Shortly after Coach Anxi determined the starting lineup, the referee's whistle sounded and players from both teams began to enter the field for warm-up activities.
In this game, Xiangbei's opponent is Dazhai High School in the same county, a little-known team.
During the warm-up phase, Jinguji Budo looked at several players of Oyaya High School from a distance, especially those wearing jersey numbers 4 to 9. He found that the height of those players was generally only around 175cm, with a medium build, and there did not seem to be any outstanding players.
Although Kanagawa Prefecture is a strong basketball prefecture, the average level of high school students is actually not very high. Generally speaking, teams with an average height of over 180cm can often make it to the top 16, and teams with 1-2 players over 190cm in height are basically guaranteed to make it to the top 8.
A team like Ozaya High School, with an average height of around 175cm, is considered to be above average in the county competition, and generally speaking, the possibility of winning the first game is quite high.
As for teams with a height structure like Xiangbei High School, there are relatively few of them in the entire county competition. Judging from the height structure alone, Xiangbei High School is much stronger than Ozhai High School.
In today's basketball environment, basketball is still a sport of giants. When the audience sees the approximate heights of the players of the two teams, they can predict the outcome of the game.
"Several players from Xiangbei are so tall! A team like Oya High School should not be a match for Xiangbei."
"Besides, Xiangbei still has Mitsui Hisashi. In their mansion, there is no player who can limit Mitsui Hisashi and Akagi Takenori."
In the audience, several players of Shoyo were sitting together, discussing the strength comparison between the two teams on the field. Hanagata Toru sat next to Fujima, and his eyes turned to Mitsui Hisashi and Akagi Takenori, and said.
He had an impression of the player Akagi Takenori. In the last county competition, their Shoyo High School played against Xiangbei. At that time, Hanagata Toru was still the backup center of the team and only played against Akagi Takenori for a while at the end of the game.
However, by the time he came on the court, Xiangbei High School had already been defeated, and Akagi Takenori was also taught a lesson by the third-year center of their team. Although Xiangbei lost the game at that time, Akagi Takenori's strength is still remembered by Hanagata to this day.
As for Mitsui Shou, there is no need to say anything. He was the main scorer of Shohoku High School at that time. If it weren't for Fujima and another third-year senior in Shoyo who took turns defending Mitsui Shou and dragged Mitsui Shou down, the final outcome of the two teams might have been rewritten.
"Oya High School can't possibly be a match for Shohoku. This year, our biggest enemy is Shohoku."
"Last year, Xiangbei was already very strong. If we didn't have so many rotation players, we might not be their opponent."
"It's obvious that this year's Xiangbei is stronger than last year."
Fujima crossed his arms in front of his chest and said in a deep voice. After a while, Fujima's eyes moved to Shohoku No. 15, Jinguji Takeshi, and murmured:
"That number 15 needs a closer look."
On the court, Mitsui Hisashi led the players in warming up. The starting players were all first-year players, so the second- and third-year players were cooperating with Wudao and others, passing the ball to them so that the players on the court could adapt to the field first.
Wudao had been to this basketball hall several times and had long since gotten used to the noisy environment. After simply shooting a few balls to get his shooting touch, he began to dribble the ball to warm up.
Unlike him, it was the first time for Satoru Kadota and other teammates to face such a scene. In the crowded stadium, the newcomers felt stiff all over. Even for a simple layup, both Satoru Kadota and Tetsushi Shiozaki stumbled, and their movements were uncoordinated and not smooth.
On the contrary, Yasuharu Yasuda, who is introverted and quiet, performed much better. Although this guy was also nervous, at least his movements were not that stiff.
“That won’t do.”
"Even if Wudao and Miyagi are leading the team, if you go on the field in your current state, you will not only fail to help Wudao and the others, but will also hinder them."
"We have to think of a way to help them."
Mitsui Shou had already noticed the nervousness of the two players when he passed the ball to Kakuta Satoru and Shiozaki Tetsushi and watched them lay up. Their mental quality was average to begin with, and they had no game experience in elementary and middle school. Today was the first time for them to start.
Although Mitsui Hisashi understood that the two people would feel nervous, he still frowned when he saw the state of Kakuta and Shiozaki.
"Tsunoda, Shiozaki, both of you come here!"
Mitsui Shou stood under the basket, and after Shiozaki completed a poor layup, Mitsui Shou called out to the two of them.
The two people who heard Mitsui Shou's call immediately ran towards Mitsui Shou.
"Captain!" ×2
Mitsui Shou looked at the two people in front of him and just opened his mouth to scold them so that they would realize the problem, but when the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back. Mitsui Shou knew that at this time, scolding would only increase the tension between the two.
Mitsui Shou walked up to the two of them, opened his arms, hugged them, and whispered in their ears:
"I know you two must be nervous right now."
