On the court, as the game progressed, the situation became clearer and clearer. Under the leadership of Mitsui Hisashi, both Akagi and Chiba were well mobilized, and the effect of the inside and outside connection was very good.
On the other hand, Chang Cheng's opponent's outside attack point was directly strangled by Jinguji Budo. In this case, Chang Cheng can only rely on the performance of the inside players. However, although Mikoshiba is their trump card, his strength is only comparable to that of Akagi Takenori.
In the matchup between the two, Mikoshiba did not have much advantage, and the scoring efficiency was not as easy as coach Chang Cheng had expected.
At the end of the first half, Xiangbei High School was already leading Chang Cheng by nearly 20 points.
After the halftime break, Chang Cheng adjusted his offensive formation, and the ball rights on the outside were concentrated on Chang Cheng's No. 8, who was defended by Miyagi Ryouta.
The opponent seemed to think that Miyagi's height would be a defensive loophole for Xiangbei, so they planned to break through this point.
At the beginning, the opponent did succeed in scoring two goals, but later on, Miyagi seemed to have adapted to the opponent's style of play. With his agility and rich experience, he staged a series of classic steals against a bigger opponent.
After a few times, Chang Cheng returned to his style of fighting hard in the interior, but such a style of play would only lead to a slow death in front of Xiangbei.
Halfway through the second half, the difference between the two teams reached 30 points. Coach Anzai replaced Mitsui Hisashi and Chiba Daiishi with Kogure Konobu and Kakuta Satoru.
After the substitution, Xiangbei High School's defensive and offensive strength was immediately lacking. However, Wudao on the court did not take over the offensive task, but only took over the ball in the frontcourt.
However, he passed the ball more often to Akagi and Kogure Konobu, letting them attack on their own.
Kogure Mitsunobu has been practicing shooting for a while, and this game gave him a chance to practice. Although his shooting accuracy is far inferior to Mitsui Shou and Jinguji Budou, it is enough in this game.
With the cooperation of him and Akagi Takenori, the gap between Xiangbei and Chang Cheng was narrowing a little bit, but the speed of narrowing was very slow. Until the end of the game, Chang Cheng still failed to seize the opportunity of Xiangbei's substitution and overtake the score.
In the end, Xiangbei High School defeated Changcheng High School 84:66 and won its first victory in the national competition.
The Xiangbei players who won the game were all very excited, but the audience on the field was a little disappointed. On the first day of the national competition, many of the spectators were from teams participating in the competition from all over the country. Before the game, they all got to know all the opponents.
As one of the five AA-level players selected by Basketball Magazine, and the first person to appear on the court in this highest-rated sequence, Jinguji Budo naturally attracted a lot of attention.
However, Jinguji Budou did not perform well in this game of Xiangbei. Although Xiangbei won the game, Jinguji Budou's performance disappointed these people.
"There's a big gap in strength between Changcheng High School and Xiangbei. That Jinguji Budou can only defend and pass the ball. It's hard to tell his strength at all."
In the stands, the players from Aiwa College saw the game was over and both teams started to pack up in the rest area, and couldn't help but say with some disappointment.
"It's okay. I've already found a friend in Kanagawa. He can help us get the video of Xiangbei's game in the county tournament. We can watch it tonight."
Aiwa's coach Mingshan Muramasa said that although he said so, as a coach he was actually a little disappointed. After all, a videotape is just a videotape, and it is far less intuitive and shocking than watching the game live.
If the players of the team only watched the videotape of Jinguji Budo's fighting style, they would not be able to feel the opponent's strength and terror. On the contrary, there was a player in the team of Ryonan High School who played against Xiangbei during the county competition. Even if he was not watching the game in person, he could feel the opponent's strength.
Soon, Xiangbei, who had finished the game, began to leave the field. In today's game, the physical energy consumption of Xiangbei players was actually quite good. Mitsui Hisashi and Chiba Daishi only played for 30 minutes, and the intensity was also average, which was not much different from a training match. Jinguji Budo and Miyagi played the whole game, but they were just slacking off.
Although Wu Dao was a little more aware when defending, that level was just a warm-up at best.
Kogure Konobu and Kakuta only came on as substitutes for ten minutes in the second half and did not consume much energy.
Although Takenori Akagi fought with Mikoshiba for the entire game, Akagi, who helped the team win its first victory, is in an extremely good mental state and does not feel any fatigue at all.
Seeing that the players were in good shape, Coach Anxi did not rush to take them back to rest. Instead, he walked along the corridor and led the players to the stands to watch the next game.
