again, so he was very nervous about this game and unsure if he could play well.
But Jake came to talk to him like he had never done before a game and said he trusted him, so Mark knew he had to do well in this game, just as Jake thought of him, Mark also thought Jake was his only real friend in the team.
Jake did not know that he had avoided a possible disaster in the game by talking to Mark and was on the court analyzing his opponent for that game, in that fourth national championship game they would play with the Bats team.
From the information they had for this game the best players on the Bats team were the PG and SF, fortunately, there were no very loud players what Jake thought for that game.
The PG was called Daniel and was a great player, had an average of 9 assists per game and 30 points as well, plus an average of 3 steals, the team SF was Alexander, had an average of 20 points per game as well, the two made half the points per game.
But Jake was not so worried about Daniel in this game, he was more concerned about Alexander, Harrison was not very good at defense so it would be a free attack for the Bats team, Jake had to take the chances to defend against him and help Harrison.
Even if Jake wanted to, he did not think he could get a Triple Double in every game after playing against the Cats team, he just expected the team to win.
After a while the game finally began, Mark disputed and got the first possession of the ball for the Elite team, Jake received the ball and ran up the three-point line, Daniel who was defending against Jake kept the distance and waited to see what Jake would do.
At that time all the teams already had the information of the main players, many players were highlights of their teams, Liam who was eliminated was one of them, but even so, Jake was considered the favorite to win the national championship MVP.
Even though there were three games remaining for the final, no one thought that was wrong, after all, Jake was a Triple Double player in every game of the season, and what was more difficult than in the last game he did with more than 10 blocks in instead of steals like in the other games.
So Daniel would not try to put pressure on the defense over Jake because he knew that who would tire himself would be Jake did not care about it and passed the ball to Harrison, Harrison who received the ball tried the feint over Alexander, but the SF of the Bats team stood still.
So Harrison tried to use speed to pass by Alexander, but the opposing defender just kept the distance, so Harrison made a sudden stop and made the mid-range shot to make the first 2 points of the game.
Jake who was seeing this realized that Harrison is well in today's game, but to his surprise, it seemed that Alexander was also good at defense, as in his stats he had no steal or block he was taken by surprise.
Even though Jake knew he could count on Harrison in the offense, it was best to avoid risking the confrontation with the strong opponent, Daniel took the ball and started the first attack for his team, reaching the line of three he went to the SG of his team.
The SG had difficulty, but still managed to get rid of David and make the first two points for his team, Jake received the ball and started another attack for his team, in that last move he can see that David looked good in the game, he came to line of three points and passed the ball to David.