Chapter 152 The National High School Championship 9
Jake walked past a music store and saw on a poster the photo of that singer he had met a long time ago when he went to do the Tiffany and Clara companies commercial for television.
The name of the singer was Kate if he did not remember evil after he met her that day Jake even tried to look for some new thing she had done, but after a few months still had nothing then Jake thought she would not do success.
But now after almost a year he saw that her new work had been released, and it looked like she was a very popular singer now, Jake did not remember her so he knew she would not have much success in the internet era.
But in his past life, Jake was someone who did not like music and did not care too much about the artists who were successful or not, so he did not know if that singer Kate was very successful at that time in her past life.
But from what he could see at least now she was a popular singer, so Jake bought what was being sold to listen to when he was time, after all, he had promised that he would buy.
After a few more days came the day of the semi-final game, Jake woke up earlier than Eve that day, but he stayed in the room while thinking about some things.
Jake was thinking about all the difficulties he went through before he could get to that game, almost two years off the team and uncertainty if he would still be in Elite school, Jake continued by his friend and because he knew it would be difficult to start all new in another team.
Now his effort had been rewarded, he was in the semifinal of the national high school championship and was still playing with the same teammates, so Jake was pleased to have stayed in Elite school.
After a while putting her head in place Jake came down to eat at her breakfast, Eve had already prepared everything as always, seeing this Jake was happy and wondering if she still had time to do this after the restaurant opened.
After eating Jake was still long before the game and so he sat waiting for the time to pass, seeing that Jake was a little distracted today Eva spoke with him.
"Are you okay today, son?"
"I am, just thinking about some things before the game."
"You think you're going to win this game?"
"I think so if everyone plays like it's always going to be all right, I still want you to watch the next game."
After talking to his mother a little Jake saw that was a bit strange, so while he went to the place of the game he tried to regain his usual calm, after all, he was the captain of the team if his teammates think he was very worried they might get nervous too.
When Jake arrived everyone was already preparing for the game, Jake saw that Mark and Carter looked worried about this game, so Jake had already guessed what could have happened, after a few minutes the two teams were on the court ready for the start of the game.
The opposing team for this game was the Foxes team, they had 3 players that could cause many problems for the Elite team, the SG the PF and the Center, the SG was called Elijah, Elijah was a player who was almost the same height that Jake.
The style of play he had was similar to David, but Elijah did not have many skills in the shot from outside, so he could cause many problems with David's fragile defense, the PF of the opposing team was called Mason and was very good at attacking and also in defense.
The Center was called Jackson and just as Mason was good both in attack and defense, Jake saw in the report about them that with both on defense the team hardly took any inside scoring, only with mid-range moves and with shots from outside it was possible to make points on them.
Coach Mike asked that Jake not try to force any individual play and do layups and dunk in that game, much less try to do the Alley-oop with Mark as in previous games, Jake understood the coach and said he would not overdo it.
Although Jake wanted some challenges to increase his abilities he understood that this game was difficult, he could not rely very much on the attacks of Mark and Carter and even Harrison was more restricted not being able to do the inside scoring.
The game soon began and Jackson won the first possession of the ball for the Foxes team, the ball was passed to the PG of the Foxes team, PG reached the three-point line and passed the ball to Elijah.
Elijah made a feint and managed to dribble David and then made the mid-range shot to make the first two points for the Foxes team.
Jake got the ball and started the first attack of the Elite team, he passed the ball to Harrison who managed to pass by his opponent easily and make the mid-range shot to tie the game, after seeing it Jake saw that they would still have many opportunities to make points even without inside scoring.
The Foxes' PG passed the ball to Jackson after reaching the attack, Jackson received the ball and made a turn using his force to protect Mark's ball and then did the layup to make 2 more points for his team.
Jake saw that as expected Mark could not stop the attack of the center opponent, he took the ball and went to the court of attack, getting there he passed the ball to Mark, Mark although he was a little surprised to receive the pass still did the play and managed to make the 2 points for the Elite team.
Jake made this move to test the opposing defense, but he saw that Mark had difficulty making those points even if Jackson did not wait for the attack, thus showing that Mark would have difficulty in overcoming the opponent's defense.
The opposing PG did not seem as worried as Jake and was thinking of using enough Jackson and Mason in the Foxes' team attacks and sometimes passing the ball to Elijah to vary the plays.
In that attack he passed the ball to Mason, Carter was struggling in defense and tried to stop Mason's attack, but Mason looked even better than Jackson on the attack and still managed to do the layup with ease even with Carter's defense.
The game continued like this until the end of the first period, the Foxes team was in front of the scoreboard with 4 points in front, Harrison missed a few plays in the attack and Mark could not get any rebound in that game.
On the other side of the Foxes, the team did not make any mistake in the attacks, Jackson and Mason were very skillful players and did not lose any attack and Elijah easily got rid of David in the plays.
Jake realized that if they continued like this they would lose, he had 6 points and 4 assists in the first period because he did not try to attack much and tried to find weaknesses in the opponent's defense.
Coach Mike just watched without speaking, in practice during the weeks he would spend everything he could for the players and had great authority and respect from the players, but during the games who ruled the team was Jake.
This was not a request from either Jake or the president, but a decision from Mike himself, he saw in Middle School times that Jake had great leadership and vision of the game, so it was better than he leads his teammates on the court.
After thinking Jake saw the only option they had and called David to talk.
"You must have realized that we are in big trouble in this game, but we can not do anything about Jackson and Mason, so to disrupt the opponent's attack I will defend against Elijah in the rest of the game and you defend against the opponent's PG, understood?"
"Yes, I understand."
"Well, the attack on the rest of the game will depend on us both, even though I do not like to play so we're just going to shoot the shots, I have confidence in both of us and I think with 3-point plays we can get to advantage in the game, so I count on you."
After they returned to the court because they did not have a very long break, David was sad when Jake said he would have to give up defending against Elijah, but he knew his defense was really weak and the team had to win.
In addition, all players knew that Jake was like the team coach during the games and with more respect than he had for Jake he just accepted without complaining, but then he was very happy seeing that Jake also trusted him for the attacks of the team for today's game.
When the second period began Jake was with the ball up the three-point line and passed the ball to David, David who was out of the three-point line took the shot out to make 3 more points for the Elite team.
Then the opposing PG took the ball to organize the attack for his team, but soon everyone realized that whoever was defending against the PG of the Foxes team was David and that Jake was now on the mark of Elijah.
As it was a team strategy no one could say anything, so the Foxes PG team passed the ball to Mason on the attack, Mason made the quick turn and then made the dunk to make 2 more points for his team, Carter had no chance to stop the attack.