Rebound: A 2nd Chance

Chapter 127 - Grinding It Out: Part-2

Back out on the court Jason was scanning the floor as he thought of the play that would best suit their current situation.

'Kyle's starting to get tired so I should probably give him a possession or two to catch his breathe. I guess I'll go with a simple pick and roll with UD.'

Jason signaled for Udonis to come out and set a screen. After seeing that Udonis came out from the block to the perimeter.

As soon as Udonis was set Jason began driving to the right. Jason forced his defender into the screen as he ran tightly by Udonis.

Udonis' defender sagged off of Jason which gave him just enough time to pull up for the long mid range shot.

The ball went straight through the net which excited the crowd as they clapped and cheered. Jason slapped Udonis on the back as he went past him "Nice screen UD."

Nashton Academy's Point Guard passed the ball to the right wing as soon as he crossed half court. Jason yelled out to Nick "Switch!"

Jason switched on to the wing player and Nick switched on to the Point Guard. Jason kept his hands active in order to make it hard for the wing player to dump the ball down low to 3D.

But despite his efforts after a while the wing player found the opening to pass the ball to 3D down in the post.

With the ball in his hands 3D began to back down Kyle. He braced himself and got ready as best he could but each push still shook him to his core.

Kyle felt like his body was being smashed with a sledgehammer every time he collided with 3D. He could feel his body shaking.

3D had pushed himself deep into the paint and was just about to make his move when he saw Jason running over to double team him.

Normally Jason's tiny body wouldn't be able of hindering 3D's massive frame as he attacked in the post.

But since Jason made his move at just the right time it ruined 3D's rhythm and jammed him up. 3D was forced to kick the ball back out to the perimeter. 

Jason already started closing back out on his defensive assignment as soon as 3D started to throw the pass.

The player on the wing caught the ball as Jason was rushing toward him. He started his shooting motion as he began to shoot the three.

After running with everything that he had, Jason just barely managed to contest the shot before it left the shooters hand.

The ball flew through the air before hitting the front of the rim. Luckily for Jefferson the long rebound fell right into Matt's hands.

Matt passed the ball up to Jason who was already running as he then pushed the fast break. It was a 1 on 2 fast break as two defenders chased after Jason.

Jason pulled the defenders with him as he made his way to the basket. As he got into the paint he spun to his right as he sliced in between his two defenders.

As he was spinning, with his back facing the basket, Jason threw a laser of a pass out to the perimeter where Matt was located.

Matt caught the ball in rhythm as it made its way right to his shooting pocket. He fired off the three point shot.

Jason's flashy move got the crowd excited once again as they then held their breathes while watching the ball fly through the air.

As the ball swished through the net and the referee raised three fingers to indicate that the three pointer was good the crowd erupted into cheers.

Jason ran over to Matt as the two then chest bumped in the air. Although his breathing was slightly labored Jason was smiling brightly at Matt.

"Nice shot man!" Matt slapped Jason on the back as he laughed "Nah bro. It was all about the pass. That shit was wild. I don't know how you managed to keep track of where I was after that spin move."

The two of them were clearly fired up as they made their way back on defensive. The rest of the team congratulated the two on the highlight play as well.

The quarter passed as the game fell into a delicate state of balance. Jefferson would chain together a few possessions where they were able to lock down 3D and Nashton Academy.

And then the opposite would happen as 3D and Nashton Academy would catch fire and minimize the lead that Jefferson had worked so hard to put together.

After getting lucky and hitting a few heavily contested threes the perimeter players on Nashton Academy seemed to have caught fire.

They had a few possessions where their shooters ran off of screens before taking and making contested three point shots.

And 3D was playing much harder than he had in their first game against Jefferson. He fought hard for offensive rebound.

Even beating both Udonis and Kyle as they tried to box him out together on a few possessions. 3D's presence in the paint was just too much for them to handle.

As the quarter reached its halfway point the score had become 46-38 as 3D posted a ridiculous 24 points and 16 rebounds.

Jason called for a timeout as both players then made their way back to their respective benches.

As Jason took a seat he looked around the team and noticed that everyone was breathing pretty hard.

Jason gripped his sports bottle tight 'Damn! This game is way more tiring than the last time we played Nashton Academy.

It's because 3D is playing so many minutes. Not only that, he's playing even harder than in our first game. Will our rotations hold up?'

Jason got all of the guys attention "After the timeout we'll go with me, Trell, Vince, DJ, and Nick.

Whenever 3D is in we need to make sure that we keep up a high tempo. We need to make sure that 3D runs out of gas."

Udonis interjected "What about you Jaya? You played every minute so far. Don't you need to get some rest?"

All of the guys turned to Jason with concerned looks on their faces. Jason laughed "You guys might have had a point at the beginning of the season.

But now I'm the last person you should be worried about. I might not be the fastest or the strongest on the team but I have the best motor out of anyone of you guys.

You guys know that I have the best endurance on the team. I run miles everyday after practice."

Trell shook his head "Yeah you got a good motor. But you also got the heaviest load out of all of us. 

At least we can chill a little bit during the possessions. But you be runnin around like the whole court on fire."

Matt nodded his head in agreement "You also have the most responsibilities on offense. Even if you got some extra gas it won't last too long if you keep going a hundred miles an hour."

Jason smiled as he shook his head "Here's the plan. I'll play out this quarter and take a break in the 3rd.

I can't afford to sit out yet. We need to finish this quarter strong and make sure that we take control of the game.

If we give Nashton Academy any breathing room then they could take advantage of that to launch their comeback.

We need to make sure that we keep the pressure up until the very last moment. We need to break their spirit if we want to guarantee the win. Alright?"

The rest of the guys hesitated for a moment but they all ended up nodding their heads. After talking strategy the guys all focused on recovering as much as possible before the timeout was over.

Jason took a look out into the crowd. He saw his parents sitting next to Tory and her dad. Next to Tory's dad was Kyle's mom.

All of them started waving excitedly at Jason when they saw that he was looking in their direction. Kyle's mom was carrying a huge homemade poster that read 'Let's Go Jefferson!'

Jason was surprised to see that Samantha was also in the crowd sitting close by his parents. She was holding up a poster that said 'Go Jason! Go Kyle!'

There was also Tyreek and Shania in the crowd along with Hash, Rick, and a bunch of the other guys from Newberry.

They all stood up and started waving around their posters at Jason when they saw him look in their direction.

Jason smiled as he waved back at the crowd. Even with all the games that Jason had played in his past life this game felt special to him for some reason.

Jason felt a surge of warmth flow through his chest that then began to spread throughout his body.

'We can't afford to lose this game. I can't afford to lose this game.'