Chapter 169: Game 3 of the state tournament: part-8

After taking a seat on the bench everyone crowded around Jason asking how he was. Jason just chuckled before raising up his hand for everyone to see.

"As you guys can see it wasn't anything too bad. It just got dislocated. I'll be able to play the rest of the game."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they heard Jason say that his injury was nothing serious.

But then when he mentioned that he would play the rest of the game everyone became embarrassed.

Jason noticed this and was confused. He took a look at the scoreboard and found out why. When Jason had left the game to get his finger treated there was only a minute left on the clock.

In that one minute of playing without Jason their six point lead had now dropped to just a two point lead. The score was 48 to 46.

Jason just looked at his teammates "It's okay guys. We can still win this. We just need to focus and lock em down in the third."

Udonis clapped his hands as he nodded his head "Jaya's right. We lost our focus during that last minute.

I get that some of us were distracted because we were worried about his hand. But now that he's back and ready to play that ain't a excuse no more.

I want to see some heart and some hustle in the next quarter. This is put up or shut up time. This entire year we been talkin bout how we some dogs and how we stick to the grind.

Well nows the time to put our money where our mouths is. We gotta show High Bridge what it means to play Riverside style basketball!"

Jason joined in as all of the guys began to yell and hype themselves up. Udonis patted Jason on the shoulder as he leaned in to whisper.

"I know that you really want to play and that you care a ton about this game. But if you feel like you need to sit or that you can't play just let me know.

Tonight's game ain't worth you risking damaging your hand. You gon have even bigger stages to play on in the future."

Jason was touched when he heard what Udonis had said. This was Udonis' last year at Jefferson. This was his last chance to make some noise at the middle school level.

And yet he told Jason that if he felt like it was too much for him then he should just sit out the game.

Jason looked Udonis straight in the eyes before confidently nodding his head "Trust me UD. If I feel like I need to I'll sit out.

But you know me. I won't ever give up early. My tank gotta be riding that E before I call it quits."

Udonis smiled as he patted him on the shoulder one last time as the clock buzzed indicating that it was time to start the third quarter.

Jefferson's lineup to start the third quarter was Jason at Point Guard, Nick at Shooting Guard, Matt at Small Forward, Trell at Power Forward, and Udonis at Center.

As for High Bridge they had their starters sitting out except for Rudy and their starting Center. Both of them were walking on to the court to start the third quarter.

This presented a whole new challenge to Jason as it meant that Rudy would be running the offense as the Point Guard while Nate would be defending Jason on defense.

The players got back on the floor as the third quarter would finally start. The referee handed the ball to Udonis who then inbounded it to Jason.

Jason caught the ball and began to dribble his way up the court. As he made his way up he tried to dribble with his left hand a few times to see how his finger would react.

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He could feel that his dribbling was stiffer with his left hand now that his fingers were taped together. But the worst part was the pain.

He had only dribbled twice but he had to switch back to using his right hand 'Damn. Uncle Jin wasn't joking. It hurts like a mother fucker. Guess I'll just have to rough it out.'

As soon as Jason crossed half court Nate began to pressure him with his tight defense. His hands were up and to the side as he gave Jason no space to operate.

Jason turned his body a bit and used it to protect the ball from Nate. He then called for an isolation play.

After seeing Jason call for an iso the rest of the guys cleared the floor as they all moved to the perimeter.

With the court cleared out Jason made his move. He faked a move to the right by moving his head and shoulders in that direction.

But Nate didn't bite on the move as he stayed in place and kept his hands up. Jason faked to the right again but this time he actually started driving in that direction a split second after the fake.

Nate was now a step behind Jason as he continued to drive down the court. Nate did his best to stay connected to Jason while keeping his hands up and ready to contest any shot.

Jason stopped and tried to get Nate with the head fake but instead of jumping Nate stayed on the floor but got even closer to Jason.

Jason dribbled hard to the left, did a hesitation move while the ball was still on its way up before continuing to explode in that direction.

Jason was happy to see that the hesitation move gave him some more space but the pain in his finger was killing him 'Damn! It fucking sucks to dribble with this hand.'

Nate had thought that Jason would change directions with a crossover after the hesitation so once again he had allowed some space to be created.

Afterwards, just as Nate had taken a step in the direction that Jason was actually driving he pounded the ball into the floor with a hard dribble before taking a step back.

Nate could see Jason gathering the ball and getting ready for the shot so he put all of his power into his legs in order to try and jump forward to contest the shot.

Unfortunately for him it was just a pump fake. Jason held the ball as he watched Nate jumping in his direction.

Jason waited until he was close before jumping into him. As Jason and Nate collided the referee blew his whistle.

Jason focused on the hoop as he was in the air and tried his best to adjust his shot. He had to release the ball a little higher than usual as he had to deal with the contact.

The ball flew through the air in a high arc as it approached the basket. The entire audience was silent as they watched the shot but after seeing it rattle in they all jumped to their feet and began cheering "JAYA! JAYA! JAYA! JAYA!"

Jason had stumbled after landing and ended up falling on his butt as he watched the ball fly through the air.

After he saw the ball go in he thumped his chest with his right hand as he shouted out "That's what I'm talking about! Can't no one guard me!"

Trell walked over and helped Jason to his feet as he pulled him off of the floor by his right hand.

Everyone gathered around as they all slapped Jason on the back and ruffled his hair. Jason looked up and shouted toward the sky "Let's gooo!"

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