novelThe Tournament in Europe 4
| ← Ch.115 | Ch.117 → |
So Jake can hit the finalists of the tournaments with the ages of 15 and 16, in games with the elders all were very disputed and had many good players so Jake cannot guess, but he can learn a lot by watching these four days of games.
Before he did not care much about watching the games with youngsters of those ages because he was in a very distant reality for him, but now that Jake was in high school these people were possible opponents for him one day.
In the case of Spain, he would only play against them if he could be a professional, but he thought of youngsters in general as opponents, with the system to help he could not give the excuse that he was too young to dispute with these players.
After seeing the final days of the qualifiers the finals would be the next day and he could no longer just watch because he also had to play, Jake heard that there would also be a television channel covering the games of the finals and several local newspapers as well.
So it would be a good advertisement for the companies of Tiffany and Clara when he won, Clara said he could not be in time to follow Jake's game in the final because he had to solve some things even before opening his stores in Spain.
Jake understood this very well, the business never has certain forecast to finish, thus it could not even be called of unforeseen and yes it was a common thing, the important thing was to have no error after the stores were opened.
Jake was already happy that he would have his mother with him on the final day, back at the hotel he was remembering the first Dunk he made in the game against Miguel, Jake had seen that his layups were already reaching the table normally, so he thought that if he took more momentum and used his superior physical statistics he could get a Dunk.
And it turned out well, even though the rank of that ability was too low for him to try hard on the games after he grew up a bit and trained more skill would be another resource for him in the games.
But if he was unmarked and running to make the points as it has happened several times he could try the Dunk, after all besides being suitable for him to do this was a big boost to team morale in the game.
The other day Jake woke up early again, after all, today would be the day of the final, Eva looked affectionately at her son who was all excited, she thought that only when it came to basketball Jake seemed to be really a child.
"Do you think you can win today, my son?"
"I'm sure, I have more confidence when I can play alone, after all, it only depends on my result to win, but even so my opponent seems to be very strong, I have to play more seriously today."
Eva knew that even though Jake was struggling on the first day of the tournament he had not done his best, in fact not even she knows what would be the best of her son, after all in the final of the national championship of the Middle School both she and all that were in the crowd thought Jake's team would lose, but Jake managed to get the win in the end.
Of course, the biggest reason for this is that Eva does not get too much basketball, Jake really overcame his limits in that national championship final game, but he was only 13 at the time now more than 1 years later with Jake growing up and training every day was normal that he improved a lot.
After they went to the tournament site where all the finals of all ages would be held, Jake waited close to his mother as he listened to the people's conversations in the stands, most people came here to see the games of the elders.
Soon the first game of the day that would be the final for the age of 13, Jake saw the player he knew would be the winner since the semifinal and paid attention, most of the fans had not come that day so they hoped for a good game.
But as Jake hoped after a few minutes the first final ended up being 10 to 4 for the player Jake expected to win, it was a one-sided game, of course since they were all good players it was difficult for someone to win by 10 to 0, so the 4 points were just the basics.
Then it was Jake's game, his opponent was Raul and he seemed confident in the win, of course, the people in the crowd who watched Jake's game expected him to win if he played the same way as in the semifinal, but it was normal for Raul to be confident, usually in a game with two players of similar skill the highest would win.
But that was true only when they had similar abilities, Jake received the first possession of the ball and smiled, Raul was a better defender than Miguel, but only when they arrived near the basket.
Jake just advanced calmly and Raul took a step back to keep the distance, so Jake made a step back and made the shot out, so he made the first two points of the final, the fans liked to see a shot from outside and applauded.
Raul did not expect Jake to take a shot from outside and it made him more upset, but soon recovered his calm and defended Jake more closely.
Jake who waited for this made a fake and Raul fell on the feint, so Jake just ran to the other side and did not give chances for Raul to recover and did the layup to score another 1 point.
Jake liked to use his speed more when he played more seriously because he knew there was no one in High School who was faster than him, it was a safe play.
So Raul had to go a little further away as he watched for a possible shot from outside Jake, this was the suffering of all who defended against Jake, could not know what he would do next.
Jake made some more feints, but Raul did not fall and so Jake pretended to do another feint and really accelerated, Raul was able to follow this time so Jake made a crossover and then a bait behind his back and Raul who fumbled in these fast movements ended up on the ground and so Jake ran free and made a dunk to score another 1 point.
The crowd began to cheer and cheer more lively with the beautiful plays of the final, Raul stood up from the embarrassing ground and went to defend a little distracted Jake realized this and made a feint and then a step back to make a shot out and get 2 more points.
So Jake was more excited winning by 6 to 0 and Raul wanted only power for Jake once and score 1 point not to lose very ugly, but Jake decided to take this game seriously and did not want to give any chance to the opponent.
Jake made another feint and a cut dribble and ran to do the layup plus 1 point, Raul was helpless in defending against Jake the worst was that when Jake could get through it with his speed could not react, if it was not an official tournament he would even complain that Jake should be older than 14 years.
The crowd only wanted to see a beautiful spectacle and did not care about Raul and twisted louder, Eva was also happy with her son winning and cheering together.
So Raul gave space to Jake to make the shot from outside, so if Jake erred he would have a chance to make at least 1 point, Jake took the chance and fired a shot from outside to make 2 more points.
After Jake got the ball again, now it was the last ball of the game if Jake made that point the game would end, Raul had also given up, but it had to look like he would still fight to the end.
Seeing that Raul seemed inattentive Jake saw the opportunity to use the dribble he created, so Jake hit the ball on the ground and moves quickly, Raul who was watching Jake realized that the ball had disappeared from Jake's hands and thought that he had made a mistake and turned to look for the ball.
Jake did not think Raul would deviate from his vision when he did the dribble and just passed Raul when Raul heard the sound of the ball on the court he saw that Jake still had the ball in his mother and running to make the Dunk and the point of victory.
Raul did not understand what happened and the fans just thought that Raul gave up the game because everyone could see the ball in Jake's hands all the time, Jake did not know if his dribble was a success or not because he did not expect Raul to do it.
But he was happy to win the tournament, Jake only received a small trophy and a medal with no cash prize and no interviews as it was in New York, yet he was happy.
Jake got one of the awards photos and the others would be put in the paper, so Jake went to the bleachers and gave his mother a hug to celebrate.
Eva was already used to seeing Jake win, but she would always be happy about it, especially when she heard people in the audience cheer for her son.
After Jake celebrated time with his mother he turned to watch the next games, after all, it was a rare chance to learn something by watching these games, soon the final 15 years would begin.
Jake had been wondering who would go to the final, but could not guess who would win that game between the two.
| ← Ch. 115 | Ch. 117 → |