"This is your first time representing Shohoku in a competition, so it's normal to have such emotions!"
"However, I hope you can open up yourselves completely, don't be afraid of making mistakes, don't be afraid of losing face, and don't be timid and afraid to show yourself."
"Even if you make mistakes or lose the ball, no one will blame you because you are newcomers."
"Don't be afraid of falling behind. I'll cover you up. Don't be afraid!"
"When you are on the field, unleash your talents! Opportunities to play are rare, so make the most of them!"
Mitsui spoke in a gentle voice, and when he said "I'll take care of you", his tone was firm and full of confidence. His words also calmed the restless hearts of the nervous Kakuta and Shiozaki.
"Yes! Captain!"
"I'll try my best, Captain!"
Kakuta and Shiozaki were encouraged, and at this moment, the tension of the two was temporarily overcome. Yasuda Yasuharu and Miyagi Ryouta watched this scene while warming up, and Mitsui Hisashi's personality charm also infected him a little.
Jinguji Budo didn't pay attention to anything else during the whole process and just continued warming up. As the warm-up progressed, his mind began to become highly concentrated.
Nearly twenty minutes later, the referee blew the whistle, and the players of both teams finished warming up and returned to their respective rest areas to make final adjustments.
Coach Anxi did not give any tactical instructions to Wudao and other first-year students. He just said a simple sentence.
"Go ahead and enjoy the game!"
“Beep!
”
As the referee's sharp whistle sounded again, the participating players walked onto the court and gathered in the center circle for a jump ball.
"Huh? Shohoku's Mitsui Hisashi and Akagi Takenori didn't play?!"
"All the players on the field are new faces!"
Fujima Kenji was surprised to see all the new faces of the players from Xiangbei High School. At the same time, on the other side of the stands, the people from Ryonan High School looked at Xiangbei and others and looked at each other in bewilderment.
Coach Tiangang stroked the stubble on his chin for a long time before he slowly said, "Coach Anxi is really thoughtful! He has already started training!"
"It looks like I have to train the new team members as well."
As Coach Tiangang spoke, he glanced at the new players in the team this year and made up his mind.
Teams that have paid attention to or played against Shohoku in the past only know that Shohoku's main players are Mitsui Hisashi and Akagi Takenori. They are not familiar with Jinguji Takeshi and Miyagi Ryouta, and have never even seen them.
However, the people watching the game at this time, such as Ryonan and Shoyo, were all concerned about the starting lineups of Shohoku. Ryonan knew the abilities of Budo and Miyagi and wanted to see if the two had improved, while the people of Shoyo wanted to see how strong Shohoku's substitutes were this year.
In the center circle, Jinguji Budo stood on the center line, preparing to jump ball.
Standing in front of Jinguji Takeshi is No. 5 from Oyaya High School. She is less than 180cm tall, almost a head shorter than Takeshi. Standing in front of Takeshi, she looks quite petite.
"Damn it! This guy is so tall! Besides Akagi Takenori, how come there is someone like him in Xiangbei?!"
"This guy is a freshman, so he should be a newbie. If we don't let him get to the basket, there shouldn't be any problem. As for the other guys from Xiangbei, it's obvious from the looks of it that they are rookies."
"Before Mitsui and Akagi come on the court, we need to widen the score gap!"
No. 5 in the mansion cursed in his heart, looked up at Wu Dao's face, and thought of a countermeasure in his mind.
Soon, the referee came to the center circle with the ball, signaled the players of both teams to take their positions, and blew the whistle to start the game. The next second, the referee threw the ball into the air.
“Haaaaaah!
!
”
The moment the basketball entered the air, No. 5 of the Oya jumped up with a roar, full of momentum. However, when the basketball had just reached the highest point and the Oya player was still a few dozen centimeters away from the basketball, Wudao stood on tiptoe and casually stretched out his hand, and the basketball flew to Miyagi Ryouta, who caught it in his hand.
"Why are you shouting so loudly?" Wudao lowered his head slightly, looked at the opponent in front of him in confusion, and then slowly moved forward.
"Beautiful, Budo."
"attack!"
Miyagi Ryouta received the ball, shouted loudly, and then slowly advanced to the front court with the ball. Before the game, Miyagi also noticed the nervousness of Kakuta and Shiozaki, so he deliberately slowed down the pace of the attack to give the two more time to adapt to the court.
Miyagi still has a sense of teamwork and didn't think that he would go solo if his teammates were not strong enough.
"Tsunoda, go over there."
After entering the frontcourt, Wudao squeezed directly into the inside. There was no one in the house who could restrict his position. After Wudao took his position, he pointed to the empty space outside the paint area on the other side and reminded Kakuta to take his position.
