Chapter 427 1998 NCAA Tournament 9
Just as Jake and Coach Guthridge expected the Utah Utes team coach had to ask for technical time to organize his team's defense, Coach Guthridge didn't even need to explain to Jake what he had to do.
The other players on the Tar Heels team who thought it strange that they hadn't scored any points in 6 minutes of play and didn't even try to score any points, but they understood Coach Guthridge's strategy and could see that it was working.
Coach Guthridge just spoke to N'Diaye who seemed to be having a difficult time defending against Doleac from the Utah Utes team, the coach understood how difficult it was for N'Diaye to defend against such a good Center, but it was important that he try to hinder Doleac and not doing too many fouls to avoid being kicked out of the game.
Jake wanted to defend against Miller, but Coach Guthridge said that Jake could defend against Miller, but he had better try some steals and not just keep defending against Miller.
The Utah Utes team came back after this time-out from their coach pressing more in the attack, they had to finish this 1st half by winning the game because they knew that the Tar Heels team did not lose games that they finished the 1st half by winning.
In another attacking move by the Utah Utes team, the ball went through all the players and returned to Miller, Jake soon went to press on defense against him, Miller could not get rid of Jake and had to pass the ball to Doleac.
Doleac received the ball and managed to spin quickly even with N'Diaye defending against him, so Doleac managed to make the layup and 2 more points for the Utah Utes team and N'Diaye did not try the block to not make the foul which was the decision right in that move.
The players of the Utah Utes team were doing well in this game and were able to put a lot of pressure on the Tar Heels team that was in the attack, luckily Jake managed to get some steals and was getting in the way of the Utah Utes team's attack.
The Utah Utes team's defense began to defend more against Jake and sent two players to the three-point line to defend against him, so Jake and the Tar Heels team finally had more space to make plays within the three-point line.
In another move the Tar Heels team was attacking, Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Carter on the left before passing through the middle of the court, Carter advanced with the ball and passed the ball to Okulaja on the right before reaching the three-point line.
The Utah Utes team defense soon pressed against Okulaja who had to pass the ball to Jamison who was further behind, Jamison passed the ball to Jake who was further behind, the Utah Utes team defense came with two players to press against Jake.
At that point, Carter and Jamison had entered within the line of three points and Jake passed the ball to Carter ahead, Carter advanced with speed and managed to make the dunk to make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.
This encouraged, even more, the fans who were rooting for the Tar Heels team, the Utah Utes team coach knew that the Tar Heels team would do that, but he couldn't let Jake continue making so many three-point shots and just rely on luck.
The Tar Heels team can attack with more freedom and thus ended the 1st half by winning with a small advantage on the scoreboard, the Utah Utes team was also playing well and was slightly behind the Tar Heels team in that game.
In that 1st half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and had 23 points, 4 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals, even Jake was having a difficult time defending against the Utah Utes team and was only able to make 2 steals and catch some defensive rebounds.
"End of the 1st half of this exciting game, the Tar Heels team finishes the 1st half of the game by winning with a small advantage and achieved this with great difficulty and a strange attack strategy with Jake trying 6 shots from three points in the first 6 attacks of the team Tar Heels."
"It was the same thing that happened in some part of the last game and it helped to break the defense of the Utah Utes team that had to defend better against Jake who scored 15 points and that gave freedom to the other players on the Tar Heels team."
"The Utah Utes team also had an excellent 1st half defending very well and attacking very well too, if it weren't for Jake Smith they would certainly have won that 1st half with a good lead on the scoreboard."
"Michael Doleac is playing very well and scored several points even with Makhtar N'Diaye from the Tar Heels team defending against him, and other players from the Utah Utes team were also very good at the beginning of the game making several three-point shots and hitting not letting the Tar Heels team to get an even bigger advantage at the start of the game."
"Even though the Tar Heels team is the favorite to win this game because they have a small advantage, the Utah Utes team can win this game if they continue to play well."
The Utah Utes team continued to press in the attack in the 2nd half because they wanted to win that game and advance to the final of the NCAA tournament, but with Jake who forced the Utah Utes team's defense out of the three-point line to defend against him left the Utah Utes team's defense opened.
In another move Jake moved forward and passed to Jamison on the right before passing through the middle of the court, Jamison advanced with the ball and passed to Carter on the left before reaching the three-point line.
Carter tried to get rid of the opponent to advance, but the Utah Utes team's defense was very well within the three-point line, so Carter had to pass the ball to Jake again, Jake received the ball and this time only one player came to defend against he and the others stayed inside the area.
It seemed that at halftime the Utah Utes team coach asked the players to return to their normal defensive style, so Jake didn't hesitate and tried a shot from outside and hit to make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team.
In the next few minutes, Jake tried for three shots in a row from an outside shot and hit all three and scored 9 points, further increasing the Tar Heels team advantage on the scoreboard, so the Utah Utes players again tried to defend against Jake and the Tar team. Heels had room to attack within the three-point line again.
The Utah Utes team continued to attack well, but Jake, who spoke to coach Guthridge at half-time, started to defend better against Miller who could no longer play freely.
So the Utah Utes team had only Doleac to attack well, but it seemed that after making several difficult plays fighting against the defense of the Tar Heels team practically alone Doleac was getting tired.
Okulaja was also helping to defend against him which made the situation even more difficult for him, in another move he received the ball and N'Diaye soon arrived to defend against him, Doleac with difficulty managed to get rid of N'Diaye and Okulaja arrived to defend too.
So Doleac had to do a spin and when he thought about trying to layup Jake suddenly appeared and did the steal with speed, Doleac had not even realized that Jake was around and thus lost the attack to the Utah Utes team.
Jake advanced with the ball and waited for his teammates to go on the attack and passed the ball to Carter on the left, Carter advanced slowly and stopped at the three-point line and passed the ball to Okulaja further on the right.
The Utah Utes team defense soon pressed against Okulaja and he passed the ball further to Jamison, Jamison soon passed the ball to Jake in the middle and advanced into the three-point line, Jake received the ball and two players from the Utah Utes team approached him.
Jake received the ball and went further to the right and soon passed the ball to Carter who was free on the left outside the three-point line, no Utah Utes defense player followed Carter out of the three-point line and he received the ball alone and can make a shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team.
With Jake drawing more attention from the defense the other players on the Tar Heels team had more freedom to attack, Vince Carter was playing very well in that game and Jamison was also helping a lot in the attack.
Team Utah Utes still tried to win, but at the end of the game Team Tar Heels won again with 87 points against Team Utah Utes' 59 points, with Jake making more than 40 points and Coach Guthridge's strategy Team Tar Heels won this game more.
In this 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and made 20 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals, with this triple-double Jake helped the Tar Heels team to win the toughest game of the year and he was very important in the team's strategy for victory.
"And so this NCAA tournament game ends, in this exciting semifinal game in the final four, the Tar Heels team once again won the victory and thus increases the winning streak and is in the NCAA tournament final for the second year in a row."
"With an excellent performance by Jake Smith again in the attack and today is important to the Tar Heels team's strategy to break the Utah Utes team's strong defense, the Tar Heels team managed to win with a good advantage even though this was the most difficult game that they had in the season."
"The Utah Utes team played very well and the players performed well in that game, Michael Doleac and Andre Miller played an excellent game that helped to keep the Utah Utes team still with chances of victory."