Switching things up
Switching things up
Seeing as how Dominion didn't seem to want to pressure him early on he used as much time as he could to catch his breath. His eyes scanned the court for a brief moment.
'Alright, looks like everyone is in position.' Kyle was posted up on the low block of the right side of the court with Nick taking the high post on the same side.
On the left side of the court Matt was out on the wing while Dlo was midway between the low post and high post.
After making his way to the right wing Jason signaled for the start of the play 'I had been hoping to save this for later on in the tournament but it looks like I'll need to pull out all the stops considering the team I'm going up against.'
Jason threw a bullet pass to Matt before running toward him. It looked like they were about to go for a handoff screen as Matt got into position at the top of the perimeter.
But instead of receiving the pass from Matt and flaring out to the perimeter, Jason ran past Matt before cutting towards the paint.
Sprinting full speed Jason made his way to set a screen for Dlo who responded by sprinting in the direction of the screen.
Dlo's defender ran into Jason and was surprised by how solid of a screen he had set. "Switch!" He yelled out to his teammate.
He wasn't as good of a perimeter defender as his team's reserve Small Forward but he felt confident enough to at least provide some resistance until help could arrive.
The most important part was to not give Jason even a moment of being open without a defender to bother him as he was known to be able to score at all three levels. He was expecting Jason to make his way to the corner so he got ready to chase him out to the three point line.
But the play wasn't finished yet. After the screen, as Dlo was running out to the wing Jason was cutting baseline.
While this was happening Kyle had set a screen for Nick who also began to cut baseline, coming from the opposite direction as Jason.
As Jason and Nick were close to meeting underneath the basket Jason got in to position to screen for Nick.
The defenders from Dominion were stalled for a moment by the screen. One of them yelled out once again to switch but the delay was enough to give Nick a few steps of space as he ran out to the corner.
And once again after setting the screen for Nick Jason began running out. Kyle had repositioned himself to set a screen for Jason so that he could flare out to the wing.
The defenders opted to focus on Jason as they chased after him. He ran full speed out to the wing, defenders right in tow.
But in all of the chaos Matt found an opportunity to pass the ball overhead to Kyle who now had smaller defender on him, as the defender that had chased after Dlo saw the pass developing and had ran over as help coverage.
Reaching out with his long arms Kyle managed to catch the ball close by the basket in the restricted zone.
Taking a hop to gather and load up, Kyle bent his knees before rising up. Jumping with all his might.
The defender was in front of him with his arms raised up in an attempt to contest the shot. But with how high Kyle was able to jump there just wasn't much that he could do.
If only he had some more mass and power Kyle might have been able to dunk over the defender. But with his arms stretched out, ball in hand he was able to get a few inches away from the rim and just a tiny bit below it.
With a swing of his arm and a flick of his wrist Kyle scooped the ball up gently toward the rim. The ball floated in the air for less than a second before rolling over the front of the rim and falling through the net.
Kyle nodded his head with a big smile on his face as he made his way back to his teammates.
Jason ran up to Kyle and the two of them jumped and side bumped. Then Dlo and him started dapping Kyle up as they got back into position to play defense.
GT brought the ball down the court and was surprised to see that Jason wasn't the one guarding him. He then thought back to what Coach Wikemen had said 'When they switch Jason off of you that's when you need to take advantage.'
As he crossed half-court GT began to size up Alex as he dribbled left to right. He felt him out with a couple crossovers and hesitation moves. "Man, I was cooking on y'alls best defender. What makes you think you got a chance?"
Alex responded to his trash talk with a grin on his face "I don't know what got you feeling so tough. Ain't you got more misses than makes? And you call that cooking?"
GT gritted his teeth, the corner of his eye twitching after hearing what Alex had to say. Going from a hesi to the left he explodes to the right with a crossover.
Alex turned his body and began to chase after GT as he made his way inside of the three point line.
At first he thought that he was beat, that he wouldn't be able to catch up to GT and contain him. But then he felt a surge of energy and confidence swell from within him.
Just as GT got into his shooting motion, from the edges of his periphery the shadow of Alex's outstretched hand shot into his field of vision. Surprised by the sudden contest he was forced to adjust his shot in order to get it off.
His release higher than usual GT launched the ball into the air with a flick of his wrist. Lacking in power the ball fell short as it landed on the front of the rim before clanking off.
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With Jefferson changing their offense to one with far more off ball movement and multiple layers of actions they were finally able to create more open scoring opportunities for their other players.
While on the defensive end Alex supported by Jason's liberal use of his team booster whenever his meter had filled allowed for them to slow down Dominion's offense even without Jason being the primary defender
On the sidelines Coach Wikemen was no longer sporting the confident expression that he had been for the majority of the game. He hadn't accounted for the possibility that Jefferson still had another set of plays that could turn things around.
'How the hell could that kid still have the energy do run around the court like that? Their new offense completely relies on the gravity that he has as an offensive player to open up the court for everyone else. With him moving so much off the ball he still has the stamina to lock down Devin on Defense?
And how the fuck is their Point Guard doing so well with guarding GT? Everything from the scouting report to the film on Jefferson showed that Jason was supposed to be their only defender capable of shutting down an elite offensive player like GT. None of this is making any sense.'
With their new offense and change in defensive assignments Jefferson was able to slowly build up their lead after having been behind Dominion for the majority of the third quarter.
But despite entering the fourth quarter down 47 to 55 Dominion hadn't lost their will to fight. Carried by Devin and GT's elite offensive capabilities and Devin's two way playability, their competitive spirit kept them in the game until the very end.
With the buzzer ringing out to signal the end of the game Jefferson finally managed to come out on top with a score of 74 to 66. Devin and GT having ended the game blistering hot on defense even with Jason playing his usual brand of hard nosed defense and him utilizing the system to boost his teammates on that end of the ball.
Both team's lined up to shake hands at the end of the game. Everyone at Dominion had frustrated looks on their faces but they all accepted the results graciously as they could.
Coach Wikemen shook his head in disbelief as he looked at Coach Swendel "Me and my boys lost to the better Coach and better team tonight. Congratulations on advancing Swendel"
The two of them shook hands, a polite smile on Coach Swendel's face as he did so "That might have been the case but you and your boys certainly made us work to earn the win tonight. Lady luck just so happened to be looking our way this game."
Coach Wikemen chuckled "I don't think lady luck had much to do with your win tonight. It takes a lot of forethought to hide a whole different offensive scheme this far in to the tournament. Jefferson has got some amazing players and one hell of a coach."
A bead of sweat trickled down the side of Coach Swendel's face as he heard Coach Wikemen's words of praise 'Now I feel guilty as hell to have a coach as decorated as him telling me all this considering it was all the results of Jason's work.'
On the players' end Jason shook hands with GT "Good game man. You really had me working tonight. I had to leave it to my guy Alex to finish up the game guarding you or else I might have gassed out before the final buzzer."
GT stared at Jason "You still had me clamped up for the majority of the game. And even though I thought I would finally get a chance to really pop off after getting you to switch off of me, your Point Guard did a solid job of holding things down in your place."
They exchanged a few more polite words before moving on to the next players. Jason smiled as he shook hands with Devin "You guys damn near had it with your hot streak at the end."
Devin shook his head "Almost don't cut it and getting close is still a L. Good game out there, you and your boys earned it fair and square. But don't think this is over. Ima have to get you good at the high school level to make up for this L man."
An idea popped into Jason's mind as he heard Devin say that "Yo Dev, before you leave with your team give me a second to talk to you."