Rebound: A 2nd Chance

Chapter 120 - Flex

Now with a little more than thee minutes left on the clock Jefferson's lineup consisted of DJ at Point Guard, Nick at Shooting Guard, Trell at Small Forward, Udonis at Power Forward, and Vince at Center.

With the timeout over Vince inbounded the ball over to DJ who then gave the team a moment to set up.

After seeing that everybody was ready DJ began to run the play. Vince came out from the paint to set a screen.

Trell also came over as he set another screen for DJ who then began to run his defenders into the screens.

However Trell actually slipped the screens and started rolling to the rim before any contact was made with the defender.

DJ saw Trell with a lane to the rim so he lobbed the ball overhead to him. Trell caught the ball on his way to the paint.

Nick's defender had left him alone in order to collapse in on Trell. As Trell was running to the paint he noticed this.

The defender was now in front of the basket but Trell didn't seem to mind one bit as he planted his feet and got ready for the jump.

The defender had initially intended to help contest Trell's shot. But as soon as he felt Trell jump into him he was pushed back.

Trell was in the air as he heard the referee blow his whistle. He concentrated as he tried to focus on the basket.

He tossed the ball toward the basket with his right hand before his body started to come back down to the court.

The crowd held their breathe as they watched the ball bounce around the rim a few times. And as soon as it fell through the net they jumped to their feet and started cheering.

Trell was all smiles as he looked out to the crowd "He can't guard me man! I'm too strong! Let's go!" He then slapped his bicep.

Trell started flexing his biceps as he high fived his teammates on his way to the free throw line. His shooting form was a little rough but he was able to sink the free throw.

On defense Trell didn't even bother to fight through the screen as he yelled for Vince to switch.

Trell followed the opposing team's big as he rolled towards the basket. He then began posting up Trell and calling for the ball.

Shortly after the ball was tossed down to him. He began to back down Trell but to his surprise he found that he couldn't gain any ground on Trell.

If anything he was slowly losing positioning as Trell pushed him out from the paint. He tried to spin over his shoulder.

He began driving to the basket after the spin and as he got deeper into the paint he got ready for the layup.

But Trell was still next to him and as soon as he saw his man getting ready to shoot he jumped up with him.

With both of his arms going straight up he jumped a little bit higher than his man. Trell then slammed both hands down as he stuffed the defender and the ball toward the ground.

It was bad enough that he got blocked in such an embarrassing way but to add insult to injury the ball had hit him in the face as he fell down before bouncing out of bounds.

The referee pointed to Jefferson "Jefferson's ball!" The crowd was going wild once again. This time they were chanting Trell's name "TRELL!TRELL!TRELL!"

DJ and Nick both high fived Trell as they hyped him on the great defensive play. Then the three of them made their way back on defense.

Millbrook tried their best to play Trell physically. But to their surprise not only was the physicality ineffective against Trell.

They couldn't seem to rile him up. Whether it was jumping on his back as they fought for rebounds or giving him an elbow in the post none of it seemed to work.

Trell's amazing muscles allowed him to fight through the contact without getting knocked out of his spots.

Even when they would get him switched on to their Center Trell would stand his ground as he protected the paint.

It didn't matter if the one that was posting him up was 6'1 (1.85m) Trell would put on his hard hat and get to work.

Sitting on the bench Jason was surprised as he watched Trell play. This was the most focused Jason had ever seen Trell play.

He watched as Trell played every possession with a hundred and ten percent effort. Trell was playing without taking a single possession off. 

As the 2nd quarter came to an end as Jefferson's lead only grew. They sat in a comfortable lead with a score of 54-17.

In Jefferson's locker room everyone was all smiles as they wiped their faces with their towels and took drinks out of their sports bottles.

Udonis slapped Trell on the shoulder "This dude right here man, you was a savage bro. You blocked the dude with both hands and you smacked him in the face with the ball haha!"

Everyone started whistling and cheering at the mention of Trell's amazing block during the quarter.

