On the court, after being a blue-collar interior player for most of the quarter, Duncan, upon receiving the signal from Heximon to unleash his full potential, immediately went all out, preventing Clemson from concentrating their efforts on dealing with Wake Forest's perimeter…
With Clemson's perimeter unable to be contained and their inside game crushed by Duncan, facing simultaneous breakdowns on both ends, they were in no position to turn the tide.
The script of the underdog triumphing did not unfold for Wake Forest!
At 71-83, Clemson lost to Wake Forest by double digits, watching their opponents advance to the sectional finals with no recourse.
Duncan still scored a game-high 24 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 blocks.
Thanks to his three three-pointers in the opening phase, Heximon's score in this game increased from 12 points to 16 points!
In the NCAA, a single-game score exceeding 15 points is already considered that of a good scorer.
Heximon seems to be on his way to becoming an excellent scorer…
In addition to 16 points, Heximon also contributed 8 assists!
Although it was a significant drop from the 14 assists in the first game, a total of 22 assists across two games still placed Heximon at the top of the assist rankings in the Atlantic Coast Conference, ahead of another talented point guard.
The talented point guard who unexpectedly lost his ACC assist ranking #1 due to Heximon's emergence was the core player of Georgia Tech, freshman point guard Marbury!
In the recently concluded game where they defeated Maryland, Marbury scored 21 points and dished out 6 assists!
During the regular season, Marbury's average points per game were second only to Duncan in the ACC, and his assists ranked first in the ACC.
As a result, in the sectional finals, Wake Forest University somehow acquired Heximon, directly surpassing Marbury and causing Marbury's assist ranking to slip to second place.
With star players like Carter, Jamison, and Greg Buckner successively eliminated, Marbury, who had initially intended to compete with Duncan for the ACC Player of the Year title, now found that his once guaranteed spot for the best point guard was becoming precarious, let alone the overall MVP award…
This final decisive game not only determined which team would secure a direct ticket to the national championship but also who would become the ACC Player of the Year…
Duncan and Marbury were originally the brightest stars in the ACC this year, but then Heximon emerged to disrupt the landscape!
Duncan remained unfazed, but Marbury, without even facing Heximon yet, had already developed a deep hatred for this intruding Chinese kid…
This "Battle of the ACC Kings" was held at the Greensboro Coliseum!
Greensboro, located in North Carolina, is not far from Winston-Salem, where Wake Forest University is located, but not close to Atlanta, where Georgia Tech is.
Therefore, Wake Forest University enjoyed the convenience of a semi-home court advantage, with most of the fans in the arena wearing Wake Forest University team jerseys! Half were current students, and the other half were alumni of Wake Forest University.
Western societies do not have a strong sense of regionalism due to the relative freedom of movement of their people, but they have a strong sense of alumni loyalty. Especially the alumni loyalty towards their universities, which is akin to the concept of fellow townsmen from the same village in Chinese society.
Now, with the village's university having finally reached the sectional finals, as members of the village, and coincidentally living not far from Greensboro, they had driven over to cheer for their alma mater's team!
Heximon had never set foot in an NCAA sectional final before and was unaware that the fan atmosphere in the NCAA was in no way inferior to that of the NBA regular season…
Before the game officially began, head coach Dave Odom reiterated their tactical approach for this game: focus tightly around Duncan!
At the same time, Dave Odom's gaze swept across all the players, ensuring his orders were conveyed to every single one of them… When his eyes landed on Heximon, Dave Odom lingered for an extra half a second…
Heximon of course understood the head coach's intent. This was a warning to Heximon not to act unilaterally and change tactics as he had in the previous game…
Dave Odom was clearly overthinking things!
Georgia Tech's team style was completely different from Clemson's.
Clemson had virtually no star players, so they relied heavily on team play, their tactics were relatively simple, and their defense was primarily aimed at containing the opponent's inside presence.
Georgia Tech was the exact opposite. They had three star players on their roster: Marbury, Matt Harpring, and Drew Barry. They had more core players than Wake Forest.
They would not adopt Clemson's style of play. Instead, they would immediately focus on containing Wake Forest's perimeter players, specifically Heximon!
This was because both Marbury and Harpring possessed excellent perimeter defensive abilities.
Once Heximon, the perimeter threat, was contained, Duncan would be isolated in the paint, unable to utilize his strength against the opponent…
Therefore, in this final match, even without the coach's instructions, Heximon would do his utmost, by every means possible, to pass the ball to Duncan in the paint! 138 Reading Network
Once Duncan had inflicted enough pain and crippled Georgia Tech's inside game, Heximon would then have a chance to get comfortable offensive opportunities on the perimeter…
The game had not yet begun, and the two teams' players entered the court, awaiting the jump ball.
"Hey! Kid, I heard you can only shoot from the outside?" Marbury, now matching up with Heximon, immediately switched to taunting mode.
"So-so! How about you try leaving me open?"
Heximon never actively sought trouble, but in a game, if someone truly provoked him, he would absolutely not back down!
Kobe Bryant of the past couldn't do it, and Marbury of the present couldn't either!
When it came to basketball, Heximon had his own principles. Moreover, Heximon knew that in this land, people did not truly advocate for humility!
The reason Heximon was relatively humble in his personal life was that he had to maintain humility before achieving the corresponding economic strength and social status.
But on the court, he had no need to feign humility! He played cautiously to avoid unnecessary injury risks, not because he was afraid to showcase his abilities…
On the court, strength reigns supreme, and the winner is king!
Marbury was genuinely surprised that a player who could dunk but always preferred to lay up seemed to possess a certain backbone.
"If you've got the guts, try shooting over me a few times?"
"That's quite a request… No problem! I'll definitely satisfy your special craving…"
Marbury was truly taken aback that Heximon's English proficiency had reached a level where they could engage in trash talk.
Having gained no advantage verbally, Marbury decided to impose his physical presence on Heximon right from the start, intending to intimidate him…