Chapter 369 Business and Basketball 3
The game started with both teams being cautious, team Tar Heels had the first attack, but Jake didn't want to hurry and so end up losing the initiative of the game, he could soon feel the strong defense of team Tar Heels and his teammates having difficulty.
Jake knew he had to make more individual moves to break through the opposing defense to make it easier for the Tar Heels team to win, but even if Jake was talented and had a good hit rate of three, he couldn't just do the points whenever he wanted.
Jake had the ability to find space to get the three-point shot, but against such a great defense as the Princeton Tigers team, if he tried many individual moves he would just miss and waste the attacks.
Jake knew he could count on Williams and Carter in this game and that Jamison would not be playing well, but even Jamison not playing well in this game still attracted a lot of attention from the opposing defense.
After holding the ball Jake threw Carter from the left, Carter failed to pass by the opposing defender and passed it to Jamison, just as Jake thought as soon as Jamison received the ball the defense of the Princeton Tigers team focused on him.
Jamison had no choice and passed the ball to Jake further back, Jake quickly passed to Williams who was free to the right and tried the mid-range shot to make the first 2 points for the Tar Heels team.
The Tar Heels players knew this was going to be an important and difficult match and so they were also putting pressure on the defense, for the defense Jake was also counting on Jamison that even though he was not well in attack he was still doing well in rebounds.
The game remained difficult and well played with Jake even finding it difficult to make the plays and try the three-point shots and even the layup moves, yet the Tar Heels team was still superior and managed to finish the first quarter by winning with an advantage in the scoreboard.
Jake played for 20 minutes and made 13 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals, Jake year managed to make many points and assists in that first quarter, but in defense, he managed to play much better than in other games.
While not having a chance to make any block without risking fouls, Jake still managed to excel more in defense than in many games, so the Tar Heels team got a good lead that was important in a game like this.
"What a great defensive game we are following today, the Princeton Tigers team that has a great team and plays very well defensively is bringing a difficulty to the great attack of team Tar Heels."
"The players of the Tar Heels team are also doing a great defensive game and in this game, we saw the least points Jake and Jamison stand out in the team defense."
"That's right, I think in a game like this one of two great teams that come from a season without losing a game, opening to attack is not the best option, so both teams are more focused on defense."
"Also, if both teams tried to play offensively it is almost certain that the team of Tar Heels that has the best offensive players of the season will have a big advantage."
In the second quarter of the game, the Princeton Tigers team kept betting on the defense that as commentators said seemed the only way to tackle this strong offensive team that is the Tar Heels team.
In this second quarter Princeton Tigers couldn't keep up the pressure on defense all the time and that gave Jake more freedom to make the moves, Jake and Tar Heels continued to press on defense and so the lead kept increasing.
So the game ended with the Tar Heels team winning 61 points against 37 Princeton Tigers, in that second quarter Jake played for 20 minutes and made 11 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals.
"And so the game ended with the victory of team Tar Heels with a good lead on the scoreboard, but the game was not so easy to explain this big lead on the scoreboard, both teams had a very disputed first quarter and with both teams putting a lot of pressure on the defense."
"In the second quarter Princeton Tigers couldn't keep up the pressure on defense for the entire game and so gave Tar Heels space to attack and with Jake and Williams playing very well we had that difference in the score."
"Jake also had a good defensive game getting 10 rebounds and Jamison also though he couldn't make many points as he usually did well in defense and managed 8 rebounds and 3 blocks in that game."
"So the Tar Heels team now has a 10-win streak this season and the Princeton Tigers team lost the first game, let's see how far the Tar Heels team goes this season without losing any games."
The Tar Heels team was very happy with this victory and the fans also realized how good the opponent was and the game was more difficult, Jamison could not score many points in this game and be excited to do even better in the next game.
After three days the Tar Heels team went to another game of the season, the game was against the Hampton Pirates team again playing at home at the Dean Smith Center, after a difficult game with a satisfactory win the crowd was excited and the players were excited about this game.
Jamison who had not scored many points in the last game was also excited to make a great game that day, Jake trained a lot with him and Jamison said several times that he wanted more assists from Jake for this game.
Despite seeing that Jamison was taking advantage of his friendship to ask for more assists, Jake knew that Jamison would be fine for this game and would pass the ball over to Jamison who always played well helping at least in the defensive and offensive part with rebounds as in last game.
After a few hours, both teams were ready for the start of the game, the Hampton Pirates team that was the opponent of this game would not have a good season for what Jake remembered and came from an even worse last season.
Thus the Tar Heels team had the advantage since before the match began, early in the game the Tar Heels team attacked with great will and Jake wanted to try a good advantage in the first minutes pressing the opponent taking advantage that the Tar Heels had the advantage be playing at home.
As he had promised in the early minutes Jake passed the ball to Jamison whenever he had the opportunity, even though the Hampton Pirates defense tried to defend against Jamison, he was fine in this game and hit most of the plays that received Jake's assists.
When Jake saw that the Hampton Pirates defense began to pay more attention to Jamison than to other players Jake began to pass the ball more to Carter and Williams and even to Okulaja.
Jake also attacked whenever he saw the opportunities and made a few moves if three points, so the hard-pressed Hampton Pirates team could not defend with quality to keep the game up.
In the first quarter, the team Tar Heels got a good lead and Jamison was more relaxed after scoring more than 10 points in the first quarter, Jake played for 20 minutes and scored 16 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, and 5 steals.
With such a strong first quarter of the Tar Heels team that ended with a good lead on the scoreboard, the Hampton Pirates team had no choice but to attack further in the second quarter to try to win the game.
Team Tar Heels was playing at home and the players were rested and would have another match in just 4 days, so the players of Team Tar Heels continued with a fast pace of play and continued to attack while still being strong in defense.
Jamison still wanted to score more points and kept asking Jake for more assists which left other players with less defense pressing them, so the Tar Heels team kept attacking and further increasing the lead.
Jake also took the opportunity to score more points and so after the middle of the second quarter the Hampton Pirates team's desire to win was gone and they returned to try not to lose too many points.
So the game ended with the Tar Heels team winning with a big lead on the scoreboard making 109 points against 53 points of the Hampton Pirates team, it was another game with the Tar Heels team doing more than double the opponent's points which showed the strength of this team.
In this second quarter, Jake played for 20 minutes and scored 18 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 7 steals, plus a triple-double for him in a good game where the Hampton Pirates defense was weaker than the last game and with Jamison wanting to attack led the Tar Heels team to a good win.
The next game would be the first against a team from the same Tar Heels conference and would be the last game before a week-long break for Christmas, after that game Jake would go home again for Christmas with his mother and then If he returned to university, he would have no rest until February.
So also in this game players would be rested after 4 days and could play with everything because then they would have a week of rest, and it was good for the Tar Heels team to win this game and increase the winning streak to 12 games and not lose before Christmas.
With that in mind, the players didn't relax and decided to train even harder this week before the next game, they would have to keep winning so to show that Coach Guthridge was doing a good job and also because they wanted to win again the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament.