Jinguji Budo scored a step-back three-pointer under the defense of Maki Shinichi. Although it was not the last straw that broke the camel's back, it was still a heavy hammer. Hainan, which was already weak, seemed even more shaky at this moment.
Although Coach Gaotou was angry and helpless, he calmed down a little, took a look at the 14-point difference and the less than ten minutes left in the second half, and stood up decisively to call the last timeout.
When the Hainan players returned to the rest area, Coach Gaotou immediately gathered the players and said loudly:
"Don't give up, there is time, attack slowly!"
"Amu, stop defending Jinguji Budou, go defend Mitsui Shou, and never let Mitsui Shou have a chance to shoot a three-pointer at this point."
"Daimasa, you go and defend Jinguji Budo. Listen carefully, Daimasa, a person who doesn't dare to fight against an opponent stronger than himself will never be able to become a basketball player, and he doesn't deserve to have the dream of dominating the country!"
"We in Hainan must not be discouraged even if we are extremely backward. We must fight our opponents to the death!"
"We have made this mistake once and lost the title of 'King'. We must not make the same mistake a second time."
"If we lose again this time, we won't even be able to participate in the national competition!"
"Everyone, cheer up."
In the previous game, Hainan High School had already lost to Ryonan High School and lost the title of "King". If they lose this game again, not only will they lose the title of "King", but they will even lose the right to participate in the national competition. This is something Coach Gaotou does not want to face.
However, Hainan's players are now giving their all in the game, and Coach Gaotou has no other options except to encourage them.
In just one minute, Coach Takato told his players what he wanted to say. He also adjusted the defensive formation of Hainan. In his opinion, it was not realistic to defend Jinguji Budou. Instead of sending Maki Shinichi, who had the strongest single defense ability, to defend Jinguji Budou, it would be better to let him defend Mitsui Shou.
As for Jinguji Budo, letting Omasa Shifuku go there will not make much difference in the effect, and letting Maki Shinichi defend Mitsui Shou can at least make Mitsui Shou hold the ball as little as possible and reduce the threat of Mitsui Shou's three-pointers.
At this point in the game, every three-pointer from Xiangbei was a death warrant, and Mitsui Shou must not be allowed to have a chance to shoot.
The timeout passed quickly, the players from both teams returned to the court and the game continued.
Hainan's offense still revolves around Maki Shinichi, and the other players are more likely to cover for Maki Shinichi, allowing Maki Shinichi to have a one-on-one opportunity with Miyagi. Hainan's style of play can be said to be impeccable. Jinguji Budou occupied the inside and did not dare to let Akagi deal with Maekawa Daiki alone. He could only watch Maki Shinichi break into the mid-range and shoot in a wide open position.
Sometimes Maki Shinichi would even deliberately break through the direction where Akagi Takenori was guarding, using a layup to entice Akagi into committing a foul. After Akagi was fooled once, he learned his lesson.
On the other hand, the offense of Shohoku High School is still dominated by Jinguji Budo. The Shohoku players have already consumed a lot of physical strength on the defensive end, and their enthusiasm when attacking is very average.
One reason was that Hainan's defense was too tight, and the players' running did not get good offensive opportunities. Another reason was that Jinguji Budou's voice on the offensive end was too loud. Everyone in Xiangbei could feel that they were reduced to the background on the offensive end. Except for Mitsui Hisashi who had offensive intentions and the physical strength to run, the others were trying to save some energy and focus on defense to maintain the score difference.
However, Mitsui Shou, who was fully guarded by Maki Shinichi, was also very uncomfortable. There was no teammate on the Xiangbei side to help him with the off-ball pick-and-roll, and it was too difficult for him to get rid of Maki Shinichi's defense alone. Maki Shinichi had the judgment required for sticky defense, and Maki Shinichi's physical fitness was not inferior to Mitsui Shou. For a while, it became extremely difficult for Mitsui Shou to even catch the ball.
This defensive pressure made Mitsui Shou feel like he was back in the days when he was training in the United States. Although Maki Shinichi was not as black as the black people in the United States, his physical fitness was not much worse than those black people Mitsui Shou had met.
The Xiangbei players lost their momentum, and the pressure on the offensive end naturally fell on Jinguji Budou.
Throughout the game, except for the chance to catch his breath on the defensive end, Budou was indispensable in every attack of Xiangbei. At this point in the game, Budou's physical energy was also greatly consumed. Facing the defense of Daisho Shifuku, Budou was still able to break through the opponent's defense, but he made more moves when breaking through.
He no longer had a way to simply rely on starting to break through Omasa Shifuku's defense, and as the number of breakthrough moves increased, Wudao's physical energy was increasingly consumed, and the consumption of physical energy also led to a decrease in Wudao's hit rate.
