Jinguji Budou was sent to the free throw line by Omasa Shifuku. Budou had no idea how many times he had practiced free throws from this position. It was almost like a conditioned reflex. He didn't even need to look at the ball when he shot it to know whether his free throw would go in.
“Got it!”
Watching the trajectory of the basketball flying towards the basket, Wu Dao muttered to himself.
At the same time, a crisp sound of the ball hitting the net was heard, and the basketball went into the net. As Wudao scored the free throw, the bench of Xiangbei was filled with jubilation. Wudao's three plus one really boosted the morale. The advantages that Hainan High School had gained by using the full-court press tactics completely disappeared with Wudao's three plus one.
Whether on or off the court, all the Xiangbei players were extremely happy.
"Well done! Wudao!" Mitsui Shou walked over, patted Wudao on the shoulder, praised him, and then started to defend with Wudao.
Mitsui Shou and the others had smiles on their faces, but Budo, who had a three plus one strength score of four, was unusually calm, and even looked a little serious.
"Hey, Budo, what's wrong with you? You look so miserable."
"Aren't you happy after scoring a goal?"
Mitsui Shou noticed Takeshi's expression, and seeing that there was no smile on his face, he asked in confusion.
"The score was not far away. We were at a disadvantage in terms of situation. I don't know how to be happy."
“Although I am an optimistic person, if we cannot break Hainan’s full-court press, it will be difficult to win today’s game.”
While Wudao and Mitsui Shou were talking, they had already run across the center line. During the time they were talking, Hainan had already begun to organize an attack, but Hainan's advancement speed was very slow, and it did not seem anxious or impatient.
"Miyagi, I'll be the one dribbling the ball across half court, and you'll be the middleman during the attack."
Wu Dao suddenly ran faster, and without waiting for Mitsui Shou to say anything, he came directly near Miyagi, said something to Miyagi, and then took a position inside the three-point line.
Originally, Jinguji Budou didn't want to take over the dribbling responsibility directly from Miyagi. Firstly, doing so would undermine Miyagi's self-confidence and make him feel that it was his incompetence that caused the team to make such adjustments. Secondly, Budou wanted to save more energy for the offensive end and didn't want to consume more energy to get rid of the opponent's defense.
Although he was confident in his physical reserve, they were facing Hainan High School, a frequent participant in the national competition! Hainan's substitutes were not of low standard. If they were to be beaten by the rotation and consume too much physical strength, without the support of Budo's firepower, Xiangbei would definitely not be a match for Hainan. Budo knew this very well.
However, the reason for making this decision is to hope to use such adjustments to widen the score gap and force Hainan to make adjustments as well.
Budo could see that Hainan was planning to use the two tall players, Daiki Maekawa and Kazuma Takasago, to focus on attacking Takenori Akagi. In order to widen the gap, while maintaining the offensive efficiency, it was also necessary to defend against the opponent's attack.
For the mission of supporting the inside line, among the Xiangbei players who are now on the field, only Budo is the most suitable. The others either have no height, no strength, or neither of them.
Xiangbei took position, and as Wudao adjusted his position, Xiangbei's defense line had 3 outside and 2 inside, and the defensive force was evenly distributed.
Shinichi Maki, who dribbled the ball into the frontcourt, immediately noticed that Shohoku had made adjustments on the defensive end. He glanced at Daiki Maekawa who was squeezed together with Akagi in the interior, and then looked at Kazuma Takasago who was firmly trapped behind by Jinguji Budou. After a brief thought, he pretended to break through and passed the ball to Omasa Shifuku.
At this time, the defensive player that Omasa Shifu was facing was Shohoku's second-year player, Kimura Mitsunobu.
After receiving the basketball, Omasa Shifuku lifted the ball above his head, took a half step forward, and leaned sideways to Kogure Konobu. He was about ten centimeters taller than Kogure Konobu, and using his height advantage, this offensive posture was enough to make Kogure helpless.
Suddenly, Omasa Shifuku got the ball and took a step over Kogure Konobu. Kogure Konobu, who was defending closely, had no space to chase him and could only watch Omasa Shifuku cross the three-point line and run towards the mid-range.
"So weak!" After successfully breaking through, Omasa Shifuku kept his eyes on whether Murasakibara was following up to defend him. When he found that Murasakibara was two and a half body lengths away from him, the last trace of vigilance in his heart was let down.
Akagi saw that Mugure Konobu was broken through, and immediately pulled out from the inside to help defend, but before he arrived, Omasa Shifuku shot directly. Omasa Shifuku's shooting force was slightly reduced due to Akagi's influence, and the basketball hit the side of the basket and fell to the side. However, it was not the side where Budo was, but the side where Maekawa Daiki was.