There are a total of 59 teams participating in the national competition this year, including Sanno from Akita Prefecture, Aiwa from Aichi Prefecture, Luoan from Kyoto, Hakata University of Commerce Affiliated School in Fukuoka and Ryonan from Kanagawa. Five teams have byes in the first round.
Therefore, there are a total of 27 games in the first round. Today alone, 13 games will be played in this session, starting at 7.40 in the morning and continuing until the evening.
The next day, there were 14 games remaining in the first round.
The second round of the national competition will be held on the third match day. There will be a total of 16 games in the second round, which will also be divided into two match days, with 8 games played a day.
After the second round, only 16 teams will remain, and all subsequent games will be true back-to-back matches.
Such a compact competition system is a great test of the players' will and physical fitness, and the order of the draw will often determine to a certain extent how far a team can go in this competition.
Shohoku High School's draw was pretty good. At least, after today's game, tomorrow would be a day of rest, followed by the game against Touou High School.
There were no strong seeded teams participating in the previous day's competition, and the five AA-level players selected by the magazine were scattered among the five teams of Shohoku, Ryonan, Sannoh, Aiwa and Luoan.
The game on the previous day could also be called a fight between noobs.
The Xiangbei players only sat in the stands for less than an hour, and the players had already lost their enthusiasm for watching the game. Wu Dao had long lost interest and kept yawning.
After watching one and a half games, Coach Anxi also realized the condition of the players and left the stadium early with them.
No words were spoken that night.
The next morning, Coach Anxi led the players to watch today's game. The strength of the teams in the first round was indeed very average. After watching two games, Wudao asked Coach Anxi for a leave, returned to the hotel and started training. He has daily tasks~
Not long after Takeshi returned to the hotel, Miyagi also returned to the hotel. When he went to the room and didn't see Takeshi, he went to the hotel's gym and found Jinguji Takeshi who was running.
"Budo, tomorrow is the match with Touou, are you still training today?"
"Since I met you, I don't think you've ever stopped for a day."
Miyagi Ryouta came to the gym, found a stool not far from the martial arts field, and sat down.
"I'm used to it. I feel stiff if I don't run."
"Why are you back? Where are the others? Don't you want to watch?"
Wu Dao asked casually as he slowed down the treadmill.
"No, they were still watching. I couldn't stand it, so I came back first."
“To be honest, before the competition, I really had high expectations for the teams participating in the national competition, but these two days of competition really opened my eyes.”
“It turns out that even in national competitions, there are teams that paddle.”
"There are many teams that are not as strong as Shoyo. How did they make it to the national level?"
Miyagi Ryouta spread his hands flat on the back of the chair, his tone full of disappointment.
"This is just the first round. It's normal for the teams to be weak. And you've only watched a few games. You just didn't see the games of the strong teams."
"And not all regions are like Kanagawa. Even though Shoyo lost to us, their strength is strong enough to rank among the top 16 in the country."
"Of course, that was the Xiangyang before. Now..."
Budou spoke to Miyagi as he jogged.
"Our next opponent is Toyoma High School. I heard this high school is very strong and good at run-and-gun tactics. Their best record is the top 8."
"How are we going to fight tomorrow? Are you still not going to participate in the attack?"
Miyagi Ryouta thought about it and felt that Budou was right. Thinking that there were strong teams among the participating teams in the national competition, the first team he thought of was Shohoku's next opponent, Touou High School.
"Touou's abilities are pretty good. The run-and-gun tactics might be a little troublesome for other teams, but it doesn't work so well for us."
"After all, our Xiangbei's speed is not slow."
"Tomorrow's main attack will be handed over to Xiao San and Akagi. I will still be in charge of defense. They just won a game and their fighting spirit is high. Let them play well in another game."
"Touou's inside player is only 190cm tall, so he can focus on the inside tomorrow."
"As for defense, I will mark their ace, Nan Lie."
"We can easily win tomorrow's game."
Wudao said, slightly increasing the speed of the treadmill. Miyagi could feel Wudao's confidence from his tone, nodded and said nothing more. Sitting in the gym and watching Wudao exercise was a bit boring, so Miyagi also turned on a treadmill next to Wudao, intending to exercise.
At this time, a match between Toyotama High School and Saitama Prefecture Umezawa High School was taking place in the venue.
Not long after the second half of the game started, Touou had already widened the score gap to 15 points, and the balance of victory had already tilted towards Touou.
"Nan Lie's three-point shooting is very accurate! His defense is also very oppressive and difficult to deal with!"
As Touou's Nan Lie scored again with a quick move, Murasakibara in the stands sighed.
Nan Lie, a sophomore, is 181cm tall and weighs 72kg. He is agile and fast on the court, and his three-point shots are also very sharp. Under his leadership, Toyotama has completely raised the tempo of the game, and Umezawa High School, which is playing against them, looks like it can't withstand it.
