The second half of the game was halfway through, and the physical fitness of both the Xiangbei and Ryonan players was undergoing a huge test.
Except for the centers of the two teams and Shohoku's Kogure Mitsunobu, all other players have been on the court for 30 minutes. At such a game intensity, 30 minutes is enough to consume all the physical energy of these players.
"Fujima, speed up the attack a little bit."
During the Ryonan High School's advancement phase, Shinomiya Tano, who was originally jogging, noticed that the mental state of the Shohoku players was rather average, and shouted at Fujima who was advancing with the ball.
"Don't you want to take a break? I see Hanagata is also very tired, and you and Sendoh also look much more tired than usual. We've only played for about 10 minutes in the second half, and the amount of sweat you're both sweating is unusual."
"Do you really want to speed up the pace?"
There were thirty seconds left for the attack, and Kenji Fujima was not in a hurry. After crossing the center line, he did not rush to get close to the three-point line to form an offensive threat. Instead, he wandered around the center line and chatted with Shinomiya Tano.
"We are tired, but Xiangbei will be even more tired than us."
"Don't worry about our physical strength. If anyone can't handle it, just go off the court and rest. It won't have any impact!"
Shinomiya Tano's gaze fell on Jinguji Takeshi. Although his face was full of fatigue, he smiled at this moment.
"I see... Is that the plan?" Fujima Kenji followed Shinomiya Tano's gaze and his eyes fell on Jinguji Takeshi. Until then, Fujima had time to take a good look at this player who was as famous as his ace.
Takeshi Jinguji was wearing a red No. 15 jersey. It was supposed to be a bright red jersey, but at this moment it had turned into a dark red. It was not because Takeshi Jinguji's jersey was different from others when it left the factory, but because Takeshi Jinguji's sweat had already soaked the entire jersey. The jersey was tightly attached to Takeshi Jinguji's skin, outlining the muscles on Takeshi's body.
Fujima's gaze stayed on Takeshi for a while, and then he looked at the other players of Shohoku. Not only Takeshi Jinguji, but also Mitsui Hisashi and Miyagi Ryouta were sweating an unusual amount.
Seeing this scene, combined with Shinomiya Tanaka's instructions to increase the pace of attack, Fujima easily figured out why Shinomiya Tanaka asked to speed up the pace.
The players of Xiangbei on the court consume a lot of physical energy, and Fujima knows that there are no players on the Xiangbei High School bench who can replace these main players!
After realizing this, Fujima no longer hesitated and immediately approached the three-point line with the ball. At the same time, Sendoh went to the high position to set a screen for Fujima. After the screen, Fujima broke through, and Mitsui Hisashi, who came in to fill in the position, and Miyagi Ryouta, who was defending Fujima, also quickly switched defenses.
Fujima had no intention of trying to attack Mitsui's defense. After Xiangbei switched defense, he decisively passed the ball back to Sendoh. Sendoh received the basketball and directly broke through Miyagi Ryouta's defense in the blink of an eye, easily moving to the mid-range, and shot directly in an open position before Budou came up to defend.
The basketball went into the net.
"Beautiful! Sendoh." Fujima and Sendoh high-fived to celebrate, and then quickly led the team back to defense.
Ryonan High School scored the ball easily again, and the Shohoku bench suddenly cried out in sorrow. Wudao straightened up, looked at Miyagi Ryouta, and sighed heavily.
Basketball is such a cruel sport, and physical conditions restrict the growth of players' strength. Budo knew that Miyagi Ryouta had tried very hard to defend against the attack of Ryonan High School, but he couldn't do it.
Looking back at the Xiangbei bench, Wudao couldn't help but shook his head.
No one can replace it... It's true that no one can replace it!
The only substitute that Xiangbei can use now is Chiba Daishi, but this guy is a blue-collar type. Asking him to defend Fujima is no different from giving him a free pass. On the court, the only three players who can keep up with Fujima's advancing speed are Wudao, Mitsui Hisashi and Miyagi Ryouta.
But Takeshi himself has to keep an eye on Shinomiya Tano, Mitsui Hisashi has to keep an eye on Sendoh, and the only one who can keep an eye on Fujima is Miyagi.
Wu Dao also heard what Shigong Tianye just said, but to be honest, he had no choice.
"We have to get Yuzumi out as soon as possible. If Xiangbei can't do that, then there will be no chance of winning this game!"
Jinguji Takeshi said to himself as he looked at Uozumi Jun who was going far away. He didn't bother to comfort the distraught Miyagi Ryouta and ran towards the front.
"Miyagi, don't worry about it. There's nothing we can do about it. We can make up for the lost points on the offensive end!"
Mitsui Shou took into account Miyagi Ryouta's mood, patted Miyagi on the shoulder, and then trotted away. After Miyagi Ryouta received the basketball in the backcourt, he breathed a sigh of relief, adjusted his mentality, and started to advance with the ball.
