"Xian Dao!"
“Give me the ball!”
Just when Sendoh saw the situation clearly and was ready to take action himself, Shimoya Nono, who was not far away, came out from the three-point line and ran towards Sendoh while calling out.
Shinomiya's shout lifted the spirits of everyone on the court. The Ryonan substitutes on the sidelines not only did not think there was anything wrong with passing the ball to Shinomiya at this time, but instead began to shout loudly. Sendoh, who had always been very rational, looked a little helpless when he saw Shinomiya asking for the ball.
"I still want to play by myself..." Sendoh murmured in a voice that only he could hear, and then when Shimonoseki came to his side, he immediately passed the ball to him, and at the same time quickly helped Shimonoseki to make a pick-and-roll to block the following Hainan No. 6.
Shinomiya Tano got the ball and caught a glimpse of Sendoh delaying the pursuit of one of Hainan's players. Maki Shinichi reacted quickly, bypassed Sendoh and came in front of Shinomiya Tano, while Takasago Kazuma was a little further away, cutting off Takeshi's route to the inside.
In just less than a second, Shimonoya took in all the information on the court. The next second after getting the basketball, he dribbled the ball with his left hand and quickly broke through.
Shigong Tianye didn't have any fancy breakthrough skills, he just relied on his terrifying explosive power and strength to force Maki Shinichi to eat him. The moment Shigong Tianye's body touched Maki Shinichi, it was difficult for Maki Shinichi to make any counter-movements. He could only endure the discomfort of the breath and turn around to chase Shigong Tianye.
At the same time, Takasago Kazuma immediately moved his feet and surrounded Shinomiya Tano together with Maki Shinichi. Omasa Shifuku, who was originally defending Sendoh, also switched defense immediately and blocked Shinomiya Tano before Takasago Kazuma.
When Sigong Tianye reached the middle distance, he was faced with a triple-team. He suddenly stopped and looked towards the basket.
"Fake move!"
"It's a fake move."
The two players in front of Shinomiya Tano, Omasa Shifuku and Takasago Kazuma, made a judgment the moment Shinomiya Tano stopped, thinking that the opponent was praying to Buddha, and did not jump immediately. Because in the previous ten minutes of the game, Shinomiya Tano did not shoot many times, and most of the time he scored by breaking through layups or dunks.
However, this established impression made the two of them lose the opportunity to defend.
Shinomiya Tano suddenly stopped, took the ball and jumped, and shot directly in two motion. The basketball hit the backboard from a 45-degree mid-range distance and went into the net. As the sound of the basketball going into the net rang out, cheers broke out again from the Ryonan bench.
"It's still a long way to go." After the basketball went into the net, Shimoya maintained the shooting posture for two seconds, said to the Hainan people, and then began to return to defense.
On the way back to defense, Shinomiya Tano looked towards a corner of the stands.
"Jinguji Budo, it will be your turn soon, Shohoku!"
Shigong Tianye retracted his gaze and took a defensive stance after returning to the field. At this time, the Ryonan people had also completed their positions. Looking at the Hainan people who began to advance, Shigong Tianye suddenly slapped the floor with both palms and shouted:
"Come!"
Sigong Tianye's sudden shouting made the already nervous Hainan players even more nervous. Coach Gaotou's encouragement and comfort to the players during the timeout had greatly reduced the effect of Sigong Tianye's one-on-three shot.
"Ryonan has completely gained momentum. It looks like Hainan has no chance."
Coach Anxi shook his head and sighed, then suddenly stood up and said to the players:
"Let's go. There will be no suspense in the next game. Hainan has no chance of counterattacking."
"Everyone should have a good rest after returning. If you need to train, the intensity should not be too high. You should prepare well for the next game."
"Our match against Hainan will definitely be a tough battle."
As Coach Anxi spoke, everyone in Xiangbei stood up, put on their backpacks, and followed Coach Anxi out of the venue.
On the court, Ryonan and Hainan fought for several rounds, and the result was not unexpected. Even if three people surrounded Shinomiya Tanno, Shinomiya Tanno was still able to score the ball. Even if the first attack failed, his terrifying leg strength would allow him to have the possibility of a second attack.
No one on Hainan's side can match Shinomiya Tano's jumping ability. Hainan, which has completely lost air superiority, has no chance of turning defeat into victory.
Coach Anzai could see this, Coach Tianoka could see it, and of course Coach Takato could see it as well.
After the defensive switch, Coach Gaotou tried to let the players take turns to defend off the court, and even made substitutions in the short time in the first half, but no matter what, Hainan could not withstand the attack of Shigong Tianye.
The worst part was that the morale of the Hainan players began to waver, which made their originally smooth offense stumble. Even if they attacked the weakness of Uekusa, it still couldn't help the team stabilize the situation.
