Chapter 322 1997 NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament 10 (1/2)
”Soon we will see another exciting game this season, the Tar Heels team playing against the Arizona Wildcats team in an NCAA Final Four game.”
”The Tar Heels team has been having a great season with just two losses and Jake playing very well and being a revelation like we haven't seen in college basketball for a long time.”
”Arizona Wildcats has been having a very good season as well, but they haven't won as much as Tar Heels, however, one of Tar Heels's only two defeats this season was in the first game of that season for Arizona Wildcats.”
”Will Team Tar Heels' third defeat this season be another for Team Arizona Wildcats? Or will team Tar Heels advance to the final and get a rematch against team Arizona Wildcats?”
”We'll see all this in the game that will start next.”
Soon the game began and the Tar Heels team started to take the lead, Jamison and Carter were fine and Jake was also, in the first 5 minutes the Arizona Wildcats team scored just 2 points and the Tar Heels team had 21 points.
It was the same as Jake remembered in his past life, it was as if the Arizona Wildcats team had not really entered the game in those first 5 minutes, but the Tar Heels team missed more and then lost control of the game by what Jake remembered in your past life.
However in this game, Jake knew well how to use these minutes to open a great advantage, now he would have to be careful to maintain and increase that advantage that would be enough to win the game.
In one move Jake received the ball after Zwikker got a rebound, Jake advanced calmly with the ball, the Arizona Wildcats coach had asked for a time after Tar Heels had 19 points lead in 5 minutes.
So Jake wanted to save more time for the Arizona Wildcats players to start getting anxious after going through the middle of the court. Jake passed the ball to Carter.
Carter was excited about this early start and had already scored 6 points, Carter advanced to pass the ball to Okulaja on the right, Okulaja advanced and held the ball a little before moving to Zwikker, Zwikker felt the pressure from Arizona Wildcats defender and passed it back to Jake.
Jake made a feint and took Bibby out of play and made a pass for Jamison that crossed the defense, Jamison received the ball with freedom and advanced to layup and get 2 more points for the team Tar Heels.
In another play shortly thereafter, the Arizona Wildcats team worked the play well and the ball went through several players until it reached Simon, Simon attempted a three-point shot and Carter lost time and could not defend.
So Simon scored his first three points in the game and was happy, but he did not know that his points alerted all players of Team Tar Heels and Coach Smith of the warning that Jake had made.
Another similar move came soon after and this time Carter was more attentive and managed to hinder the attempt to shoot from outside of Simon and Jake caught the rebound calmly, Jake advanced with the ball calmly and can already perceive the players of the team Arizona Wildcats beginning to get agitated.
After passing through the middle of the court Jake passed the ball to Jamison, Jamison, who was also playing well having scored 6 points early in the game, advanced with ease, after advancing further he passed the ball to Okulaja on the right.
Okulaja tried the trick and when he failed to hold the ball and passed back to Jake, Jake made a crossover and tricked Bibby who was in defense, but instead of stepping forward Jake stepped back and tried an outside shot to make three more points for the Tar Heels team.
After a few more minutes the game was halfway through the first half and was much quieter, but the Tar Heels team led by 24 points and the Arizona Wildcats team became increasingly agitated by this difference.
The game was similar to what Jake remembered in his past life, but the Tar Heels team gave a lot of space after the first 5 minutes and so after the 10 minutes the Arizona Wildcats were just 2 points behind on the scoreboard.
”A very good start for the Tar Heels team, the game started at a very fast pace and after 5 minutes we saw the Tar Heels team with a 19 points lead, then unexpectedly Jake slowed down and the Tar team Heels started to enjoy almost all the time of possession.”
”This seems to have worked very well because with that the Tar Heels team did not make many mistakes and the advantage only increased now after we got in the middle of the first half.”