Chapter 419 1998 NCAA Tournament 1
Just as commentators had hoped the Tar Heels team continued to dominate the game at the start of the 2nd half, Coach Guthridge let the starting players play the first few minutes to further increase the advantage and soon started to replace again.
Jake was really playing very well and also hit a lot of three-point shots, which left the players of the Navy Midshipmen team with no hope of winning that game and the Tar Heels team can dominate the game even more.
So the Tar Heels team won with 112 points against the Navy Midshipmen team's 48 points, it was a great victory because Jake didn't need to rest and still scores several points in three-point plays.
In this 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and made 21 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals, with this triple-double Jake ensured an easy victory for the Tar Heels team and his teammates were able to rest more in that game.
"Another victory for the Tar Heels team, a really dominant game that was an easy victory for the Tar Heels team that moves on to the next game with many chances to win with the rested players."
"Jake made another triple-double making 40 points again, this is not surprising anymore because we are used to it, but it is incredible for a player to make 40 points easily in an important game like this, Jake hit 10 shots from three points in that game to achieve this."
"Jake certainly has the record for the Tar Heels team and perhaps all the college basketball teams with the most points in an NCAA tournament game this season, what was the maximum he achieved in an NCAA tournament game anyway?"
"It was a game last season against the Louisville Cardinals team in which he had 53 points and 18 assists, he sure has the record for points, assists, and steals in games, Jake just doesn't have the record on average for points because of Austin Carr. "
"The Navy Midshipmen team had no chance of winning this game even though they played well, now we will continue to follow up to see if Team Tar Heels wins the NCAA tournament this season again."
After that first game, the players on the Tar Heels team were more confident to win this NCAA tournament, Jake was concerned about the next game, but he was confident that the Tar Heels team would win more easily.
The Tar Heels team had only light training the other day to not tire the players and Jake can see that everyone was fine for the next game, Jake hoped that the opposing defense would put more pressure on him in the game so that his teammates would have more freedom to make the stitches.
Coach Guthridge called Jake after training to say he had some concerns for the next game because of the next opponent and Jake spoke what he remembered that could cause the team's defeat in the next game.
It was Coach Bill Guthridge who chose Jake for this Tar Heels team, so Coach Guthridge had a lot of confidence in Jake, especially now that the Tar Heels team was having such a good season and Jake was primarily responsible for that.
If the Tar Heels team won this season, Coach Guthridge knew that Jake would be responsible for that, Coach Guthridge knew that Jake thought about leaving the team this season even though Jake didn't say anything.
But Coach Guthridge thought Jake was right to do that, after that season the whole team would almost go to the NBA or some players would end their time at university, Jake had already won two ACC tournaments and an NCAA tournament, no one could say that he was unimportant and helped the university.
So another day passed and the day of the next Tar Heels game in the NCAA tournament came, the players were confident, but did not underestimate the opponent because of that and were focused to win.
The opponent in that game was the Charlotte 49ers team, that team was also having a good season and played in a conference with strong teams which made them a more difficult opponent.
Jake told Coach Guthridge that they had to be especially careful with Sean Colson, DeMarco Johnson, and Diego Guevara, he himself would defend against Sean Colson and defend against Diego Guevara when he was playing.
If the two were playing it was for Shammond Williams to defend against one of them, the other players had to put pressure on defending against DeMarco Johnson so that they could hinder the Charlotte 49ers team's attacks.
"Today we are going to watch another NCAA tournament game this season, the Tar Heels team that has been having an incredible season and is fighting to win the NCAA tournament again this season plays against the Charlotte 49ers team."
"In the last game, the Tar Heels team had an easy win with an excellent performance by Jake who made 40 points, in addition, the players of the Tar Heels team were able to rest because the coach Guthridge put the reserves to play longer."
"So with the excellent season that the Tar Heels team has been doing and with the best players they have the advantage to win this game."
"But the Charlotte 49ers team also want to seek victory and continue advancing in the NCAA tournament, to achieve this they have a team with good and experienced players."
"So we are going to monitor which team will win and continue in the NCAA tournament."
The Tar Heels team started strong in the attack against the Charlotte 49ers team, Jake knew this was going to be a difficult and tiring game and so he wanted to try to start winning with a good advantage on the scoreboard to make his teammates more confident and send the pressure for the Charlotte 49ers team.
Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Carter on the left, Carter quickly advanced to the three-point line and passed the ball to Jamison who was ahead, Jamison tried to advance and soon the defense pressed on the defense preventing his advance.
So Jamison passed the ball to Carter in the back, Carter soon passed the ball to Jake who was in the middle, Jake received the ball and the Charlotte 49ers team defense immediately pressed, Jake was not nervous and passed the ball to Williams who was more open on the right.
Williams received the ball and received the signal from Jake and thus tried the shot from outside to hit and make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team, Shammond Williams had an agreement with Jake that depending on the play Jake had to warn Williams to try the shot of three points.
It was Coach Guthridge who had thought about it because there were games that Williams would try 13 shots from outside if not controlled, he was very good on average at three-point shots, but there were games that he tried too hard.
After Coach Guthridge did that, Williams' three-point hit average had improved a lot, and Williams had more respect for Jake who had an average of 78 percent hit on three-point shots.
The Tar Heels team really started to push forward as opposed to the last game and soon everyone could see that all the players on the Tar Heels team were performing well in that game, so the Charlotte 49ers team was forced to be on the defensive early in the game.
Jake was well in the game too and together with Williams and Carter they were dominating the three-point line and in the middle of the 1st half, the Tar Heels team was winning with a good advantage in the game and Jake already had 9 points.
So the Charlotte 49ers team had to react and started to attack more, in another move the Charlotte 49ers team was on the attack and Jake was defending against Colson and the Tar Heels team was defending against Johnson, even so, the Charlotte 49ers team tried to force the move.
Johnson received the ball and tried to make the turn against Okulaja's defense, Johnson made the quick turn and tried the layup and managed to make the 2 points and still missed Okulaja, then Johnson hit the Free Throw and made 1 more point for the Charlotte 49ers team.
The defense of the Tar Heels team was good in the three-point line, but against more skilled and tall players in the painted area, the Tar Heels team was not able to defend very well, that was the problem of not having a good Center in the team.
The Charlotte 49ers team started to react and the advantage that the Tar Heels team had on the scoreboard began to diminish, even so with the good plays of Jake, Williams, and Carter the Tar Heels team ended the 1st half winning with a good advantage on the scoreboard.
In this 1st half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and made 16 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 blocks, Jake was still managing to defend well against Colson and from what he remembered the Tar Heels team could win more easily the Charlotte 49ers team like that.
"What an exciting game in that 1st half, the two teams pushing forward and playing well in defense too, Jake, Williams and Carter managed to hit a few shots from three points and so the defense of the Charlotte 49ers team failed to react that well."
"The defense of the Tar Heels team was not able to defend well against DeMarco Johnson and so the Charlotte 49ers team managed to diminish the advantage in the Tar Heels team on the scoreboard, Jake defended well against Sean Colson and managed 3 blocks in this 1st half helping the Tar Heels team."
"The players on the Tar Heels team seem to be performing well in this game and also seem to be in good physical condition, if they continue like that I see another victory for the Tar Heels team."
"The Charlotte 49ers team needs more attack options and Colson needs to get rid of Jake's defense to get more three-point shots, and they need to defend better against the Tar Heels players on the three-point line."