Without Akagi's restriction, Daiki Maekawa jumped up, got a little below the ball, and directly put the ball into the basket.
After the goal, the Hainan people did not cheer or celebrate. All the players immediately dispersed on the spot, pressing forward once again.
In the stands, Coach Tanaka saw this scene, touched his chin and smiled.
"The performance of Jinguji Budo in the last few balls was like a layer of golden clothing, wrapping up the tattered Xiangbei."
"But when the gilding fades, Xiangbei will show his true face."
"It is true that Xiangbei is a good team now, but Xiangbei also has many weaknesses."
"And that guy Gaotou has obviously discovered Xiangbei's weakness!"
"Shohoku, what will you do when facing such a Hainan?!"
Coach Tagore whispered in his heart and sat up straight, wanting to see how Shohoku High School would respond.
Today's Shohoku is actually a very deformed team. It has Budo Jinguji and a super scorer like Mitsui Hisashi, but it also has immature sophomores like Takenori Akagi and Kogure Mitsunobu.
In Shigeka Tanabe's opinion, the Shohoku team on the field has three very fatal weaknesses.
Even though both Akagi Takenori and Kogure Mitsunobu have been playing basketball since childhood, their foundation is not very good.
Nowadays, junior high school students who have received one year of professional training may have a better foundation than these two.
Kogure Munenori's mediocre speed, mediocre strength, and physique far inferior to his opponent made him at a disadvantage when facing Omasa Shifuku.
As for Takenori Akagi, his tall stature is his last fig leaf. In the previous games of Xiangbei, Akagi performed very well when facing the center who was much smaller than him.
However, when facing Shoyo's center, the top center in the county like Kainan Maekawa Daiki, Akagi's weaknesses of slow lateral movement, inaccurate defensive judgment, and lack of experience were fully exposed.
The second-year students Mugure Mitsunobu and Akagi Takenori are the two weaknesses of Xiangbei, but Xiangbei’s biggest weakness is not these two people, but...
"Miyagi!" Shohoku served the ball, and Mugure Mitsunobu stood at the baseline and shouted Miyagi's name, but at this time Miyagi had been locked down by Hainan's captain Omasa Shifuku.
The huge height difference made it impossible for Miyagi to get a good chance to catch the ball. After Miyagi tried to increase the distance by speed and failed, he glanced at Jinguji Budo.
He just heard Wu Dao say that he would be responsible for catching the ball.
"Kurogure!" Just when Kourogure was about to pass the ball to Miyagi but to no avail, the voice of Takeshi Jinguji suddenly came over. Takeshi Jinguji, with his two little tails, Daiki Maekawa and Kun, jogged towards Kourogure.
When Murasakibara turned his head to look at Jinguji Takeshi, Takeshi suddenly braked, then turned around and accelerated, running back directly through the defense range of Maekawa Daiki and A Kun, while raising his arms high.
Although Kogure Mitsunobu was young, he was able to seize the opportunity to pass the ball. The basketball was quickly thrown from his hands and fell into the hands of Jinguji Budou.
When Wudao received the ball, he immediately encountered A Kun who was blocking him from the side. However, Wudao didn't care about this opponent at all. While quickly passing the ball forward, his body was directly pressed against A Kun.
Perhaps he was used to defending Miyagi, the moment Jinguji Takeshi, who was 195cm tall and weighed 85kg, bumped into Akun, he only felt a tightness in his chest and was suddenly pushed away, letting Takeshi's way go.
After pushing A Kun away, Jinguji Takeshi quickly dribbled the ball to the frontcourt, but his speed was still slowed down by A Kun. When he crossed the half court, Hainan had already got into position, and even Omasa Shifuku came in front of Takeshi.
This time, Wudao did not choose to attack forcefully, but stopped and began to wait for his teammates.
Wudao knew very well that he couldn't play this game alone. If Xiangbei wanted to win the game, he had to restore the normal offensive flow. With his current physical condition, he really couldn't play the whole game with full firepower while taking care of defense.
In another two years, maybe he will be able to carry the entire team, but now, he can't.
The Xiangbei players entered the frontcourt and the Hainan players took their positions.
In the positional battle, in front of Takeshi was standing Omasa Shifuku, and not far behind Omasa Shifuku, Takasago kept his eyes fixed on Takeshi's movements, while Kogure Konobu was completely left alone.
When an open space appeared, Jinguji Budou did not hesitate and passed the ball directly to Kogure Konobu in the open space.
Not passing the ball when you have time is a fool, not to mention, martial arts requires the players to stand up!
Jinguji Takeshi is tall and strong, and he passes the ball very quickly. The most important thing is that no one in Hainan thought that Takeshi would actually pass the ball to the invisible man, Kogure Konobu. For a moment, everyone on the field was surprised and looked at Kogure Konobu.
