“ Listen , buddy . Don ’ t worry about wining or losing , just try your best . Your teammates and I are your strongest backing ,” Mr . James says to Abelard softly and gives him an encouraging eye .
“ Ok , coach . I will try my best and won ’ t let you down .” Abelard answers confidently , then he runs to the basketball court .
“ Uh , I know you won ’ t let me down ,” coach James whispers while he ’ s watching the back of the best player that he ’ d ever coached .
Starting players are on the court and get into their position and the centers are ready for the jump ball . “ Beep ~” the exciting game starts . After the buzzer rang , the referee throws the ball into the air , every spectator holds their breath and staring at the ball spinning in the air , they want to see which team wins the jump ball . A big hand reaches the ball and flick it to the white team with his fingertip . “ Whoopee !” The Duke high school gets the jump ball and the crowd burst into cheers . The ball bounces in the white team ’ s backcourt . Abelard picks up the ball and dribbles it to the frontcourt . As soon as Abelard gets into the frontcourt , one opponent comes up to defend him . But Abelard just ignores the defender and does a crossover , easily gets rid of the opponent and he makes an easy lay-up to score . East High school starts a fast break to get the two points back . One player from East high school wants to do a layup in front of Abelard , but Abelard gives him a big block shot . The ball is slapped by Abelard to the East high school ’ s bench , their team ’ s coach ’ s face is red like a monkey ’ s butt . Coach James looks at Abelard proudly and gives him a thumbs up .
“ Beep !” The East High school calls a timeout ; the coach wants to lay out a new tactic .
“ Why are you doing that ! Lay-up in front of Abelard and get a big block ! You have shamed me to the ground ,” The old man yells angrily , “ And now , forget about that ! Your job is to defend Abelard by double-team all the time . I don ’ t care about who , just double-team him and let him make mistakes and exhaust him .” The old man says to his members .
“ Great job Abelard and keep it ! Klaus , don ’ t forget to defend ,” Coach James laughs . Klaus lowers his head and smiles shyly . Abelard gently hit him and laughs .
“ Beep ” the buzzer rings again , it ’ s time for the players go back to the court .
Until halftime , as long as Abelard holds the ball which will have two opponents running to double-team him and press hard . This makes ailing Abelard very tired that he makes many turnovers . At the end of the first half of the game , the score is 36 to 52 . The East high school is leading by 16 points ; everyone goes back to their locker room because the break time is 10 minutes .
Everyone ’ s morale is low ; everyone sits in the locker room without saying anything . It ’ s quiet so that you can even hear the sound of a needle dropping onto the ground .
Sweat has saturated the young man ’ s jersey and pouring from his golden curly hair to his cheek . He ’ s feeling dizzy because he was not recovered from the fever and he played so hard in the first half of the game .
“ Guy ! There are two more quarters left , see how they got 52 points in the first half ? We can do better than that !” Coach James yells hopefully and looks at Abelard and saying , “ Abelard , take a rest in the second half of the game , you did a great job in the first half .” Abelard looks at the coach and faintly nods his head .