At the end of the first half, Coach Gaotou gave up.
It is not a wise choice for Hainan to fight to the death with Ryonan High School. Kanagawa Prefecture has two seats for the national competition. It is highly likely that they will not be Ryonan's opponent in a fight to the death today, which will also greatly reduce the players' condition.
Instead of continuing to fight with Ryonan, it is better to focus on the other games to come.
In the second half, Coach Gaotou let go and replaced some first- and second-year players with experience. He was no longer obsessed with winning the game, nor was he obsessed with the so-called goal difference. In Hainan's view, the goal difference system is quite unnecessary in the round-robin system of selecting two out of four.
What Hainan needs to do is to win all the next games to grab the last qualifying spot.
While Hainan was changing its lineup, Ryonan also gave the opponent enough face. After the change of lineup, Sendoh and Shinomiya Tano were still on the court, but the two of them played a little casually during this period. Shinomiya Tano, who played alone in the first half, also began to pass the ball to his teammates. The game became harmonious and there was no suspense anymore.
More than 20 minutes later, the final whistle sounded and Ryonan High School won the game with a score of 93:81. The undefeated champion of Kanagawa Prefecture for more than ten years tasted defeat today.
This defeat also caused a psychological change among the people in Hainan.
...
The next day, Ayako brought the latest news to the Shohoku team who were practicing in the gym. Kainan High School lost to Ryonan. Kainan University Affiliated School, which had dominated the high school basketball world in Kanagawa Prefecture for more than a decade, lost.
"Ryonan High School finally defeated Hainan with a score of 93:81."
"I heard from my former classmates that Hainan changed its lineup in the second half. All the third-year players left the court and were replaced by second-year players."
In the rest area beside the Xiangbei basketball stadium, the Xiangbei players gathered around Ayako and listened to her talking about yesterday's game.
"Changed the lineup? It seems that Coach Anxi's prediction was correct. Hainan should have given up the fight with Ryonan High School."
"From the situation in the first half, if Hainan can adjust the mentality of the players, the outcome will still be in suspense."
"So, Hainan is ready to fight to the death in the next game?"
Mitsui Shou had a basketball tucked into his waist, and after listening to Ayako's words, he had some guesses about the game.
"Fight to the death in the next game? Damn, I was underestimated!" Miyagi Ryouta patted the ball, looking a little unhappy.
Isn't Hainan High School's strategy telling everyone that Xiangbei High School is weaker than Ryonan High School? !
"They, Hainan, can't stop the combination of Shinomiya Tano and Sendoh, do they think they can stop our Xiangbei High School?"
"Damn it, I'm going to make them suffer in Friday's game!"
Miyagi Ryouta said angrily, and then felt that time was running out, so he stopped surrounding Ayako and walked into the court with the ball to start shooting practice. Ayako was a little surprised by Miyagi Ryouta's state. She didn't expect that Miyagi would actually focus on the game one day. This state was the first time Miyagi had been in this state since he entered Xiangbei.
When the other Xiangbei players heard that Kainan was going to fight a desperate battle in the next game, they all felt a lot of pressure. Seeing Miyagi rushing to practice, they followed Miyagi's footsteps. Seeing the players who were obviously nervous, Ayako couldn't help but feel a little worried.
"Mitsui-senpai, is it really okay for the players to be in this condition?" Ayako pointed at the players who were entering the field and asked with some concern.
"It's okay. As long as the boy is in good condition, everything will be fine."
Mitsui looked towards the half court near the gate, where Jinguji Budou was shooting three-pointers. When Ayako and the players were talking about the result of yesterday's game, Jinguji Budou didn't come over either, he was still practicing over there. The result of the game between Kainan High School and Ryonan High School seemed to have nothing to do with Jinguji Budou.
In the evening, after Xiangbei's training was over, Jinguji Takeshi changed his shoes, put on his backpack and left the gym. Takeshi left without saying hello to anyone. When Miyagi saw Takeshi about to leave, he wanted to take Takeshi with him to practice shooting, but was stopped by Mitsui.
In the words of Mitsui Hisashi, even in today's martial arts, one needs some time to adjust one's mentality.
Did the performance of the Ryonan High School players have no impact on Budo? Obviously, that was impossible. The terrifying strength of Shigong Tianye and Sendo's overall view and personal skills that could easily activate the entire team left a deep impression on Budo.
And all this is just the tip of the iceberg of Ryonan's strength.
From the beginning of the school year to now, Wu Dao is not the only one who has made progress.
Flagside Park Stadium.
After finishing his training, Takeshi Jinguji arrived at the stadium as scheduled. When he arrived, Hanamichi Sakuragi, Yohei Mito and his group were already waiting here.
