Chapter 420 1998 NCAA Tournament 2
Coach Guthridge praised the Tar Heels team players at halftime and asked them to continue attacking and defending so he also asked the Tar Heels team players to try not to make too many fouls while defending against Johnson of the Charlotte 49ers team.
Jake was also praised for controlling the Tar Heels team’s attack well, Jake, Williams, and Carter attacked well on the three-point line and Jamison, Okulaja and even Carter did not have the opportunity to attack that much within the three-point line.
So in the 2nd half, Jake planned to attack more with moves within the three-point line and only sometimes try a few three-point shots and also count on Williams for that, so the Charlotte 49ers team’s defense would be confused by that.
Jake also complained to his teammates who did not defend well against Diego Guevara when he entered the game, in the 2nd half the players in the defense had to defend better against him.
Everyone wanted to win and Jake knew how the Charlotte 49ers team could be a dangerous opponent in this game, they had to win and not get too tired to continue well in the NCAA tournament, so overtime would be terrible for the Tar Heels team in that game.
The 2nd half started with both teams pushing forward, the Charlotte 49ers team had a harder time attacking and had to rely on Johnson or another player who could get rid of the Tar Heels defense.
In another play, the Charlotte 49ers team was attacking and the ball was passed to Johnson again, he tried to make the play and failed to hit and Jamison got the rebound, he passed the ball to Jake who advanced for the attack with speed.
After passing through the middle of the court Jake passed the ball to Williams from the left, Williams advanced with the ball and after the three-point line he passed the ball to Okulaja later on, Okulaja had played well in the last games and so the defense Charlotte 49ers team soon pressed against him.
So Okulaja had to pass to Carter who was further back on the left, Carter received the ball and soon passed to Jake further back, the Charlotte 49ers team’s defense soon prepared to defend against Jake, Carter, and Williams who were outside the line of three points.
But Jake did not attempt the shot and passed the ball to Jamison on the left in a long pass, Jamison received the ball and soon got rid of the player who was on defense to make a dunk and 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.
Just as Jake expected the defense of the Charlotte 49ers team, he didn’t expect a move like that, so Jamison managed to make the dunk easier, so the Tar Heels team managed to increase the lead a little.
In another move, the Charlotte 49ers team was attacking and Colson and Guevara were playing, the Charlotte 49ers team seemed to have realized that Guevara was playing well and besides Jake, the other players on the Tar Heels team did not defend well.
So Jake was more focused on defense, Colson received the ball and Jake was not close to him to prepare to react, but Colson did not attempt the shot because Jake had already managed to make 4 blocks on him in that game.
So Colson passed to Guevara who was free on the left after passing behind the defense of the Tar Heels team, so Guevara did not hesitate and tried the shot from the outside, Jake was attentive and reacted quickly and even managed to jump and block.
Guevara did not expect this because Jake was away from him and defending against Colson, but now the two have become more cautious against Jake to try the three-point shot in that game again.
The game continued and the Charlotte 49ers team was on the attack again, this time Colson and Guevara were wide apart and Jake was defending against Guevara so Colson tried the shot and missed.
Johnson still managed to catch the rebound, but before he tried to layup Jake did the steal and advanced to the attack at speed, Jake always fought for the rebound and when he saw that Johnson won the rebound against Jamison he took the opportunity to make the steal.
Jake moved forward using all his speed for the attack, Colson and Guevara were still further behind and managed to react and returned to defend, but Jake was clearly faster than them and Guevara tried to hinder Jake before.
Jake made a feint and then a very fast crossover and Guevara ended up falling to the ground trying to react to Jake’s speed, so Jake continued to advance with speed and Colson who was within the three-point line of defense tried to defend too.
So Jake who was away from the painted area decided to make the special move that was created by him, Jake made the Ghost move that made the ball disappear in front of the opponent and Colson was unable to see the ball for a moment.
So Jake passed easily and then did the dunk to make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team, this Ghost move was the movement that Jake had created and was really very useful and easy to do, but it could be done only when he was in 1 on 1.
That’s because the other players and the crowd could clearly see what Jake was doing with the ball, only the opposing player who was in front of him didn’t see the ball for a moment and couldn’t defend unless he made a foul on Jake.
So when Jake made this move, the crowd and commentators did not celebrate the dribble and just thought it was strange that Jake could easily pass the opponent.
That would only change once the opponent who received the dribble told the media that Jake had made a dribble that he was unable to see the ball, but no opponent would want to praise the player who tricked him.
The game continued with the Tar Heels team maintaining the advantage even with the Charlotte 49ers team playing well, so the Tar Heels team managed to win the game by making 94 points against 70 points of the opponent.
In this 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and made 17 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 5 steals, and 3 blocks, with this triple-double, Jake helped the Tar Heels team to achieve another victory and without the players if they got so tired.
"And so the game ends with another victory for the Tar Heels team that advances to the next game in the NCAA tournament, a game in which the players of the Tar Heels team played very well and even though the Charlotte 49ers team was well off the team Tar Heels still won with a good advantage."
"Jake led the Tar Heels team in that victory by making another triple-double, with Jake organizing the attacks and defending the Tar Heels team well and managed to win without the players getting so tired."
"Jamison, Carter, Williams, and Okulaja also played well in this game and all of this helped the Tar Heels team to secure the victory and match the record of 60 games without losing that they want to break this season."
"That’s right, the Tar Heels team drew with the San Francisco team with a record of 60 games without losing, so in the next game, the Tar Heels team may have managed to complete one of the team’s goals for the season and gain more confidence to win the NCAA tournament for the second season in a row."
"I am confident that the Tar Heels team will manage to win the next game, with a team with excellent players like Jake Smith, Vince Carter, and Antawn Jamison I think it is difficult that they will lose the next game."
After this victory, the players of the Tar Heels team celebrated this important victory a lot in this difficult game and went back to the university before the next game, the players were not so tired and the next game would be only after 5 days.
So the coach Guthridge decided to let the players rest for 2 more days and train only for 2 days before the game after all the players were playing well and the biggest concern of the coach Guthridge was that the players would get tired before the next games.
With so many days before the next game Jake told Yuen Woo-ping that they could train in the next few days, after all, they would soon have to go to Australia to join the film crew and Jake had to have learned everything by then.
Jake had to stop running training because he had the responsibilities to the basketball team and the movie he was going to participate in soon, and also because Jake knew that even without training he would not lose his fitness and time did it in marathons.
What made Jake very happy was that Zack continued with the training every day even without Jake to keep him company, Jake had arranged with Zack and intended to fulfill that he would run the Chicago marathon or one that was before her.
In this marathon, Zack would try to run the entire marathon with time below 3 hours, which was a challenge for amateur athletes, after running below 3 hours an athlete could be considered an elite athlete with chances of winning a marathon.
To achieve this with the help of Coach Davis he continued to try Jake’s suicidal training, now Zack ran 20 km every day and once a week he ran 30 km, after almost two years of training every day and going to the gym Zack was able to do that.
Once every two months Zack also ran a complete marathon as training, he already knew he was able to do that so it was great training for Zack to gain confidence.
This could be called suicide training because running so much if Zack continued for many years he could have several problems in his knees and also in his hip bones, so Jake would ask Zack to change training after running this marathon that year.
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