Chapter 413 1998 ACC Tournament 1
In another attacking move by the NC State Wolfpack team, Jake also took advantage of his speed when he landed a steal by intercepting a pass from the NC State Wolfpack team and advancing into the attack.
Everyone knew Jake's speed and his passing interception was known to all teams since he had an average of more than 10 steals per game, so when Jake ran for the attack with full speed only the player who missed pass tried to come back to defend.
Jake ran very fast and when he reached the painted area on the NC State Wolfpack team to score the points, the NC State Wolfpack player was not even close to the three-point line, so Jake went forward and dunk to score two more points for the team. Tar Heels.
Without Jake needing to say Coach Guthridge had also already realized that Carter was not doing well in this game, he knew Jake very well and knew why Jake was not passing the ball to Carter in the 1st half of the game.
Even so, Coach Guthridge was satisfied with the performance of the rest of the team, the Tar Heels team had a big advantage on the scoreboard and Jake was controlling the pace of the game so that the players of the Tar Heels team did not get tired in the game.
With the good performance of Jake and also Jamison who was well in that game, the Tar Heels team ended the 1st half of the game, winning with a good advantage on the scoreboard, with the NC State Wolfpack team not playing well they had more confidence to win this game.
In this 1st half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and had 17 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals, as the NC State Wolfpack team was not playing so well and Jake was keeping the game pace slower he didn't do that much points even though he was mainly responsible for the advantage on the Tar Heels team score.
"So the Tar Heels team ends this 1st half by winning the game with a good lead on the scoreboard, the Tar Heels team clearly had the upper hand in the 1st half of the game and so they can win that game much more easily."
"The NC State Wolfpack team is not able to perform as well as it did in the last game against the Tar Heels team, in this game the defense of the Tar Heels team is preventing the players of the NC State Wolfpack team from attacking correctly."
"Jake Smith is playing very well again and it seems that as soon as the Tar Heels team got the advantage he kept on attacking, but he made the plays more slowly so that his teammates wouldn't get tired."
"It's true, coach Guthridge has already let the other players besides Jake rest for a few minutes in the 1st half to be in good physical condition in the next games if the Tar Heels team wins."
"This could be the opportunity for the NC State Wolfpack team to try to win, the way things are they have no chance of winning this game, so they could try to put pressure on the offense and defense when the reserve players of the Tar Heels team were on the court."
The coach of the NC State Wolfpack team had realized that Coach Guthridge was trying to preserve the Tar Heels team players and told the NC State Wolfpack team players to press forward and attack.
Coach Guthridge decided to leave Carter in reserve for most of the 2nd half and put Ed Cota in his place, Brendan Haywood and Makhtar N'Diaye would also enter the 2nd half so that Jamison, Williams, and Okulaja could rest.
Naturally, the players took turns and so the Tar Heels team did not have many reserve players on the court at the same time, so they returned to play in the 2nd half and the Tar Heels team still defended and attacked the same way.
The players on the NC State Wolfpack team pressed on the attack and defense, but even if they managed to defend several times they also wasted a lot of attacks because the players on the NC State Wolfpack team were not performing well.
And even if the defense of the NC State Wolfpack team put a lot of pressure, the players of the Tar Heels team had the quality to attack even with the defense of the opposing team putting pressure, as well as Jake's three-point shots and the points of the other players in the team. Tar Heels continued to maintain a good advantage.
In that game, Ademola Okulaja was having a very good performance and so Jake was passing the ball more to him, in another play the NC State Wolfpack team had managed to make the points and the Tar Heels team started the attack.
Jake advanced with the ball and passed the ball to Ed Cota on the left, Cota advanced with the ball and before the three-point line he passed the ball to Jamison further on the left, Jamison received the ball and tried the individual play.
The opponent pressed well in defense against Jamison and so Jamison had to pass the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball with freedom and tried the three-point shot and missed, so Okulaja managed to catch the rebound and made the 2 points for the Tar Heels team.
So the game continued and the lead did not diminish much, it seemed that the players of the NC State Wolfpack team were waiting for Jake to leave the court to attack, but Jake did not want to leave the court and Coach Guthridge would not take him away in this important game.
The game continued like this until the end of the team Tar Heels won the game making 85 points against 40 points of the NC State Wolfpack team, the coach Guthridge was satisfied with this comfortable victory in which he had managed to spare the players who were not so tired.
In this 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and made 15 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, and 5 steals, in that game in which coach Guthridge let the players rest Jake was unable to a double-double, but he played very well.
"The game is over and the Tar Heels team gets one more victory of the season and moves on to the second phase of the ACC tournament, the next phase can be called the semifinal and if the Tar Heels team wins the next game they will go to the final again."
"The Tar Heels team players performed well in that game and managed to attack and defend well, Jake played very well and as he always led the team to victory, only Carter did not perform well in that game, but he was the starting player who played less time in that game."
"The players of the NC State Wolfpack team did not perform well and the difference in skill between the two teams is very large, so the NC State Wolfpack team had no chance of winning that game."
"We will continue to follow the next games to see if the Tar Heels team can win the ACC tournament this season again."
After that victory the players of the Tar Heels team were much more confident, even Carter who did not perform well was even more motivated to play well in the next game against the Maryland Terrapins team.
Jake was concerned about this game that would be very difficult for the Tar Heels team, but he didn't think he needed to let Coach Guthridge know about it because everyone knew how important this game was for the Tar Heels team.
Jake only knew that in this game it was impossible to let some players rest thinking about the game in the final, they had to work even harder in this game to have a chance to go to the final and try to win the ACC tournament.
As the game would be the next day they would not have time to train or rest after that game, so they would not even return to the university until the ACC tournament was over.
After resting for one night the day of the next game in the ACC tournament had arrived, luckily the players of the Tar Heels team were not that tired and the opposing teams could not be much better than they were in physical condition.
The players of the Tar Heels team were confident to achieve victory in that game, everyone had forgotten the pressure they felt about having to keep winning just because of the winning streak and just thought about winning the game and then winning the ACC tournament and they knew it was the same with their opponent.
The opponent of that game was the Maryland Terrapins team that was doing very well this season and was in third place in the ACC tournament, because of that the players of the Tar Heels team and the coach Guthridge knew they could not underestimate the opponent.
Coach Guthridge didn't even talk about letting any player rest and just told the players to do their best and win the game, Jake was thinking about how he could play in that game to win more easily.
"Welcome to everyone who will follow this ACC tournament game with us again, it will be a game between the Tar Heels team and the Maryland Terrapins team, two strong ACC conference teams that will make a great game."
"The favorite to win this game is the Tar Heels team, with 56 victories in a row and without losing a single game in the season, the Tar Heels team that has Jake Smith and Antawn Jamison is certainly the favorite to win this game today."
"But the Maryland Terrapins team also has a lot of chances to win in that game, as the team that came in third at the ACC conference they are one of the teams that few would be surprised if they won that game."
"That's right, I think the Tar Heels team will win this game, if Jake has a great performance as he has been doing all season and the other players on the Tar Heels team play well the victory will certainly be on the Tar Heels team."
Soon the game started and the Tar Heels team started putting pressure on the attack, they knew this was going to be a difficult game so Jake thought it was better to start attacking well to get the advantage on the scoreboard in this 1st half and thus have an easier game later.