"It's very similar to my playing style, but if Touou is only at this level, we will be a sure winner in tomorrow's match!"
Mitsui Shou looked at Nan Lie who was moving freely on the court without any sense of crisis. When the Xiangbei players heard what Mitsui Shou said, they all looked at him, without any rebuttal, and watched the game silently.
More than 20 minutes later, the game ended and Toyotama defeated its opponent 96:74 and won the game.
After the game, Coach Anxi led everyone out of the stadium.
This opponent did not bring much pressure to Xiangbei. Not to mention that the players were in a relaxed state of mind, Coach Anxi himself was also in a relaxed state of mind. Of course, the players could not see that Coach Anxi was relaxed.
...
Day three of the national competition.
It was only seven o'clock, and the Xiangbei players had already washed up and left the hotel.
The match of Xiangbei today is the first one in the morning. For them, this draw is quite good. If they can beat Touou, it means Xiangbei will have more time to rest and prepare for the next game.
The Xiangbei players did not go to the locker room to rest when they arrived at the stadium. After communicating with the organizers, Coach Anxi was allowed to take the players into the venue to warm up in advance. The national competition system is very strict, so the management of the team's warm-up time is relatively relaxed.
When Xiangbei entered the venue, there were very few spectators in the stands. There were only a small number of fans, and even the participating teams only had a few shows.
Just as the Xiangbei players began to warm up, the players from Touou High School also walked into the stadium through the player tunnel.
It seems that their plan is the same as Xiangbei's, they plan to come early and start warming up in advance.
The players of the two teams looked at each other from across the field, and then started their warm-up.
"Nan Lie, are you tired from yesterday's game? Do you need to adjust your rhythm today?"
When Fengyu was warming up, a player wearing a blue No. 4 jersey walked up to Nan Lie and asked. Obviously, the person wearing No. 4 should be the captain, but he asked Nan Lie about today's play.
On the sidelines, Toyotama’s coach sat on the bench in a white suit, looking unhappy.
"No need, just maintain your previous attack method. I'll be fully recovered after a good sleep!"
Nan Lie turned his head and glanced at the coach off the court and replied indifferently.
Fengyu's coach is a middle-aged man in his 40s, a little fat, but his hair is combed meticulously, and it can be seen that he must be a serious person.
Touou's original coach was Coach Kitano, who was a colleague of Anzai when he was coaching the national team. However, because Touou High School's performance had always been stuck in the quarterfinals and had not improved, Coach Kitano was fired by the school in the spring of this year. Now, this middle-aged man in his forties is the new coach of Touou.
However, the new coach had only been in the team for a few months and his prestige had not yet been established. On the court, the ace Nan Lie's words were much more useful than his.
When everyone in Fengyu heard Nan Lie’s words, they all smiled and nodded, and then began to warm up.
As time passed, the seats in the stands began to fill up. There were several heavyweight matches today. Sanno Industrial would make their debut in this year's national competition today.
At the same time, Ryonan and Aiwa both have games today.
"Hey, it hasn't started yet. Shohoku's opponent today is Touou, who is rated A-level. This team is not easy to deal with!"
Yueyue Hongming followed his teammates to their seats and sat down. Seeing that the two teams were still warming up, he whistled and started teasing.
"What's so difficult about it? No one in Touou can defend against Jinguji Budo. Even Mitsui Shou has a hard time dealing with him."
"There's no suspense in the match between Xiangbei and Touou."
Shinomiya Tianye glanced at the court slightly, and said calmly, then found a seat and sat down. Beside him, Sendoh and Fujima sat on his left and right, and the three of them all looked at the court.
"Fujima, today we will play against Mamiya Nishi, you and Hanagata will lead the team."
"Let Guan Ping, Futian, and Uesugi assist you."
After sitting down, Shinomiya Tianye suddenly said to Fujima beside him, and actually arranged the players for today's game. Fujima was stunned when he heard this, and then turned his head to look at Coach Tiangang behind him, with a questioning look in his eyes.
When Coach Tian Gang saw Fujima looking at him, he shrugged nonchalantly and said, "Just watch the team like Ma Gong Nishi play."
"The match against Sannoh the day after tomorrow is what we should focus on."
"Hehe, the day after tomorrow will be the day when our Lingnan will become famous throughout the country!"
Coach Tanaoka's eyes were full of enthusiasm when he talked about Sanno. When he said this, he couldn't help but lick his lips with his tongue, and the excitement on his face was not concealed at all.
If the coaches of other teams knew that their team would face Sannoh, they would probably have been distraught and preparing their return tickets. However, Coach Tanaoka looked excited and expectant.
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