Chapter 406 Rest and Business 10
The Tar Heels team continued to play well and ended up winning the 1st half with a good advantage against the NC State Wolfpack team, Jake was playing very well as were Jamison and Williams.
In this 1st half Jake played for 20 minutes and made 21 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 5 steals, and 2 blocks, Jake was playing well in defense, but he was unable to help the team much in rebounds because he was playing away from the painted area.
"As expected, the Tar Heels team has been winning the game today with a good advantage, the NC State Wolfpack team seems to be playing better than expected and was bringing some problems to the Tar Heels team."
"But with the good performance of Jake and his teammates, the Tar Heels team managed the advantage nonetheless, Jamison and Williams also played well."
"It is true, Jake had a great performance just as he has done in the last games, and that makes the opponents defend more against him and that leaves his teammates more freedom to make the points."
"But the NC State Wolfpack team has really had a good game and still has an opportunity to win that game, Jake has been defending well against Harrison, but the NC State Wolfpack team has other good players in the three-point line that has been having more freedom."
Jake knew that what the commentators were saying was true, even though he defended well against Harrison the NC State Wolfpack team still had other good players on the three-point line.
But he knew it was more dangerous to leave Harrison alone in this game because he couldn't defend against the three players on the NC State Wolfpack team anyway, he had to rely on Williams and Carter to help defend against these players.
The players of the NC State Wolfpack team realized that they could achieve victory against the Tar Heels team, the players of the Tar Heels team were not having the best performance and this could be their chance.
So at the beginning of the 2nd half of the game the NC State Wolfpack team started to press in attack and defense as well, Jake continued to defend against Harrison and helped the defense by trying some steals.
In another move, the NC State Wolfpack team was on the attack and after a good move by the players, Archie Miller received free and attempted a three-point shot and hit with three more points for the NC State Wolfpack team.
Jake was defending against Harrison and that gave Miller the opportunity to make that three-point shot, the game continued and even though Jake was playing very well the NC State Wolfpack team continued to diminish the lead.
When it was 4 minutes before the end of the game, the NC State Wolfpack team had managed to take all the advantage and had turned the game around and were winning, even though Jake was playing well the NC State Wolfpack players found that Carter was not performing well and even Jamison and Williams were just playing regularly.
So when Jake received the ball, two players were always against him on the three-point line and even if Jake made assists, his teammates did not hit every attack.
Even so when the end of the game was coming the players of both teams were getting more anxious and were also getting tired because of the intense game they had, so Jake was able to make the plays again at the end of the game because he was not tired.
In the next few minutes, it was a dispute between the players of the NC State Wolfpack team and Jake, he who was well defended by almost the entire 2nd half managed to attack again and still managed to get more blocks and steals.
Jake could still count on Jamison and Williams if the defense against him was too difficult to overcome, even if they did not perform better they could still score a lot and bring headaches to the NC State Wolfpack team defense.
With less than 1 minute remaining, the NC State Wolfpack team was winning by 1 point difference, Okulaja passed the ball to Jake who started what could be Team Tar Heels' last attack in the game.
He advanced to the middle of the court and passed the ball to Williams on the right before passing through the middle of the court, Williams and all the players on the Tar Heels team were nervous about this stressful end of the game.
As the NC State Wolfpack team was winning by just 1 point, nobody knew if the Tar Heels team would try a 2-point play or risk and try a 3-point play, Williams advanced to the 3-point line and passed the ball to Carter on the left.
Carter tried to get rid of the defender by making a feint, but the opponent was firm in defense and Carter passed the ball to Jamison further on the left, Jamison received the ball and tried to advance.
Soon the defense of the NC State Wolfpack team put pressure on Jamison and so he was unable to advance and passed the ball to Jake who was at the bottom of the court on the right, Jake was free and after receiving and the ball tried the shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team with a few seconds to go.
In this play, the defense of the NC State Wolfpack team was careless, for a moment when Jamison was with the ball they forgot to defend against Jake, but they stayed close to the place where he normally stayed.
But this time Jake went to the back of the court and the defense that did not expect it did not follow the play, now the NC State Wolfpack team would have only one play to try to win.
The Tar Heels team players were focused on defense, if the NC State Wolfpack team scored 2 points with this attack they would tie the game, if they scored 3 points they would win.
With that in mind, Carter and Williams came to defend on the three-point line against Miller and Ishua Benjamin who were the best players on the three-point line besides Harrison that Jake was scoring.
In this last attack by the NC State Wolfpack team, everyone who was watching the game was nervous to know if this time the Tar Heels team would finally be defeated, the Tar Heels fans at the Dean Smith Center were supporting the team that was playing at home.
The NC State Wolfpack team made the attack move very smoothly and with only a few seconds left to start trying to define the move, Jake was concentrating on defending against Harrison and therefore did not even think about trying to steal that move.
After a good move by the players of the NC State Wolfpack Miller team ended up being free and received the pass, Williams realized his mistake and tried to go to defense, but Miller still managed to try the shot from outside.
Everyone stopped to see if that ball would enter and the NC State Wolfpack team would win the game, luckily for the Tar Heels team the ball did not enter and Jamison caught the rebound for the game to finally end.
Miller couldn't believe he was wrong in that move and the NC State Wolfpack players were frustrated that they didn't win the game, Jake and the Tar Heels team players celebrated their victory in that difficult game.
The Tar Heels team won the game making 93 points against 91 points for the NC State Wolfpack team, Jake was very important for this victory making so many points when his teammates didn't perform well and Jake was responsible for making Harrison scoreless even though the NC State Wolfpack team managed to score more points otherwise.
In that 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and had 22 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 5 steals, and 1 block, with this double-double Jake helped the Tar Heels team to win and can finally relax.
"What an exciting game we are watching today, the Tar Heels team was the favorite to achieve victory in that game, but surprisingly the NC State Wolfpack team was doing very well and the poor performance of the Tar Heels team players made this game more exciting."
"Jake was decisive for the victory by making 43 points and getting a double-double, he defended well against Harrison and also hindered other players on the NC State Wolfpack team by making 10 steals."
"But even so the players of the NC State Wolfpack team were right on the three-point line and that made the game decide in the last seconds with a three-point shot from Jake and then the mistake of the NC State Wolfpack team."
"The Tar Heels team still has two more difficult games before the start of the ACC tournament, if the players of the Tar Heels team play so badly it will be difficult for them to continue with this sequence of victories and win the ACC tournament just like last season."
The Tar Heels team won the game, but neither the fans nor coach Guthridge were satisfied with this difficult victory against the NC State Wolfpack team, Jake was not happy with that either, but he did not criticize any teammates.
After the players returned to the dorms, Jake began to think that maybe Miller had missed the last three-point shot because his luck had helped, he saw that Miller was free and was playing well to make that last move and bring victory to the NC State Wolfpack team.
Jake would never know if it was really his luck that helped the Tar Heels team to win, but he was sure that the NC State Wolfpack team deserved to have won that game, he had to have a good performance like that game and hope that his teammates team also played better so that the Tar Heels team could win the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament.