Rukawa Kaede's slam dunk pushed the atmosphere of the entire stadium to a climax. Over the years, the number of slam dunks that can be seen in junior high school games is really rare.
This is not the United States. There are not so many talented people here. It is quite rare to be able to dunk in junior high school.
At the same time, many high school coaches who were watching the game in the stands were so shocked that they were speechless. The coach of Ryonan High School, Maoichi Tanaoka, was one of them.
"I never thought there would be players of this caliber in junior high school!"
"Ryukawa Kaede, the talent you showed on the court before was not as outstanding as it is now."
"But as I get older, my talent has slowly started to show."
"If he can join our Ryonan next year, he will definitely be able to assist Zuo Tianye and Sendoh and help Ryonan shine in the national competition."
"We need to fight hard for this player."
During the warm-up phase, Coach Tiangang was already very optimistic about Rukawa's ability and recognized the talent he showed. At the same time, Coach Tiangang had already made up his mind to invite Rukawa to Ryonan to build the dynasty team in his mind.
Rukawa's presence put considerable pressure on their opponents. It can be seen that since Rukawa's dunk, Takeishi Junior High School's opponents began to make some low-level mistakes during the warm-up.
Many players made mistakes when executing a simple warm-up activity of passing and laying up.
If only one or two players were in this situation it would just be an isolated phenomenon, but this situation occurred on a large scale and immediately attracted the attention of the coach.
The team, which had just come on the court to warm up, was called back to the rest area by the coach for psychological counseling.
Akagi Haruko watched Takeishi's opponents being called back by their coaches because of nervousness, and she couldn't help but get excited. She grabbed Akagi Takenori's arm and said happily:
"Brother, brother, look, because of Rukawa Kaede's slam dunk, Takeishi's opponents are all panicking!"
"Ryukawa Kaede's abilities are outstanding, right?!"
Akagi Haruko was obviously very satisfied with Rukawa Kaede's performance, and she said to Akagi Takenori as if she was the one who dunked on the court instead of Rukawa Kaede.
"..." Seeing his sister like this, Akagi Takenori could only nod perfunctorily. However, his eyes were looking at Jinguji Budo who was holding the fence and watching the ball.
Rukawa Kaede's physical talent is indeed quite outstanding. It is rare for him to be able to dunk at the third grade stage. But for Akagi, this alone is far from enough, not to mention that he was able to complete a slam dunk when he was in the third grade of junior high school.
Just Jinguji Budou was able to easily dunk over him in the practice match when he entered Shohoku in high school. In terms of physical talent, Rukawa is indeed top-notch, but compared to Jinguji Budou, he is still far behind.
The pre-match warm-up time passed quickly, and as the referee's whistle sounded, Takeishi's players, led by Rukawa Kaede, began to take their positions in the center circle. The player standing in the center circle was the tallest player in their team, Rukawa Kaede.
As for Takeishi Junior High School's opponent, Prefectural Second Junior High School, the player standing in the center circle was a player who was about 180cm tall, 3~4cm shorter than Rukawa Kaede.
The referee walked to the center circle with the basketball, blew a whistle, and threw the ball into the air.
Rukawa Kaede's explosive power is quite outstanding. Relying on his outstanding explosive power and height, he jumped up and slapped the basketball with one hand. As Takeishi Junior High School took control of the ball, Akagi Haruko cheered excitedly, completely ignoring Akagi Takenori who was already looking a little gloomy beside him.
"Pass the ball!" Rukawa, who suppressed his opponent and got the jump ball, moved very fast. His teammates had just got the basketball not long ago, but Rukawa had already entered the front court and approached the three-point line.
Following Rukawa's reminder, the basketball flew out and landed smoothly in Rukawa's hands. At this time, the players of No. 2 Middle School also took their positions, in a typical zone defense, and all the players of No. 2 Middle School looked at Rukawa who was holding the ball.
Rukawa, who had the ball, looked up at the defensive player and with a simple tentative step, successfully mobilized the defensive player to move to Rukawa's right side, creating an obvious flaw.
As the opponent's defensive position shifted, Rukawa dropped the ball with his left hand, and his right hand directly pressed against the opponent's waist, and he quickly broke through with the ball. As soon as Rukawa moved, the other defensive players of No. 2 Middle School not only did not go up to defend, but instead quickly contracted the inside defense line. From the looks of them, they wanted to defend the inside line to the death.
After the breakthrough, Rukawa also noticed that the opponent had contracted the defense line, so he did not continue to go deeper. Instead, he made a quick stop and jump shot two steps inside the three-point line.
Rukawa's shooting posture was quite relaxed, and his shot felt quite soft. With a slight sound, the basketball went into the net.
After successfully scoring the first goal, Rukawa quickly returned to defense without even looking at his opponents.
"It's okay, it's okay! Don't worry about this kind of goal. Next time when you defend, be careful not to let him break through so easily."
"We are all in junior high school. It's impossible for every shot to go in."
"Don't worry about it, organize the attack, attack steadily!"