Kogure Mitsunobu received the ball outside the three-point line. He looked a little dazed, as if he had not expected Jinguji Budou to pass the basketball to him. Since Jinguji Budou joined Xiangbei, he had hardly received any passes from Budou, whether in practice or in a game.
"Kumuro! No one is watching you, shoot!" Mitsui pointed at Muguro and shouted loudly. And Maki Shinichi in front of him, who had the opportunity to go to Muguro's side to make up for the defense, still stood in front of Mitsui without moving.
He didn't take Mugure Konobu seriously at all.
Kogure Konosuba came back to his senses and raised the ball. His mind was a little confused, but at Mitsui Hisashi's call, he still threw the ball out.
The moment Murasakibara made his move, Wu Dao narrowed his eyes, quickly passed Omasa Shifuku and rushed towards the inside.
Three-point shooting is the offensive method that high school students are least good at in this era.
Although Kogure Mitsunobu shot the ball out, his basic skills were not good enough, and he could not get the ball into the net relying on his courage.
As Jinguji Budo expected, the basketball bounced out of the rim.
Fortunately, Wu Dao was well prepared. At the moment the basketball bounced and fell, he sprinted up and jumped, his height far exceeding that of Daiki Maekawa and Takenori Akagi under the basket, and slapped the basketball with one palm.
The basketball flew out and actually crossed half court and returned to the hands of Kogure Konosuba.
"Keep going!" Wudao growled. Then he turned his back and blocked Takasago who was chasing him and took a relatively good rebounding position. On the other side, Akagi Takenori also lowered his center of gravity and tried hard to squeeze Maekawa Daiki out.
There was a scramble under the basket, but there was nothing in front of Murasakibara. When he got the basketball back, Murasakibara's expression changed slightly, from panic and confusion to determination.
Murasakibara took another three-point shot. This time, although he slightly corrected the angle and strength, the basketball still deviated and hit the edge of the frame again and bounced out.
The basketball did not land in a very comfortable spot, and the rebound was caught by Daiki Maekawa.
"Quick break!" With the help of the rebound, Hainan quickly launched a fast break. Budo was too deep and couldn't catch up. Maki Shinichi received the pass from Maekawa Daiki in the frontcourt and cooperated with Hainan's A Kun in the frontcourt to finish. Mitsui Shou and Miyagi, who were chasing and defending, did not run back when the rebound appeared, and did not catch up with Hainan's fast break.
"I'm... sorry." Takeshi Jinguji was preparing to return to the court to receive his teammate's serve. When he passed by Kogure Konobu, he suddenly heard Kogure Konobu's guilty apology.
"... ... " Wudao turned his head and glanced at Mumu, his face expressionless. Looking at Wudao's face, even Mumu, as a senior, couldn't help but feel nervous. It's not that Wudao was so terrible, but Mumu felt that he had failed his teammates' expectations and felt guilty.
"My body is too stiff. Of course I can't make the shot if I shoot like this."
"Relax a little, the shooting point can be higher, and when no one is guarding you, you can have more time to make adjustments."
After Wudao finished speaking, he trotted back to the court. Mugure Konobu was stunned when he heard this. Looking at the back of Jinguji Wudao leaving, this good guy in the team, the second-year senior who always warmed others, he also felt a warm current in his heart.
"Okay!" Mu Mu Gongyan nodded heavily in response, not caring whether Wu Dao could hear him or not. However, his answer was more for himself than for Wu Dao.
After the transition from offense to defense, Xiangbei had the ball again.
Hainan's full-court press was very effective on Miyagi, but now, the person controlling the ball for Shohoku has been replaced by Jinguji Budo.
Blocking the martial arts of Jinguji Temple and blocking the fertile fields of Miyagi are completely different concepts.
Mitsui Shou served the ball from the backcourt, and the basketball flew to Budo. Dazheng Shifu, who was defending Budo, was at a disadvantage in his position, and the basketball was easily caught by Budo. The next second after the basketball was in his hand, Budo quickly swept the ball and turned around. After a fake move to break through to the left, he directly used his speed advantage to take a big step and dribble the ball past Dazheng Shifu.
Takasago, who wanted to help block the attack, had just approached Budou when Budou used a trick to separate the man and the ball. In the blink of an eye, the defense in front of Budou was completely broken.
"Takasago... You're running so slowly, but you still want to block me?"
Jinguji Budo was tall and fast, and his breakthrough was something that no one in Miyagi Ryouta could do. Watching Budo pass through the Hainan defense line with ease, Miyagi Ryouta felt mixed emotions.
Are you happy? Of course. But I am also very upset and sad.
“Damn it…” Miyagi cursed in his heart as he watched the Hainan defenders chasing after Wu Dao. Suddenly, he had the idea of changing his playing style.
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