Although Miyagi Ryouta's physical condition is indeed not as good as the top players, he has one good point, that is, he will never give up easily. Even if he is hit repeatedly by Ryonan High School, Miyagi Ryouta will never give up his desire for victory.
Xiangbei's pace of advancement was very slow, and unlike their fast break style, Xiangbei was deliberately suppressing the offensive rhythm in the second half. Jinguji Budou was immediately chased by Shigong Tianye after entering the front court. This guy seemed to be a tireless machine, sticking to Jinguji Budou without any slack.
Wudao was obviously aware of his situation, and he had no intention of standing still to conserve his energy. He just ran all over the court with Shigong Tianye. He didn't have a comfortable space to receive the ball, and he would definitely not let Shigong Tianye have an easy time!
As soon as Miyagi came forward with the ball, Fujima quickly moved forward. Mitsui knew Miyagi's difficulty and quickly ran over to prepare for the response. The two met at the top of the arc, and Miyagi passed the ball to Mitsui.
After Mitsui received the ball, he took advantage of Miyagi's positioning and made a three-point shot directly from the top of the arc.
He was in pretty good shape and the basketball went straight into the net.
"ah!
!”
The crisp sound of the basketball entering the net was the greatest encouragement to Mitsui Shou. Mitsui Shou punched and roared, venting the depression in his heart.
However, before the Xiangbei players could celebrate, Yuzumi took the basketball and quickly threw it to the outside of the baseline. The basketball turned into a red column and quickly came to Hanagata's hands. Hanagata, as a transfer, threw it directly to Sendoh who was making a fast break.
When the Xiangbei players noticed Ryonan's fast break, they quickly retreated.
Shohoku returned to defense quickly, and Ryonan High School lost the fast break opportunity and turned to positional play, almost the same as the previous ball. Ryonan still centered around Fujima and Sendoh, and used pick-and-roll tactics against Miyagi Ryouta.
This time, Mitsui and Miyagi communicated in time. Miyagi knew that the pick-and-roll was coming and took a step ahead. After the pick-and-roll was in place, he passed through the gap between Sendoh and Fujima and was not blocked by Sendoh.
However, his speed was still slowed down by Sendō, and Fujima passed the ball to Hanagata in the mid-range. Hanagata took the ball and directly jumped in place in the face of Mugure Konobu's defense. Although his shot did not go in, the frontcourt rebound was grabbed by Yuzumi. Yuzumi did not choose to go up himself after getting the rebound, and once again returned the ball to Hanagata.
This time, Hanagata did not waste the opportunity and sent the ball directly into the net.
In the next few rounds, the rhythm of the offense and defense began to speed up unconsciously. Ryonan seemed to have completely stopped defending mid-range shots. Sendoh only defended Mitsui's three-pointers. If Mitsui wanted to get two points from mid-range, Sendoh didn't care at all. But if Mitsui tried to break into the inside, Sendoh would defend again.
Fujima seemed to have received instructions from Shinomiya Tano, and completely let go of Miyagi Ryouta and focused on Mugure Konobu. Shinomiya Tano squeezed out his own physical strength and stared at Jinguji Budou, mainly to prevent Budou from receiving the ball comfortably.
Five minutes later, the score between the two teams was 77:71, with Shohoku High School trailing Ryonan by 6 points.
In such a high-intensity game, someone finally couldn't hold on, but this person was not Shinomiya Tano, nor Jinguji Budou, but Kogure Mitsunobu, who had only played for a short time in the second half.
Under Fujima's defense, Murasakibara was also trying hard to run away, but Fujima often only needed to move a short distance to block Murasakibara's reception of the ball. The gap in experience between the two was too big, and Murasakibara's running away looked a little ridiculous.
Not only did Murasakibara fail to create comfortable opportunities for himself to receive the ball, but he also drained his own energy.
Coach Anzai called a timeout when the ball was stopped, and substituted Kogure Konobu off the court to give the Xiangbei players some time to catch their breath. Kogure Konobu finally couldn't hold on and collapsed on the bench when he walked to the rest area. Chiba Daishi, after resting for more than ten minutes, returned to the court.
Coach Anxi did not have any tactical arrangements during the timeout. In fact, in Coach Anxi's eyes, at this point in the game, any tactics were meaningless and it was enough for the players to play happily.
With Chiba Daiishi's defense, Hanagata Toru, who was originally shooting happily, was not so happy anymore and his hit rate dropped significantly. At this time, Coach Takeo took advantage of a ball stop opportunity to replace Hanagata, who was performing well, with a freshman named Fukuda Yoshitaka.
However, the debut of freshman Yoshitaka Fukuda became the last straw that broke the camel's back for Shohoku.
Yoshitaka Fukuda, a freshman, 185cm tall and 78kg in weight, started playing basketball in junior high school. When he enrolled in Ryonan, he was a nobody in the spotlight of Shinomiya Tano and Sendoh.
However, this little transparent person does not know himself well. He would challenge Shinomiya Tano during every practice match. Of course, what greeted him was Shinomiya Tano's ruthless attack.
However, under such strong pressure from Shimonoseki, Fukuda not only did not give up, but instead completely burned his own little universe, trained hard, and played actively. If there was any shortcoming, it was that he did not like to practice defense, and on the court, he often did not perform positioning training according to the requirements of Coach Tanoka.
Even when playing practice games with Shinomiya Tano and Sendoh, he still liked to take the ball and play alone, which made Coach Tanoka very angry. He scolded him more than once or twice. During a training session, he even saw Fukuda still doing his own thing and playing with the ball, so he scolded him and wanted to expel him from the basketball team.
However, that conflict was stopped by Shinomiya Tano.
Shigong Tianye's method was simple and crude. That day, Futian was pulled by Shigong Tianye to play one-on-one and trained for an entire afternoon. When it came time for training the next day, Futian would listen to others and follow Shigong Tianye's instructions to run and attack.
It was after that that Coach Takeo noticed the talent of Yoshitaka Fukuda. This first-year boy possessed a sense of the game that many people did not have. Yoshitaka Fukuda had the potential to become a master of open-cut offense.
Today, Yoshitaka Fukuda is still on the rise. His defensive rim-protecting ability is not as good as Hanagata's, and his offensive means are far less diverse than Hanagata's, but Fukuda has characteristics that Hanagata does not have.
Fast and good at cutting!
Facing this tired Shohoku High School team, Yoshitaka Fukuda took to the court with high hopes placed on him by Coach Takeoka.
After coming on the court, Fukuda was obviously a little nervous at first, but after two offenses and defenses, he seemed to adapt to the rhythm of the game.
Finally, he took advantage of Chiba Daishi's negligence and cut into the basket. At that time, Sendoh, who was holding the ball, faked a shot and passed the ball to Fukuda. Fukuda immediately dunked the ball and scored his first two points in the national competition.
With abundant physical energy and good at cutting into the air, Yoshitaka Fukuda became the key to Ryonan High School's victory.
18 minutes into the second half, Shohoku High School was trailing by 9 points at 79:88, but the ball was still in the hands of Ryonan High School.
“Run, run!”
"Don't let your guard down. Even though we are ahead, we can never be careless."
"Be more active in your movement!"
Fujima Kenji dribbled the ball into the frontcourt and directed the players to run. As a point guard and coach on the court, Fujima Kenji clearly knew how to win.
Suddenly, Fujima, who was dribbling the ball, suddenly threw the ball and the basketball flew directly into the hands of Fukuda Yoshitaka in the bottom corner. Fukuda, who was holding the ball, took a simple tentative step, immediately broke through the ball, then slid into the basket from the baseline and forced a layup in front of Akagi.
Although Akagi failed to block the shot after jumping, he still scared Fukuda. The basketball hit the backboard and bounced out of the basket, and was tipped in by Jun Yuzumi.
79:90.
Ryonan High School finally widened the gap between the two teams to 11 points. There was a cheer from the Ryonan bench, and they knew that victory was getting closer and closer to them.
"Huh... Huh..." Jinguji Takeshi panted and looked at the people from Ryonan who were returning to defend, his eyes somewhat empty.
He was so tired that black spots appeared in front of his eyes. The feeling of dizziness and suffocation attacked his brain, making him wish he could fall asleep immediately.
After shaking his body, Jinguji Budou found his balance and stood firm. He took a breath for a while before running towards the front court with heavy steps. During this time, he did not communicate with his teammates at all.
Exhaustion had made Wu Dao unable to utter anything.
On the Shohoku side, Akagi and Chiba are in pretty good physical condition. They can run and jump, and are still able to keep up with Ryonan's movements. However, Miyagi and Mitsui's flexibility has declined a lot compared to the beginning of the game.
On the other hand, Ryonan, whether it was Sendoh, Fujima, or Uozumi Jun, all were in pretty good shape, and Fukuda, who had just been on the court, was even more active. On the contrary, Shinomiya Tano, after returning to defense, also leaned on his knees with his hands, lowered his head and panted, and did not look at the progress of Xiangbei.
Not long after, the Xiangbei team entered the front court. When Jinguji Takeshi crossed the center line, Shinomiya Tano seemed to have a telepathic sense. He immediately raised his head, locked his eyes on Takeshi and walked up to him.
"Hehe, boy, you finally have no strength left!" Shigong Tianye laughed hoarsely. Even at this time, he still had the mind to tease.
"... .." Wudao glanced at the opponent, turned his head to look at Miyagi Ryouta who was holding the ball, and suddenly started moving. Shinomiya Tano did not give way at all, and directly stood sideways in front of Wudao.
The two men collided with each other, and Shigong Tianye lost his balance and fell backwards to the ground. The unbalanced man also tripped Wudao, and the two men fell to the ground one after the other.
The referee did not blow the whistle, but the two people who fell to the ground were unable to stand up immediately.
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