The coach of No. 2 Middle School stood on the sidelines and yelled, reminding the players. Under his comfort, No. 2 Middle School began to organize an attack.
However, when the defender of No. 2 Middle School entered the frontcourt with the ball, his intention to pass the ball was seen through by Rukawa. The pass that was originally intended to be given to a teammate on the side was directly intercepted by Rukawa.
The next second, Rukawa Kaede ran directly towards the front court with the ball. At the same time, in the Takeishi Junior High School team, Ichiro Mizusawa closely followed Rukawa Kaede's offensive pace. As for the other players, seeing that these two were the ones making the fast break, they did not think of running to help, but stood in their own half of the court, with their hands on their hips, watching the fast break of Rukawa Kaede and Ichiro Mizusawa from a distance.
In the frontcourt, the No. 2 Middle School's defense could not keep up with Rukawa's fast break. Rukawa rushed to the basket and slam-dunked. It was a beautiful slam dunk, which once again ignited the atmosphere of the court. Unlike the warm-up, this time, the audience cheered even more enthusiastically.
After all, it is a real slam dunk, and the visual experience is completely different.
It seemed that Akagi Haruko had been fascinated by Rukawa's grace and elegance. She clenched her hands and stared at Rukawa with her beautiful eyes as he started to return to defense.
When Akagi and others saw Rukawa successfully dunk again, everyone's eyes turned to Rukawa.
Rukawa Kaede in the field seemed to have noticed the gazes of several people, and subconsciously raised his head to look at the audience seats at the sidelines. He saw Jinguji Budou, Mitsui Shou and others.
"That's... Mitsui-senpai and that Budou guy."
“Are they here to watch my game?”
Rukawa Kaede was a little surprised to see Jinguji Budou and Mitsui Shou, and murmured in his heart.
Wudao also noticed Rukawa's gaze and waved at him with a smile. Mitsui Shou stood up from his seat and shouted loudly: "Takeishi Junior High School, come on!"
Mitsui's cheers were naturally drowned out by the audience's cheers, but some senior members of the Takeishi team heard the familiar voice, turned their heads to look at the audience and spotted Mitsui.
Seeing the senior players in the stands, Takeishi's players were greatly encouraged and their morale was high.
I don't know if it's because the intelligence gathering level of No. 2 Middle School is not good enough. Their defensive strategy is to defend the inside, but Takeishi Middle School's offense is often launched by Rukawa Kaede from the outside.
No. 2 Middle School did not have any super star players, and no one could limit Rukawa's breakthroughs in a single defense. And every time Rukawa broke through, the strategy adopted by the other defensive players of No. 2 Middle School was often not to make up for the defense, but to tighten the defense line inside.
This kind of defensive style did not give Rukawa the opportunity to break into the inside and make a layup, but after passing the opponent, Rukawa could easily shoot the ball without anyone defending him.
Although they were all mid-range and long-range shots, Rukawa's shooting accuracy was quite high, which was not at the level of a junior high school student at all. Takeishi Junior High School's attack around Rukawa was simply not something the No. 2 Middle School players could stop.
At the same time, Rukawa's defensive awareness is also quite outstanding. Several times during the attack of No. 2 Middle School, Rukawa saw through and stole the ball.
Moreover, the average height of Takeishi Middle School is taller than that of No. 2 Middle School, and the pressure they put on defense is also sufficient, which directly disrupted the offensive rhythm of the entire No. 2 Middle School team.
As one side gained strength while the other lost, Takeishi Junior High School quickly took the lead and slowly expanded this advantage.
When the game was going on for 13 minutes, Takeishi Junior High School had gained a huge lead of 32:17. With Rukawa rushing into the inside and scoring a two-plus-one, the coach of Takeishi Junior High School could no longer hold back and called a timeout.
The coach of No. 2 Middle School calmed the players' mentality. It can be seen that the players of No. 2 Middle School who returned to the court had more confidence and less loss on their faces.
After a stumbling attack by No. 2 Middle School, the offense and defense switched, and the defender of Takeishi Middle School brought the ball to the frontcourt and then quickly passed it to Rukawa Kaede.
After the timeout, the defensive strategy of No. 2 Middle School was adjusted. The number of players specifically guarding Rukawa Kaede increased from one to two. The remaining three formed a zone defense in the interior.
"Look, the defensive formation of No. 2 Middle School has changed. They are targeting Rukawa Kaede!" Haruko saw the defensive intention of No. 2 Middle School and pulled Akagi's clothes and said excitedly. Without waiting for Akagi to reply, Haruko continued:
"Ryukawa Kaede is indeed very strong. He alone has caused the defensive strength of No. 2 Middle School to tilt."
Akagi Takenori glanced at his sister and said in a deep voice: "We can only see some signs of Rukawa Kaede's strength now."
"The goals we scored before weren't good enough."
While Akagi Takenori was speaking, Rukawa Kaede had already taken action.