As the game progressed, the score difference between Hainan and Xiangbei gradually changed from 14 points to 10 points, and finally broke through double digits to 8 points.
When the score difference narrowed to eight points, Coach Anxi called a timeout. During the timeout, Coach Anxi did not make any tactical arrangements, but gave the players time to rest and catch their breath.
At this point in the game, it is no longer a contest of strength between the two teams, but a contest of players' willpower. The players of Xiangbei are very tired, and so are the players of Hainan.
What supports the players is will, not physical fitness.
Jinguji Budo, who took a short break, scored another three-pointer in the first round after the timeout, widening the gap to 11 points. But soon, Hainan responded.
The two teams fought back and forth, and the intense battle caused the audience in the stands to be silent. Only when players from both teams scored a goal would the audience cheer for a while, but then they would immediately hold their breath and concentrate on watching the game.
At 18 minutes into the second half, Hainan scored again, narrowing the gap between the two teams to 6 points. But soon, Jinguji Budo pressed the attack time and immediately responded.
After that, the two teams took turns in offense and defense several times, but Hainan still couldn't break the six-point difference.
The six-point difference seemed to be a chasm that determined the winner and loser.
“Beep~~”
As a long whistle sounded, Maki Shinichi and the Hainan players, who were holding the ball and organizing the offense, looked at the referee in a daze. In the last few minutes, neither Xiangbei nor Hainan called a timeout. The Hainan players completely forgot about the score and devoted themselves to the game, not noticing the passage of time.
After the whistle sounded, everyone in the stadium looked at the scoreboard, 98:93. Xiangbei High School scored 58 points in the first half, but in the second half, they only scored 40 points, which was enough to show the defensive intensity of Hainan in the second half.
The Xiangbei players also came out of the game at this time, and when they saw the time had completely elapsed on the scoreboard, they immediately cheered.
“Win!
!”
“We won!”
The players on the Xiangbei bench cheered, threw away their sweat towels, and rushed into the court, cheering and hugging Mitsui and others. Even Coach Anzai breathed a sigh of relief at this time, and opened his clenched fists, wiped his wet palms on his trouser legs, and then slowly stood up, revealing a relieved smile.
Unlike the excited and cheering Xiangbei players, the Hainan players stared at the scoreboard blankly for a long time without saying a word. Coach Gaotou leaned back on the backrest, as if he had lost all his strength, and closed his eyes in pain.
"Lost... Lost... ..."
“There’s not even a national competition…”
Maki Shinichi seemed to be deaf. He could not hear any sound around him, but only his own heartbeat. The moment the thoughts in his heart emerged, the strong Maki Shinichi could not help but feel a sore nose and moist eyes.
After all, he was just a 16-year-old boy. The uncle who was held back was just a joke after all.
Coach Gaotou is used to winning and losing. How can one be undefeated in competitive sports? Moreover, Hainan is not the real invincible champion. In the national competition, Hainan has never been the strongest team. Coach Gaotou maintained his final demeanor and led the players to shake hands with the Xiangbei players one by one. Then, he led the players to quietly leave the field.
Mu Shenyi was standing at the very end of the line, his face covered with glistening beads of water, it was unclear whether they were sweat or tears.
Before leaving, Maki Shinichi took a deep look at Jinguji Budo who was surrounded by his teammates, then glanced at the stands, stared at Shinomiya Tano in the stands for a while, and swore secretly in his heart.
"Next time, I will lead Hainan myself and regain the title of king!"
... .
After the match between Xiangbei and Hainan ended, Coach Anxi led the players back to the locker room.
The match with Hainan really exhausted the Xiangbei players. After the match, Chiba, Mitsui and others were so tired that they fell asleep. The body's protective mechanism has been activated due to excessive physical consumption.
Although Jinguji Takeshi really wanted to wake up his teammates to stretch, after shouting for a long time, the sleeping ones didn't respond so he stopped shouting. Instead, he asked Muguro to lead a few first-years to bend Mitsui and the others' legs, stretch their muscles, and massage their muscles to relax them.
After stretching, he left the lounge. Although Budo was very tired, he was not as tired as Mitsui and the others. He still had to watch the next game of Ryonan, so he took this opportunity to go to the stands to find Sakuragi and the others.
Jinguji Budo just walked out of the lounge and met Ayako in the corridor. Ayako was holding a plastic bag in each hand, one of which was filled with a variety of drinks, and the other was filled with three bunches of bananas.
"Hey, Wudao, help me carry the things in."
Ayako was already struggling to carry the two bags, and when she saw Budo, she shouted as if she had met her savior.
"You bought so many things, too much." Wudao said as he took the drink and banana from Ayako, turned around, pushed the door, and walked back to the lounge with the things.
"It's not much. We need to eat. Akagi-senpai and the others are exhausted and need to replenish themselves."
"Come on, take some bananas to fill your stomach."