Trell smiled as he looked at the team "I had to put on a lil bit of show after seeing what this mofo did." Trell was pointing to Jason.

Trell shook his head as he laughed "This dude was making it hard for the guys on the bench. How the hell you expect us to come out after you put on a show like that?

You was hittin em with ankle breakers and nutmegs the whole quarter. And that one play where it looked like you was about to fall and lose control of the ball but you ended up throwing a floater over a defender. 

Sheesh, that move was more savage if you ask me." Everyone started laughing after hearing what Trell said.

In the guest locker room Millbrook was the complete opposite. All of their players were low in spirit as the mood was solemn.

The starting Point Guard looked over to their starting Shooting Guard "Why don't we have you guard Jason for the 3rd quarter?"

The Shooting Guard immediately began to shake his head "Hell nah bro! That's your man right there. I got the white boy."

The starting Point Guard angrily looked at him "You been guarding the white boy the whole game. You taller than me, you might be able to do a better job of guarding Jason."

The starting Shooting Guard then looked over at their starting Small Forward "If you talking about height why don't we have him guard Jason? He taller than me."

The starting Small Forward shook his head "Hey leave me outta this man, This between the guards.

You can't put a slower player on Jason.You asking for that person to get murdered bro. No thank you."

The guards started arguing with each other about who would be going out on the court and who would be the one to guard Jason.

The head coach sighed as he looked at his team 'We are done. These guys are arguing about whose going to guard Jason like they're afraid of him.

They already gave up inside of their minds and hearts. Jesus, I never thought we would ever get slaughtered like this.'

- - -

The rest of the game followed Jefferson's tempo. They continued to score at an effective rate on offense while shutting down Millbrook on defense.

Jason continued to go deep on his bag of tricks as he didn't let up. He scored off of isolation plays as well as in the flow of the offense.

If Millbrook tried to send the double team Jason would simply pass the ball out to one of his teammates before running off a screen and getting the ball back.

He would then run a play or if there was enough space he would let the three pointer fly. Millbrook had no answer for Jason.

And on defense Jason continued to orchestrate the rest of the guys. At first Millbrook continued with their strategy of playing physical.

But after seeing that no matter how much they roughed up Jason that he would just get up and go back to work, they eventually gave up on it.

But that didn't mean that Jason started taking it easy. He still went at Millbrook with everything that he had.

And even as they went into the 4th quarter with a commanding lead Jason continued to play.

Normally if the team was winning and in a good position Jason would sit out the 4th quarter and get some rest.

But Millbrook's strategy of getting physical had lit a fire in Jason's heart. It was no mercy as Jason continued to humiliate and embarrass his defenders. 

Spine moves, fakes, ankles breakers, floaters, bank shots, Jason pulled out every trick that he had as he broke the record that he had just set in the last game.

And everyone else was motivated to give it a hundred and ten percent as well as they continued to swarm on defense.

The game eventually ended as Jefferson put up a almost disrespectful 103 points as they also kept Millbrook to only 34 points.

Jason and the rest of the team were all smiles as they lined up to shake hands at the end of the game.

But this time it was their turn to get a taste of their own medicine as Millbrook's team refused to shake hands as they went straight to the locker room.

Their coach was the only one that stayed as he nervously shook hands with Ms. Yuller as he congratulated her on the game while apologizing for his team's behavior. 

Jason and the rest of the guys from Jefferson were all laughing as they watched Millbrook leave their gym.

The crowd on the other hand was booing. Jason could feel that the atmosphere was getting bad so he walked over to the scoring table and asked to use the mic.

Jason faced the crowd and got everyone's attention "Thank you guys for coming out and supporting us tonight.

We are just one game away from bringing Jefferson it very first county championship. I hope you can all come back again next week for the big game."

The entire crowd started clapping and cheering as Jason put down the mic and walked back over to his team 'Just one more game until we can call ourselves county champions.'