Sakuragi Hanamichi seemed to have gained a lot from watching the game yesterday. Before Budo came, he was trying to dunk. Sakuragi Hanamichi's dribbling skills have improved a lot, but he still can't master the rhythm when he dribbles the ball to dunk. He has been trying for a while, and although he has succeeded in dunking a few times, he always feels dissatisfied with his dunks.
Even without watching, Sakuragi Hanamichi knew that his dunk would not look good.
"You, Brother Wudao, you are here!"
Mito Yohei was the first to see Jinguji Budou walking towards the stadium at the intersection, and immediately waved and greeted him.
When Sakuragi Hanamichi heard Mito Yohei's call, his eyes lit up, he looked at Wudao excitedly, and ran towards him happily.
"Brother, come and teach me how to dunk! I always feel like there's something wrong with my dunking, but I can't tell what the problem is."
Sakuragi Hanamichi held the ball with both hands, looking excited. Looking at Sakuragi, Jinguji Takeshi smiled.
"If you want to dunk, the first thing you need to do is become proficient at dribbling."
"Your jumping ability, your strength, and your muscle flexibility are all fine. The biggest problem is your rhythm."
"This is caused by your poor dribbling skills, because you are thinking about dribbling and dunking at the same time, and your rhythm will be disrupted when you are distracted."
"When your dribbling is as easy as eating and drinking, then you can practice dunking."
Takeshi's words made Sakuragi Hanamichi fall into deep thought. If it was before, he would definitely think that it was Takeshi who helped him, but after watching two games yesterday, he indeed found that both Takeshi Jinguji and the No. 8 of Ryonan had very high dribbling skills. At least some of the actions performed by Takeshi Jinguji and Shinomiya Tano are impossible for Sakuragi Hanamichi to do now.
"I see. In that case, I must practice well!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi said this, but Takeshi patted Sakuragi on the shoulder and said, "Let's change the training these days. I'll teach you how to defend!"
"You watched yesterday's game. If a team wants to win, it must be good enough on the defensive end."
"Similarly, a great player cannot be too bad at defending."
"I'm going to modify your training plan. From Monday to Friday, you'll be on offense for three days and on defense for two days."
Wudao said with a smile, took the basketball from Sakuragi Hanamichi's hand and moved it to the center line.
"Defense?!" Sakuragi's face was full of confusion, and then he showed a lack of interest. In Sakuragi's opinion, defense can't attract the audience's attention, so what's the point of practicing defense? !
"Yes, defense! Because I suddenly discovered that defense can make you quickly understand the importance of 'footsteps'."
"Stop talking nonsense, come up and defend me."
Wudao dribbled the ball and hooked at Sakuragi. He also wanted to borrow Sakuragi Hanamichi's terrifying bounce and beast-like intuition to find the pressure against Shinomiya Tano in advance. Of course, compared to Shinomiya Tano, Sakuragi was very green, but it didn't matter. With Sakuragi's talent, he would be able to get into the state quickly.
Moreover, a one-on-one duel is more likely to stimulate Sakuragi's desire to win. This kid is not someone who will give in easily.
Seeing that Wudao insisted, Sakuragi Hanamichi nodded, recalling the defensive postures of the players in yesterday's game. He bent his knees slightly, opened his arms, and came in front of Wudao.
"Well, the posture is not bad, then I will start!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Jinguji Budou lowered his body and broke through directly. In an instant, he passed Sakuragi Hanamichi and approached the three-point line. Sakuragi's center of gravity was not low enough, and when he wanted to turn around and catch up, it was too late. He watched Jinguji Budou easily layup.
After the ball was scored, Wudao picked up the basketball and walked towards the center line while demonstrating to Sakuragi Hanamichi.
"Hanachi, you need to focus on one side when defending. If you are defending against a breakthrough, your center of gravity should be lowered."
"The crab step is the best way to tackle the attacker, just like this."
As he said that, Budou threw the ball to Sakuragi, came to Sakuragi's side, made corresponding defensive moves, and also showed him what the crab step is.
Sakuragi Hanamichi recalled the game scene yesterday, nodded, and threw the ball back to Wudao. He finally had some interest in defense. At the same time, Sakuragi Hanamichi was also thinking about the defense in his little head. Of course, as a beginner, Sakuragi Hanamichi always made some foul moves.
“… … .”
"Hanamichi, stop the tackle! Didn't Haruko tell you that you can't use your feet in basketball?! This is basketball, not football!"
"Don't push, it's a foul!"
"You bastard, where did you learn how to charge so violently?!"
If Jinguji Budo didn't have the protection of the Golden Bell and Iron Cloth Shirt, he would never train Sakuragi in defensive skills.
Going to school, training, and teaching Sakuragi, such a peaceful and regular day passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was the second round of the round-robin tournament. Today's game is still two games, in the morning, Xiangbei vs. Kainan, and in the afternoon, Takenoko vs. Ryonan.
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