Old Friends Going Head To Head
Old Friends Going Head To Head
Jason watched on as Devin calmly made his free-throw. As much as he wanted to investigate the system to find out the significance behind Platinum badges and why they hadn't appeared previously when he had used Heart's Eye, he had to save it for later. For now what he needed to focus on the most was the game and guarding Devin.
Jason received the inbound pass from Kyle and began making his way down the court. To no surprise he saw that the player taking up the role of his defender was Devin.
Approaching the top of the perimeter Jason used his body to shield the ball away from Devin as he sized him up. "Let's see what you got Mr. Hollywood. Lettin ya know right now, I ain't as easy as the other dudes on my squad."
"Guess we'll have to see." As he finished speaking Jason began to call out for a play. Vince left his spot from the left side high post to set a pin down screen for Kyle who had been down in the low post on the same side.
Kyle ran towards Vince's screen as he attempted to curl in towards the rim. Seeing this, Dominion's players decided to switch defensive assignments on the play.
Vince's defender stuck with Kyle as he cut to the basket. As this was happening Vince popped out to the corner for the three. But Kyle's defender did a good job of hustling and running out to the three point line to cover him.
Seeing that the play hadn't produced an open shot Jason decided to take matters into his own hands as he began to rhythmically dribble right to left before accelerating to a drive towards the right with a hard dribble crossing the ball from his left to his right.
With the previous play having taken place in the left side of the court for the most part, the right half was relatively open as Nick and DJ were out on the perimeter spacing out the floor.
Devin picked his feet up in an attempt to slide and follow Jason. But just as he had planted his feet Jason had already changed course with a behind the back dribble.
Just as Jason had managed to create a few steps of separation Devin with his explosive speed managed to catch back up.
But before he could make any contact with him, Jason performed a spin move with the ball in his left hand as he spun to his right, rotating around Devin.
And with a quick dribble to his right, Jason performed a step back before getting into his shooting motion. Without even taking another step Devin simply turned his body and leapt toward Jason with all his might in an attempt to contest the shot as best he could.
His bod traveled through the air as he stretched his hand out. To his dismay Jason stopped mid motion with the ball in front of his chest as he continued to soar passed him.
With his defender now flying passed him Jason went back into his shooting motion. The ball hitting nothing but net as Jefferson was now down by just one point to Dominion Middle School.
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The game progressed in a tight neck and neck manner as both teams fought hard to take control but neither could manage to maintain it for too long.
Dominion Middle School relied on Devin's lethal scoring ability to both score and create scoring opportunity for others.
At the start of the second quarter Jefferson followed a similar strategy as they relied heavily on Jason to forcefully score whenever their plays failed to create open opportunities for their other players.
For much of the second quarter it consisted of Devin and Jason going tit for tat as they exchanged buckets. Back and forth they took turns scoring the ball as their teammates focused hard on guarding their respective defensive assignments. Unwilling to be the weak point to be utilized by their opponent.
Jason and Devin's fierce exchange continued for almost the entirety of the quarter. Their fierce exchange seemingly having no end as both teams played with the intent of focusing on their two star players.
With only a few minute left before the end of the first half Dominion's Coach Wikemen called for a timeout. He swapped out Devin for GT and the rest of his reserves for his starters.
Jason had no choice but to take to the court once again as he was his team's best offensive player as well as their best defender. Their line-up consisted of Vince at Center, Dlo at Power Forward, Jason at Small Forward, Matt at Shooting Guard, and Alex at Point Guard.
With the amount of effort Jason had to put in to not only guarding back to back high caliber offensive weapons like GT and Devin but also manning his team's offense, Jason was expending huge amounts of stamina.
Eventually the toll of being in charge of so much began to show. Jason's performance on both ends of the floor began to dip slightly. And even though it was just a slight dip, the delicate equilibrium that was being maintained finally broke.
Gradually Dominion began to gain momentum. And after the first few minutes of the third quarter Jefferson found themselves in the hole. They were down 36 to 40.
Jason called for a timeout with six minutes still left in the quarter. He grabbed a sports bottle and plopped himself down on to the bench before chugging his drink down.
"Alright Alex, hate to say it but Ima need you to give me a hand. I'll keep on guarding Dev, but their starting Point Guard is all yours." He looked at Alex straight in the eyes "We gotta make sure we lock em down alright? We can't win if we don't" Alex nodded his head and Jason dapped him up with a smile in response.
On the other side of the floor Coach Wikemen had a bright smile on his face as he greeted his players with a slow round of clapping "Good job boys. Keep the pressure up. We're wearing Jason down. He's going to break down soon.
You can already see it starting. We just have to be ready to fully take advantage of the opportunity when it happens. Devin, GT keep up the good work. I want you guys to keep going hard okay?
I know you're both tired. Doing so much on offense is never easy. Especially for you Devin because you're putting in the work on defense too guarding Jason.
But don't worry. That kid has to be doing way worse. At least you guys get to take a break. But him? He has to work his butt off guarding you guys one after the other and he has to be in charge of the offense. It's only a matter of time alright?"
Coach Wikemen was fully confident in his team winning tonight. His game plan to exhaust Jason was already beginning to show results. In all of the games that Jefferson had played in the National tournament they had never trailed behind the opposing team.
Jefferson was known for their elite and demoralizing defense that lead to feeding their high pace offense in transition. When it came to half-court offense they heavily depended on Jason and his shot creation.
They had already managed to do what so many other programs had failed to do in the tournament in slowing down the tempo and forcing Jefferson to play a slower brand of basketball.
Coach Wikemen continued to encourage his players during the length of the break. As the buzzer sounded out signaling the resumption of the game he had a satisfied look on his face as he watched his players make their way back to the court.
'You've got a ton of talent, I gotta admit. But you and your team are outclassed in every other way Jason. You might have some better luck next year if you join a more elite program at the high school level. But this year is ours for the taking.'
Coach Wikemen was confident in the game plan that he had developed after pouring hours in to watching film after film on Jefferson. Not to mention that even if they were somehow able to find a way to start coming back, he still had some more layers to his plan that he could add.
As Jason made his way back to the court his eyes were burning with an intense light. His team might have been down at the moment but there wasn't a hint of doubt visible within him.
'We're not done yet. I'll make sure of that. No way I can let a little bit of fatigue keep me from getting it done. Not after I finally got a second chance.'