Chapter 141: First game of the state tournament: part-3

Tony looked out to the court "Looks like Jason will be playing to start the second quarter. It's interesting to see that they are opting to rest their other wing players before their primary play maker."

Cameron answered "This could be a part of their strategy. They may have Jason play the start of the quarter to ensure that the momentum is in their favor before subbing him out."

Randel heard that and chuckled before shaking his head "Nah, the way I see it Jason gon play this whole quarter.

The score right now ain't actually a good measure of how good the team's are. Things are actually a whole lot tighta than how they look.

With Jason on the floor Jefferson is definitely the better team. But if you take him out then I don't know if they would be qualified to be playing on the same court as Hill Crest."

- - -

Out on the court Vince inbounded the ball to Jason as they would have the first possession of the second quarter.

Jason began to bring the ball up the court but before he could pass half court the opposing team's Point Guard began to guard him tightly.

Jason chuckled in his head 'You think you're on the same level as me? Maybe you can try again in a couple years.'

Jason jabbed his foot to the right before shifting directions to the left. The defender bit on the fake and was a step behind as he tried to recover.

He went into a full dash as he tried to catch up to Jason. Just as he was about to make contact Jason changed directions with a smooth behind the back dribble.

As Jason maneuvered his way around the defender he crossed half court and scanned the floor.

Without stopping he attacked the center as he drove to the paint. The opposing team's wing players were originally guarding DJ and Trell who were standing in the corner so they couldn't help on Jason.

As Jason drove toward the paint the opposing team's Center left Udonis behind as he moved up to contain Jason.

Jason saw this and gathered his dribbled as he got ready for the shot. After he jumped into the air Hill Crest's Center jumped with him in order to block the shot.

However instead of shooting the layup Jason wrapped around the defender as he dumped the ball off to Udonis who had cut toward the basket.

Udonis caught the pass and quickly put the ball up. After scoring the layup he walked over to Jason and high fived him "Sick pass man."

Now it was Hill Crest's turn at offense again. Their Point Guard was guarded by Jason tightly as soon as he crossed half court.

The Point Guard quickly passed the ball over to their Shooting Guard before moving to the left corner.

They continued to run their offense as Jason stood in the corner alongside their Point Guard. Jason kept his eyes on the court but he started talking.

"So is this your new game plan? Move to the corner and try to keep me out of the primary action?

You must be a real scrub if your coach only trusts you to be a walking mannequin haha." The Point Guard was clearly irritated but he kept his mouth shut.

Jason took a quick glance and saw the sour expression on his face. He smirked as he moved his focus back out to the court.

"Hey, so what were your tryouts like? Did the coach give you a jersey and ask you to stand still in the corner?

Or maybe you were the towel boy and they just asked you to hop in the game? If that's the case then I can't blame you for not doing anything."

The Point Guard finally cracked "Shut the fuck up!" Although he was loud because of the noise on the court as well as the noise from the audience only Jason was able to hear it.

Jason chuckled "Well look who finally decided to talk. For a second I thought you were mute. So what's it like going from towel boy to starter?"

As the play failed to develop into a good shot Hill Crest reset their offense as they brought the ball back out to the perimeter.

They called out for a play and the Point Guard that had been standing still in the corner moved out to the perimeter.

Jason followed him as he then went to set a screen for his Shooting Guard. Jason yelled out to DJ "Switch!"

After the screen Jason and DJ switched defensive assignments. The Shooting Guard tried to get open off of the screen but Jason was able to quickly close out on him.

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Seeing this the Shooting Guard tried to flip the screen and run Jason into it this time. As Jason hopped in front of the screen and was about to close in on the ball handler he felt himself getting shoved from behind.

Jason fell to the floor but luckily he was prepared for it as he landed safely. The referee blew his whistle and pointed to Hill Crest's Point Guard who had just set the screen.

"Illegal screen from number 3! Jefferson's ball." The Point Guard went up to the referee and started to complain.

Jason was laying on his back as he saw this. He began to smile as he then started to do huge over exaggerated claps in response.

Udonis and Vince walked up to Jason and helped to pull him to his feet. After he was standing he saw that the Point Guard was still complaining to the referee.

He turned to the crowd and put both of his hands up to his face in a crybaby gesture mocking the Point Guard.

Jason made sure that the referee couldn't see him as he did that. The Riverside fans in attendance began to cheer wildly after seeing him do that. While the fans of Tulare county began to boo.

The second quarter ended in a similar manner to the first. Jefferson was able to run their offense through Jason while locking down the opposing team on defense.

However as the quarter went on both their offense as well as their defense began to take a dip in quality as it took more attempts to score and they began to allow more baskets on the other side.

Hill Crest was able to make some progress toward shortening Jefferson's lead as the score at the end of the second quarter was now 42-30.

- - -

Back at the scorers table Tony was with Cameron and Randel. Tony looked to Cameron and Randel.

"That was another great quarter of basketball. I think my favorite play was the deep three that Jason made after breaking down his defender."

Cameron shook his head "That was a nice play but it was actually kind of ugly if you ask me." Tony looked at him questioningly "What do you mean by that Cameron?"

Cameron saw the camera focused on him and smiled as he turned to Randel "You want to answer that?"

Randel shrugged his shoulders "The shot itself was nice as hell. The double behind the back move to shake the defender was nice too.

But the play itself was ugly ugly. Jefferson had reset their offense about two times before they made that shot.

So that means that they needed three attempts to get that shot. And it wasn't even like the offense created that shot.

The lil dude had to go deep in his bag to get that shot off. If a offense is running well then you don't need a player to dance with the ball like that.

Off ball movement, passing, cuts, the offense should be creating open looks for the players. If a player has to forcefully create a shot like that then that's usually a bad sign.

Jefferson's offense is based around Jason ain't no question about that. But usually the can give him a bit of a break by running their offense through Udonis in the paint.

We saw this in the first quarter. But in the second quarter not only did Udonis have to step off the court to catch his breathe.

Even when he was in the game the quality of his play took a real hit. He was letting his defender push him outta position, makin sloppy passes, and not making the right reads.

But it ain't just him. Everyone on the team is looking drained. Even Jason lookin tired. He was missing some shots that he was nailin in the first.

He's prolly the player that needs to rest the most but this dude been playin the whole game so far.

The way I see it if Hill Crest can keep the quality of their play consistent then they gon run Jefferson outta the gym."

Cameron nodded his head in agreement "Basketball isn't just all about skill. Coaching and strategy can play a big part.

And if I was Hill Crest I would take advantage of the one big strength that they have against Jefferson. Numbers.

If Hill Crest can turn this game into a war of attrition then they might have a shot of causing a major upset."

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