Rukawa, who was holding the ball, seemed unaware of the change in No. 2 Middle School's defensive strategy. He relied on his speed to initiate a breakthrough. When he passed the first defender and broke into the three-point line, he met the player who came to defend.
Facing the player who came to help defend, Rukawa didn't need to do anything. He took a jump shot against the opponent's defense. At the moment he was shooting, the defender's hand had already covered Rukawa's face. Unfortunately, due to his height and bounce rate, the defender was unable to block Rukawa.
"This guy's timing is so bad!"
“Playing ball is really… ..”
Akagi Takenori whispered, and the words of criticism were just about to come to his lips when he saw the basketball thrown by Rukawa Kaede hit the backboard and went into the net with a slight sound.
"Well... .."
"It actually went in, not bad."
Akagi was somewhat surprised that Rukawa could score a goal under such circumstances. He swallowed back his criticism and could only give a bland compliment.
"This kid has not made any progress!"
Mitsui looked at Rukawa's goal and shook his head, seeming extremely disappointed.
Wu Dao, who had been watching the game with a smile, frowned slightly after seeing Rukawa's goal.
Although the ball was scored, Rukawa's handling of the ball was not beautiful. Some people may think that Rukawa was confident that he could score the ball despite the defense, but in Budo's opinion, Rukawa had too many choices.
There is no need for such a strong shot.
The change in the defensive style of No. 2 Middle School did not have much impact on Takeishi Middle School, and Rukawa Kaede's offense was still unstoppable. Under the defensive pressure of No. 2 Middle School, Rukawa Kaede's hit rate dropped slightly, but it did not affect the overall situation.
However, Rukawa exposed a big problem in this game, that is, his offensive choices were really poor.
In the end, Takeishi Junior High School won the game, and Rukawa Kaede scored 37 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 steals. The data was quite gorgeous and unique in the entire junior high school arena.
"This kid needs to practice hard after coming to Xiangbei. If he plays like this, he will run into a wall whenever he meets a player with good talent."
After the game, Wudao took a deep look at Rukawa before leaving the stadium, and then left the stadium with Takako and others.
Mitsui Hisashi, Akagi Takenori and others obviously discovered the problems with Rukawa's playing style, so no matter how Haruko promoted Rukawa's abilities, Akagi just responded in a perfunctory manner.
In Akagi's opinion, Rukawa Kaede can only be said to be a good seedling, and his combat power is still far behind that of Jinguji Budou and Mitsui Hisashi.
Watching a junior high school game was just a way for Budo and the others to relax during the county tournament.
The next day, Xiangbei High School faced off against Songyuan High School in their second game of this year's county tournament qualifiers.
Songyuan High School is not a strong team in the traditional sense, and the team composition is also very young. Although it is also a team that won the first game and entered the second game, it is still far behind Xiangbei in terms of hard power.
Facing Matsubara, Coach Anzai still sent out the freshman team led by Jinguji Budou at the beginning. Halfway through the first half, Jinguji Budou had handed over a terrifying data of 19 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 blocks.
The score between the two teams also reached a large lead of 26:11.
In this game, Wudao still played the center position. In the low post area, he was like an empty space. Songyuan's defense was useless in front of Wudao.
Although Budou played well in the match, Coach Anzai still did not keep Budou on the court for too much time. He replaced Budou with Takenori Akagi and put him on the court.
When Akagi was watching the game from the sidelines, he thought that Budo played easily because his opponent was too weak.
But when Akagi came on the court, replaced Wudao as the main center and took on the offensive task, Akagi realized that he was wrong before.
The group of people in Matsubara were offended by martial arts and wanted to get revenge. After Akagi Takenori came on the court, whenever they received the basketball in the interior, they were directly double-teamed and surrounded by four people.
Unlike Takeshi, Akagi does not have superb footwork in the interior. After catching the ball, besides holding the basketball stupidly to prevent being stolen, he also looks for a target to pass the ball. His intention is very obvious. Facing double-teaming, Akagi finds it very difficult to dribble, let alone pass the ball.
At this time, the Songyuan players suddenly discovered that Akagi Takenori, who is also a tall man of about 195cm in height, with a mature face and looks difficult to deal with, is actually much easier to deal with than the pretty boy No. 15 just now!
Akagi was surrounded, Miyagi's outside shooting was average, and the rest of the players just barely overcame their nervousness in the second game. For a while, Shohoku's offense stagnated.
As the game progressed, Shohoku's lead was gradually being caught up by Matsubara.
At this moment, the Shohoku High School team on the court seemed to have become the one-man team of Akagi in martial arts memory. Even facing a team like Matsubara, they had no way to gain an advantage.
"Is this the level of a team that is supported by only Akagi?"
"It seems that Akagi's ability is not even a little bit inferior to that of Budo!"
Mitsui Shou looked at Akagi Takenori who was fighting hard in the field, and then turned his head to look at Jinguji Budo who was drinking ginseng and wolfberry tea, and sighed in his heart. Sometimes the gap is revealed inadvertently.
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