There was no way. Before the game, Kakuta was relatively relaxed because of Mitsui's encouragement. However, once he stepped onto the court and the audience shouted, the nervous Kakuta had completely forgotten his offensive position.
"Ah?! Oh oh oh!" After being reminded, Kakuta hurried to get into position, and then seemed to have thought of something and ran towards the high position. It seemed that he wanted to do an off-ball screen for Yasuda.
This is a habitual action of Kadota. After all, Xiangbei has been practicing this during this period. However, there is a big problem with the person he chose to help with the pick-and-roll. How can Yasuda Yasuharu cut without the ball? !
As Kakuta moved forward, Yasuda did not move. All of a sudden, there were a total of 6 people standing in the area where Miyagi was, including his teammates and defenders, completely blocking Miyagi's breakthrough route.
The speechless Miyagi could only find Jinguji Budou in the inside and lob the ball to him.
The players defending Wu Dao were not tall and had average jumping ability. Miyagi didn't even act when passing the ball, and his intention to pass the ball was quite obvious.
When Wudao saw the ball coming, he took two steps forward and lightly jumped, and easily caught the ball in his hands. When Wudao landed, he found that there was a player from a big house lying on the ground in front of him.
"Huh? When did this guy fall in front of me? Didn't you notice?" Wu Dao didn't notice that someone was trying to intercept Miyagi's pass. He didn't even know that he bumped into the player who was trying to steal the ball when he jumped.
With the help of the Golden Bell and Iron Shirt, Wudao couldn't even feel this level of physical confrontation.
Wu Dao caught the ball easily and quickly dribbled it and turned to face the basket. He raised his hand and the No. 5 defending him jumped high. Wu Dao glanced at the opponent indifferently and threw the ball when the opponent was about to fall. He didn't even jump for this shot.
The basketball hit the backboard and went into the net. As the sound of the basketball going into the net rang out, cheers broke out in the Xiangbei rest area.
"Beautiful! Budo!" Mitsui Shou waved his towel and shouted excitedly. In the audience, Horita and others cheered enthusiastically, but the flag these three guys waved was the flag of "Man of Flame".
Wudao's goal officially sounded the clarion call for Xiangbei High School's attack, and the nightmare of the Ozaka players had just begun.
Ten seconds later, a loud bang was heard from the court.
A basketball flew out of the court like a cannonball and hit the wall at the side of the court.
Under the basket of Xiangbei, Player No. 5 of the house was staring blankly at the flying basketball. After a long time, he turned back in horror and looked at Jinguji Budou in front of him.
Just now, he received a pass from his teammate and went for a layup, but the basketball had just slipped out of his hands, and the next second, Wu Dao's big hand slammed the basketball hard.
A solid block directly knocked the basketball out, and the shooting speed was even comparable to the speed of a volleyball spike.
Between attack and defense, martial arts has demonstrated its unparalleled dominance.
"That No. 15 is simply not on the same level as those players in the mansion!" With just two goals, Fujima Kenji had already glimpsed the strength of Jinguji Budou and couldn't help but sigh.
The following games fully verified Fujima's words. Under the leadership of Jinguji Budou, Shohoku High School showed an overwhelming advantage.
Jinguji Budou performed well on both offense and defense. Not only did he repeatedly cap the players from the mansion who tried to attack the inside, but he also showed his dominant ability on the offensive end, frequently scoring in the inside or at close range.
Less than three minutes into the game, the players from the Otaku team didn't dare to enter the paint, and only dared to shoot from outside. When Xiangbei attacked, the number of players defending Budo changed from 1 to 2, and finally to 4.
Except for the people defending Miyagi, the rest of the players in the mansion all squeezed into the inside, tightly surrounding Budou and defending, as if Shohoku was Budou's one-man team.
Just when everyone thought that Wudao's attack would be suppressed, Wudao Jinguji once again demonstrated his terrifying scoring ability.
Even when facing four defenders, Wudao relied on his swift and complicated footwork in the interior, played high and frequently dribbled past the defenders to score points. He even successfully drew fouls when he dribbled past the defenders under the basket to get a one-on-one or two-on-two situation, and scored two plus one.
Ten minutes into the game, the score between the two teams was already 21:6. Wu Dao's personal score had reached 15 points in just ten minutes.
The game had just begun, but everyone knew that it was already over!
The audience no longer cared about the outcome of the game. Now the audience in the stadium just wanted to know, Da Zhai, is there any way to limit the score of Xiangbei's No. 15? They just wanted to know, how many points can Xiangbei's No. 15 score in this game
But when everyone was looking forward to seeing how many points Takeshi Jinguji could score against the opponent, 11 minutes into the first half, Takeshi Jinguji, who had a personal score of 19 points, clocked out!
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