Chapter 233 Last National High School Championship 11
After a few more moves the game seemed to be very much the same between the two teams, it seemed that the Dogs team had more skilled players, but their defense was becoming useless in this game.
On the other side without Mark playing the Elite team was with less skilled players, but Jake compensated for the team's skill level, even though he was able to put more pressure than the opponent Dogs
Jake was analyzing the game the same way everyone in the first half of the first period, everyone thought that Jake could do nothing in defense in this game, but Jake was actually analyzing in every move the Dogs team's playing style.
He had to understand how he could help more in defense playing as Center, in PG position he knew the right times to get out of position and intercept passes and steel balls, but in Center position, he knew that if he missed the time to leave would leave Rowan alone to make the points.
The others were doing a great job, with this constant pressure on defense the opposing attackers will feel the pressure over the course of the game and ended up losing some attacks.
Juan advanced with the ball again until after the middle of the court and passed the ball to Ivan, Nathan in defense was Ivan who had more difficulties in the first period, he had no room to try the three-point shots.
Ivan advanced from the left and passed the ball to Ashton which was open on the right, Ashton held the ball for a while and passed to Rowan inside, as the game passed Rowan learned that playing against Jake he could only use his skills and not strength or speed.
So he was able to spin again and tried the mid-range shot to score 2 more points for the Dogs team, which Rowan didn't know was that he was doing exactly what Jake wanted and Jake was taking advantage of this time to fully analyze the style Rowan's game.
Jake received the ball and began to organize another attack for the Elite team, after passing through the middle of the court he passed the ball to Nathan on the right, Nathan received the ball and advanced until after the three-point line and passed the ball to David farther back on the left.
David received the ball and held for a while until Ashton reached the defense, David tried a feint and then failed to pass the ball to Nathan on the right, Nathan had space and tried the mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the team.
Juan received the ball and advanced again to attack, before reaching the three-point line. Juan passed the ball to Ivan, Ivan used his speed and advanced to the back of the court on the left.
Ivan tried to pass the ball to his team's PF, but Jake stepped forward and made the steal, all of the Dogs team were impressed with it, even Ivan who tried the pass was impressed.
That's because before he made the pass he saw that Jake was close to Rowan in defense, a moment later Jake advanced a few meters to intercept his fast pass, everyone knew that Jake was skilled at steals, but his speed of reaction surprised everyone.
After a few more plays the first period of the game came to an end, the Dogs team were ahead by 4 points, Jake was doing well and had scored 9 points in a tough game like this, plus Jake had 4 assists and 2 steals in the game, plus 3 rebounds that he got in both offense and defense.
Even though the Elite team played well in the attack they still missed a few mid-range attempts and even though Jake rebounded the attack missed more, yet they were losing just because the Dogs team got lucky and missed less.
At the beginning of the second period, Jake had the ball advanced until after mid-court and passed the ball to David on the left, David advanced and passed the ball to Lucas on the left front.
Lucas was out of space and tried a mid-range shot to get 2 more points for the Elite team, even though Lucas, Nathan, and David wanted to show off their skills they still followed the team's style of play and passed the ball until someone was free to try the mid-range shot.
Juan advanced with the ball to the offense, after passing through the middle of the court Juan gave Ashton the right pass, Ashton advanced to before the three-point line and passed the ball to his team's PF.
The PF held the ball for a while and when Carter began to press in the defense he passed the ball to Ivan who was behind, Ivan was on the three-point line and with space and so tried an outside shot to get 3 more points to the Dogs team.
Both teams were still very evenly matched at the beginning of the second period, but as in all games after studying the Dogs' first-half moves now the Elite team would increase the defensive pressure against the opposing team to try to force the opponent to mistake or steal the ball.
Jake advanced until after the middle of the court and passed the ball to Nathan on the right, Nathan advanced until after the three-point line and passed the ball to Carter ahead, Carter made the feint and as the opponent was still firm in defense passed the ball to Jake further back.
Jake made a feint and then a crossover and took Juan out of play and then attempted a mid-range shot to score 2 more points for the Elite team, Jake also thought of becoming more active in this second period.
Jake was playing well but couldn't figure out why the system gave him that warning, after all, he wasn't doing his best in attack yet and the Elite team was just behind the scorecards.
Juan advanced for the attack and after passing through the middle of the court passed the ball to Ivan who was on the left, Ivan advanced until before the three-point line and when Nathan reached the defense he passed the ball to Ashton on the right.
Ashton received the ball and felt the pressure of Lucas's defense increased a lot in this second period, so Ashton passed the ball to the Dogs team PF, the PF turned away from Carter and tried the mid-range shot and missed, Jake went up to catch the rebound in defense.
At the end of the second period the Dogs team still led the scoreline with 1 point in front, the Elite team tightened the pressure on the defense and forced the Dogs team to make some mistakes.
But the Elite team also missed the attack a couple of times and failed to pass the lead, Jake was trying more and more play, but he was holding on to the three-point shots because he had no one to catch the rebound.
Jake scored 11 points in this second period and now had 20 points throughout the game, he also had 6 rebounds, 8 assists, and 5 steals, you could tell that the Elite team was still in the game just because Jake was playing very well.
In the third period, Jake finally understood what the system meant they would lose if Jake didn't excel and try his best in the game, the Dogs team's true risky strategy began to be shown in the third period.
In fact, not even the opposing team's coach expected their team to be in front of the scorecards when they started, but that was even better for their team.
The strategy they had for this game was simple, taking advantage of the Elite team lacking a quality center and betting more on indoor play, in the first two periods I could see that Jake had a hard time stopping Rowan's attacks It was the player who had scored the most points for the Dogs team in the game after Ivan with the three-point play.
It was actually that Jake was analyzing Rowan's style of play and would begin to defend correctly from now on and thus nullify part of the opponent's attack, but he did not expect the whole team to underestimate him.
Jake knew he would have to do his best to keep his team from losing the game at the beginning of the third period almost every time the Dogs team decided to attack from the inside area.
So the opposing coach was sure that his strategy was right for this game and his team had the possibility of being champion, on the side of the Elite team coach Mike did not expect this concentrated domestic game and could not blame Jake, maybe neither Mark could do something.
Juan advanced to organize another attack, after passing the middle of the court Juan passed the ball to Ashton on the right, Ashton was skilled and after making a feint and a dribble managed to pass by Lucas and invaded the inside area to layup while disregarded Jake.
The Elite defense began to fail after seeing their opponents skill and the gap in score increased, they knew that without Mark this game would be difficult and now the team's morale was low, fortunately, they could still play correctly in attack and The advantage on the scoreboard was just 4 points.
Jake advanced to attack with the ball, before the middle of the court he passed the ball to Nathan on the right, Nathan advanced and before reaching the three-point line passed the ball to Lucas, Lucas tried the shot on Ashton, but failed.
So Lucas passed the ball back to Jake, Jake received the ball and attempted a shot from outside to make 3 points for the Elite team, yet it didn't make the Elite team players more excited.
Jake didn't know what to do, but he knew he had to try something that would motivate his teammates because alone he couldn't win the game, even though he didn't know how to unleash his potential as the system said.
So Jake remembered the system talking about how he played against opponents in the space of imagination training, the opponents were there at the college level and yet Jake could win.