Chapter 64 The Expected Sadness (1/2)
The excitement of Jake's team for reaching their first state championship died a little when they knew who their first opponent was, they were the team that had come to last year's Eagles' semifinals.
Of all in the team only coach Roy was in a good mood after all his mission was only to play this game and the result did not matter particularly, in addition, he knew that the level of the Eagles was much higher than the Lions that Jake ever had made every effort to win.
So if their team had one more player of Jake's level they could have a small chance of winning, but should not ask the impossible, they even heard that the other team would send the reserve team to face Jake's team minus two players which were the PF that would mark Jake and the PG that would be marked by Jake.
So they could guarantee that Jake would not dominate the game and also that his attack would work easily, who were these two was PG Jack and PF Carter.
So the game started and the Eagles were on the attack, Jack was advancing with the ball while Jake marked it, in the national it was difficult a team to be taken by surprise, everyone already had much information of its rivals.
So despite thinking to be better Jack did not dare to underestimate Jake, and so protected the ball well and looked for teammates to give the pass, despite thinking they did not Jack tried to dribble Jake.
Soon he passed the ball to his SG that despite being a reserve still played better than Lucas, he made a feint and soon made room for a 2-point shot.
It was known to everyone that Lucas and Aiden were the weak points in defense of Jake's team, now Luke was only lower in attack but was good at defense.
So the Eagles' offensive was totally focused on Lucas, Aiden, and Luke, who despite not being weak had as opponent Carter who was a starter of the other team, they did not need to risk attacking over Jake and Owen who were the best defenders.
In the attack as in the last games, only Jake could do something, and above him was Carter and not Jack, so he had a marker that was taller and had talent and defense experience.
But Jake still made the first two points.
And the game continued like this, with the defensive pressure all over him, Jake could not hit all the attacks and so his team was behind in points at the end of the first period.
Jake was angry marking was too strong and he had to use all his skill in time to take a shot not to suffer one block, and sometimes he lost accuracy and wandered, so he ended up losing major attacks.
What he did not know was the team that was most impressed, especially Carter who was scoring him, Carter was the best player in defense of the Eagles team and so he was always assigned to score the strongest opponent, but taking the champion team , there was rarely a player who could score as many points over his mark.
In fact, Carter was the best defender of this national championship, and yet he only got Jake to miss two attacks.
In the second period it remained the same, but this time Jake missed only one attack and his team was 6 points behind, so despite knowing it was a trap, Jake had to try the 3-point shots to reverse the score.
In the third period, Jake lost more attacks more compensated making all of 3 points, and managed to decrease the advantage to 4 points.
And in the last period, Jake had eaten his stamina bar and was full of energy so he can complete more attacks, at the end of the game the opponent put the starting SG that also hit some 3-point shots and was tight but Jake's team was eliminated in the first phase.
Everyone was a little sad but they were expecting it so they quickly overcame, only Jake was more shaken, it was his first loss after returning, and Coach Roy only knew he wanted to be a national champion.
But as he had said at the beginning the team was not enough, so coach Roy was sad for him, few of the fans of the team came to see this game, nor the reports Eric came, because even Jake was not optimistic before, even later who discovered that they would face one of the favorites.