Caizi followed behind Jinguji Takeshi, and after Takeshi put down the bag, she quickly opened the bag, broke off three bananas and handed them to Takeshi. Takeshi did not refuse, but took them and thanked him, and did not forget to flatter him:
"Thank you. Fortunately, the team has you as a manager. The benefits have improved a lot."
"No, I just went to buy some things, and Coach Anxi paid for it."
"I am so lucky to be the manager of the Xiangbei basketball team. Even though I am a girl, I can follow the team and see the national competition!"
"Thank you, Budo."
"If it weren't for you, Liangtian and his men would never have been able to defeat Hainan."
Ayako looked at Miyagi Ryouta while she was talking. Ayako and Miyagi had known each other for a long time. Miyagi had expressed his feelings to Ayako a long time ago. Although Ayako did not agree immediately, her attitude towards Miyagi was obviously different from that of other players. Ayako was also well aware of Miyagi's thoughts.
Every high school student who plays basketball has dreamed of "dominating the country", but some people work hard for it, while others just dream about it. The existence of Jinguji Budo has made it possible for these players of Xiangbei to realize their dreams.
Ayako is not only the manager of Shohoku, but also the data recorder during the game. She is very clear about the importance of Takeshi Jinguji to Shohoku. Take this game for example, Takeshi Jinguji scored a terrifying 55 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 blocks.
How terrifying his personal ability is can be seen from the match against Hainan. Ayako sometimes thought that if Jinguji Budo played the entire game in the early rounds of the county tournament, his average score per game might be able to reach 50 points. Just thinking about it was extremely terrifying.
"Whatever I say, it's the result of everyone's hard work. I just have everyone's help."
"You take care of them here. If they get up, let them stretch. I'll go watch the next game."
"I'll be back after the game."
Wu Dao waved his hand casually and left the lounge. He didn't know what kind of results he had achieved in this competition, and he didn't care, because his goal was not here at all.
After leaving the locker room, Wudao went along the corridor to the outer field, made a circle before reaching the stands, where he found Sakuragi Hanamichi and others.
At this time, Ryonan's game had been played for 2 minutes, and the score between the two teams was 8:0. Ryonan High School had an absolute advantage, and the situation on the field was completely one-sided.
"Duang!
! "As Shigong Tianye stole the ball and dunked, there was a loud noise in the court and warm cheers broke out in the stands.
“ohhhh!
”
"So strong! That's the way to play basketball!"
"I must be stronger than that guy in the future!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi's attention had long been attracted by the figure on the court, and he didn't notice that there was a person behind him.
"You are so arrogant. There may be only one high school student stronger than Shinomiya Tano in the whole of Kanagawa."
Wu Dao's voice came from behind Sakuragi Hanamichi, causing several people to look up.
"Brother Budo!"
"Jinguji-senpai."
Sakuragi, Haruko and others subconsciously greeted Takeshi when they saw him. When Sakuragi Hanamichi saw that it was Jinguji Takeshi, his face immediately broke into a smile. He grabbed Takeshi's arm and dragged him to his side.
"Goal, goal." Sakuragi also knew that he was definitely not as good as the dunking Shinomiya Tano in the middle of the court. He smiled and said shamelessly. Suddenly, he remembered something and asked curiously:
"Brother Budo, you just said that there is someone in Kanagawa Prefecture who is stronger than Shinomiya Tano? Who is that?"
Sakuragi Hanamichi was very curious. In his opinion, Shinomiya Tano was the strongest player in Kanagawa Prefecture. Dunking was as easy as eating and drinking. He had never seen a similar playing style in other Kanagawa players.
Young Sakuragi has a deep obsession with slam dunks.
"Hey, of course it's me!"
Wudao put his thumb on his chest and laughed. After hearing Wudao's words, Sakuragi Hanamichi looked up in disdain, as if he had seen something dirty. The other members of the Sakuragi Army also looked unconvinced, only Akagi Haruko nodded slightly, as if thinking about something.
Only Akagi Haruko, who knows basketball, can understand Jinguji Budo's words. As for Sakuragi and the other single-minded people, they simply think that Shinomiya Tano, who can dunk like drinking water, is the strongest.
"Hey, Hanamichi, don't disbelieve it."
"If there is one person in Kanagawa who can beat him, then that person is definitely me!"
Wu Dao put his hands on the railing, looked at the man fighting on the court, and said.
When he said this, Wu Dao's expression was not relaxed, but rather solemn.
"This guy jumped higher!"
On the court, Shimono Shimoda faced his opponent's layup and jumped up to block the shot. Watching Shimono Shimoda's palm easily pass the upper edge of the small black frame on the backboard, Wu Dao's joy of winning just now disappeared in an instant.
According to Jinguji Budo's knowledge, the last high school student with such an outrageous bounce was called Zion.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .