On the field, the offense and defense changed after Miyagi Ryouta scored a goal.
The Kanagawa team used a standard zone defense, with Uozumi and Akagi taking up positions on both sides of the paint area at the baseline, while Hanagata and Takasago Kazuma were on both sides of the paint area at the free throw line. As for Miyagi Ryouta, he was not assigned a specific position. On the defensive end, Coach Tanaoka gave Miyagi enough freedom.
The Shimane defender advanced with the ball and observed the defense of the Kanagawa team after entering the frontcourt. He felt that Kanagawa's defense on the outside was relatively weak and realized that this might be an opportunity to attack.
After entering the frontcourt, Shimane's defender immediately passed the ball to his own small forward, who received the ball from a long distance on the side of the court and shot without hesitation. However, when he was shooting, Hanagata, who was not far away, took a few steps towards him and raised his hand to interfere.
Although it was impossible for Hanagata to block Shimane's players from that position, the tall and strong Hanagata's sudden rush forward really scared the opponent, causing his shooting posture to become distorted.
"Ding~" a clear sound of iron hitting the target was heard, and the next second, Jun Uozumi and Takenori Akagi under the basket instantly trapped Shimane's inside line from the left and right, and finally the rebound was easily caught by Takenori Akagi.
After losing the frontcourt rebound, Shimane's players began to retreat quickly. After getting the rebound, Akagi Takenori was not in a hurry to pass the ball. He waited until Shimane and others retreated to the midfield position before giving the ball to Miyagi.
"Akagi-senpai, great job!"
"Start the attack!"
After receiving the basketball, Miyagi Ryouta shouted loudly and controlled the ball to the back of the retired team. After waiting for his teammates to enter the frontcourt, Miyagi Ryouta slowly crossed the center line with the ball.
The unhurried and unhurried ball control posture made Coach Tiangang on the sidelines feel a little relieved, and his expression was finally not as serious and scary as just now.
“Although the attack in the opening game was a bit reckless, we were still able to control the tempo of the game!”
"It's not in vain for me..."
Coach Tiangang whispered in his heart, but at this moment, Miyagi dribbled the ball close to the three-point line, and after seeing his teammates finish their positions, he shot directly when he was more than one meter away from the three-point line. This sudden three-pointer made Coach Tiangang look startled, and he stood up from his seat.
"What?!"
Miyagi's shooting choice was beyond everyone's expectations. Not only Coach Tagola who was sitting on the sidelines, but even the opponents on the court were stunned. On the contrary, Uozumi and Akagi Takenori reacted quickly and squeezed towards the inside from two directions at the moment Miyagi shot.
However, Miyagi's shot was always a little hasty. Although Akagi and Uozumi reacted quickly, they were not as good as Shimane's inside players in terms of position.
With a light "clang" sound, the basketball hit the edge of the frame and fell to the outside.
At this time, Hanagata and Kazuma Takasago had also entered the inside. Shimane's two inside players were paying attention to Uozumi and Akagi, which allowed Hanagata and Takasago to easily cut into the basket.
For a moment, the four big men from Kanagawa Prefecture formed two groups and easily trapped the two inside players of Shimane. The two men could not even jump up because of the blocking of Yuzumi and others, let alone grabbing rebounds. The rebound was easily caught by Hanagata.
After grabbing the rebound, Hua Xing didn't even dribble the ball, but directly made a hook layup and easily put the ball into the basket.
"ohhhhh!!! Flower shape! Flower shape!"
As Hanagata's second attack was successful, the local audience in Kanagawa Prefecture cheered.
"Well done, Hanagata!" Yuzumi high-fived Hanagata and praised him in a low voice. Akagi and Takasago also fist-bumped Hanagata to celebrate, and the three of them showed great tacit understanding.
"Sure enough, our inside strength exceeds that of our opponents by a lot!" Miyagi Ryouta had already started to retreat at this time. After several rounds of attack and defense, Miyagi Ryouta had realized that his team's inside strength far exceeded that of their opponents, and he had already planned to shoot freely in his mind.
However, at this moment, Coach Tanaoka walked to the sidelines and shouted to Miyagi Ryouta:
"Miyagi! What the hell are you hitting?! Is that how a defender is supposed to hit?!"
"What on earth are you thinking about? If I asked you to go on the field, why didn't I let Shinomiya Tano and the others go on the field if I wanted you to attack?!"
"Just figure out what you should do on the court!"
The roar of the coach Tanabe was so loud that it even overwhelmed the cheers of the audience. Miyagi Ryouta, who was returning to defense, unconsciously slowed down his pace when he heard the roar of the coach Tanabe.
After entering high school for such a long time, this was the first time for him to hear the coach yelling on the court. When he played in Xiangbei before, Coach Anzai would not yell directly on the sidelines like Coach Tiangang did. Although it was a bit unexpected that Coach Tiangang would yell on the sidelines, after hearing these words, Miyagi Ryouta still used his brain and recalled his handling of the balls.
The problem is obvious and easy to discover. The key is whether Miyagi himself will reflect on it and whether he can listen to the coach's advice.
Miyagi Ryouta on the court did not respond to Coach Tanaka's words, but his pace of defense quickened after Coach Tanaka sat back in the rest area. At the same time, Shimane players also quickly went to the frontcourt, and after using a high pick-and-roll, Shimane chose to shoot from a high position.
This time, Shimane's players played stably and made accurate mid-range attacks.
During the transition between offense and defense, the basketball once again came into the hands of Miyagi Ryouta. When Miyagi crossed the center line with the ball, Coach Tanaoka stood up from his seat again, walked to the sidelines, and stared at Miyagi Ryouta on the court.
After entering the frontcourt, Miyagi Ryouta did not shoot blindly this time. After approaching the three-point line, he made a pick-and-roll gesture to Hanagata nearby. After Hanagata approached, he immediately started a breakthrough.
Although Miyagi Ryouta is short in height, he is very fast. With the flower-shaped pick-and-roll, the short and agile Miyagi Ryouta broke through the defense in an instant and rushed into the inside.
His appearance instantly attracted the attention of Shimane's inside players, but just as they were about to move to make up for the defense, Miyagi passed the ball behind him. In the middle distance not far behind Miyagi, Hanagata Toru received the ball in an open position, took a second to adjust his posture, and then shot.
"Swish!" With a slight sound, the basketball went into the net.
Kanagawa Prefecture scored consecutively. Seeing this, Coach Takeo quietly returned to his seat and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Coach, Miyagi Ryouta has performed well in training during this period, and his shooting has improved significantly."
“Combined with his breakaway speed, it wouldn’t be a big deal to let him play a bit of offense against a team like Shimane.”
"The outcome of the game will not change."
“Why restrict him?”
After Coach Tagore sat back in his seat, Shimono Taneno next to him suddenly asked.
Shinomiya Tianye knew very well that Coach Tanaoka was definitely not the type of person who would suppress other team's players. If he wanted to suppress them, he would not let Miyagi play at all. In this game, no matter whether Sendoh or Fujima was the main point guard, no one else would have any objection.
Moreover, Shinomiya Tano could also understand Coach Tanoka's intention. He asked this question just to prevent other players from having any resentment and misunderstanding towards Coach Tanoka.
Mitsui Shou, who was sitting not far away, was looking at Coach Tanaoka with a burning gaze. Unlike Shinomiya Tano, he really thought that this match would be a good opportunity for Miyagi to practice his attack. On the contrary, Jinguji Budo seemed to have not heard the conversation between the others, and dozed off with his chin in his hand while sitting in his seat.
"snort!"
"Stupid question!"
"What do you think short players rely on to gain a foothold on the court?"
"With that half-baked pull-up jump shot? Or that fancy long three-pointer?"
"I'm telling you, I'm telling you all, if short players want to gain a foothold on the court, they need speed! Awareness! Vision! And passing!"
"Of course you can attack, but the opportunity to attack must be good!"
"Attacking is never something a point guard needs to do!"
"A good point guard doesn't need to score a lot of points on the court, but he must enable his teammates to give full play to their strengths."
"A good point guard is one who can expand his teammates' advantage. If I want him to attack, why don't I let Amu play? Why should I let him play?"
Coach Tanaoka's coaching philosophy is in line with the basketball concept of this era, and everyone can understand what he said. Miyagi Ryouta is less than 170cm tall, which is short even for a guard, even in the high school basketball arena.
If Miyagi Ryouta cannot maximize his strengths and find his position on the court, not to mention college basketball, high school basketball will be the peak of Miyagi Ryouta. Coach Tanaoka has admired Miyagi since his junior high school days, and he does not want Miyagi Ryouta to end his basketball career early because of his position on the court.
While everyone was chatting off the court, the situation on the court had begun to become clear. Kanagawa Prefecture's advantage in the interior was too great, and their defensive strategy was also focused on the interior. Under pressure from Kanagawa Prefecture's defense, Shimane basically relied on outside shooting on the offensive end.
Once someone breaks through and enters the inside, he will immediately be surrounded by four big men. Not to mention shooting, even passing the ball will become extremely difficult after entering the inside.
After being yelled at by Coach Tanaoka, Miyagi Ryouta decisively changed his playing style and began to focus on ball control, support, and passing the ball to break up the defense after breaking through the defense.
Although he would occasionally shoot, most of the time he would only choose to shoot when he was in an open position, and his playing style became quite stable.
Psychologically, Miyagi Ryouta actually hopes that he can play like Jinguji Budou, but he also knows very well that he is not Jinguji Budou, and blindly imitating him will only make him completely lose the possibility of gaining a foothold on the court.
In the game where he cooperated with four inside players including Uozumi and Akagi, Miyagi Ryouta was able to clearly grasp the team's strengths and weaknesses. In such a team, Miyagi Ryouta could easily find his position and make his own changes for it.
The team that Kanagawa played against was very clumsy. Miyagi Ryouta not only needed to suppress his own rhythm to adapt to other players, but also needed to use his breakthroughs to help his teammates get into the appropriate attacking position.
The Miyagi at this time is the Miyagi that the team needs, not Miyagi Ryouta himself. His transformation is also seen by everyone in Xiangbei.
When he was in Xiangbei before, Miyagi Ryouta had not found his position on the court. For Xiangbei, Miyagi's role was just "controlling the ball". "Controlling the ball" is even more superficial than the literal meaning. His biggest role on the court is to carry the ball from the backcourt to the frontcourt.
On the court, as the game progressed, the score gap between the Kanagawa Prefecture team and the Shimane team began to widen slowly. In order to deal with this situation, the Shimane coach also tried to make some changes on the defensive end and sent two players to double-team Miyagi Ryouta who had the ball.
But at this time, Miyagi fully utilized his speed advantage, becoming very slippery and not giving the opponent any chance to double-team him.
After all, it is Miyagi, the second-generation captain of the post-Shohoku era who will be able to break through Sanno Industrial's full-court press in the future, who has already begun to display his talents in his first year of high school.
At the end of the first half, the Kanagawa team was already 15 points ahead of their opponents, and in the second half, the lead became even bigger. In the end, the Kanagawa team defeated Shimane with an overwhelming advantage of 103:62 and advanced to the second round.
The next day, Saturday, the Kanagawa Prefecture team faced the Shiga Prefecture team at the same stadium.
Shiga is an inland county in the central part of Japan's Honshu Island. In the previous autumn national sports competitions, its level was in the middle of the third round. If it was compared with the IH team, it would be at the bottom of the top eight.
Coach Tanaoka was still planning on training the players on this day's game, and the lineup had huge changes from the day before. Coach Tanaoka took the physical distribution of the players into consideration, and the team's big centers Jun Uozumi and Akagi took turns to rest. For the inside position, Coach Tanaoka arranged three players, Maekawa Daiki, Hanagata and Takasago from Hainan.
On the outside, the duo of Fujima and Shinichi Maki were deployed.
The Shiga team's attributes are that of a small, fast and agile style of play, and there is no traditional "big center" in the team. The game was just as Coach Tanaoka expected at the beginning. Relying on the advantage in the inside, Kanagawa Prefecture had an absolute advantage in the first half of the game.
The inside and outside connection between Shinichi Maki and Fujima, coupled with Hanagata's stable mid-range shots and the two players of Daiki Maekawa and Kazuma Takasago under the basket, allowed Kanagawa Prefecture to blossom in multiple areas on the offensive end and was simply unstoppable. At the end of the first half, Kanagawa had an absolute advantage of 54:36.
However, in the second half, several outside players of Shiga exploded, and the gap between the two teams was reduced to 10 points, but they were immediately suppressed by Maki Shinichi. No one on the small and agile team could withstand Maki Shinichi's strong attack. With Maki Shinichi's performance, the gap between the two teams was widened again.
At the end of the game, the score between the two teams was 112:71. In this 40-minute, first and second half game system, the Kanagawa Prefecture team showed absolute dominance on the offensive end.
After the second round, the Kanagawa Prefecture team will face its first serious opponent, Aichi Prefecture, in the third round, the round of 16 to 8.
"Ho~~ Our Kanagawa Prefecture representative team is really strong!"
"We won today's game easily again, even the team's best players didn't play!"
"Yes! For two consecutive days of competition, Shinomiya Tano and Jinguji Budou were watching from the sidelines. Even the genius Sendō didn't play."
"Tomorrow's game will be against Aichi Prefecture. I feel so sorry for them that they have to face our Kanagawa Prefecture team."
After the match between Shohoku and Shiga ended, some local fans from Kanagawa Prefecture left the stadium. In the aisle, several of them were talking loudly, fearing that others would not know that they were locals from Kanagawa Prefecture.
Not far away from where these people were passing by, a group of young people in pink and white sportswear were sitting on their seats, listening to the discussions of those people with gloomy expressions.
"Damn it! How dare you look down on us, Aizhi County!"
"Zhu Xing, tomorrow, you must teach those people a lesson."
A team member from Aichi Prefecture waited until the audience who were talking had gone away, then spoke to Moroboshi in the team.
“… … ..” Zhu Xingda said nothing after hearing this. His expression, like his teammates’, was very ugly.
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