"Hehe... pause, huh? That's great, it saves me a pause!"
"After this timeout, we will completely widen the score gap!"
After talking to himself for a few words, Coach Tanaoka stood on the sidelines, waiting for the players to come back. The players from Kanagawa Prefecture also cherished the opponent's timeout. When they heard the referee's whistle, they quickly walked off the court and ran to Coach Tanaoka's side.
After the starting players gathered around, Coach Takeo waved to Kazuma Takasago, signaling him to come over.
"Takasago, you played well on the court. I can see that you have worked hard on defense."
"The opponent is a fast forward. A traditional center like you will be at a disadvantage against such an opponent."
"The game has been going on for about ten minutes, your energy has been depleted, and your speed has slowed down a bit."
"Come down and take a rest first. I'll arrange for you to play in the second half."
Coach Takeo said a lot to Kazuma Takasago when he replaced Takasago. He was taking care of Kazuma Takasago's emotions and didn't want Kazuma Takasago's mentality to be affected by being substituted.
"Yes!" When Kazuma Takasago learned that he was being substituted, a look of disappointment appeared on his face. However, when he heard that Coach Takeo would send him to play in the second half, his expression improved a lot and he nodded in response.
Afterwards, Coach Tanaoka waved to Sendoh who was dribbling the ball on the side and said to everyone:
"Next, Sendō will replace Kazuma Takasago."
"Leave the inside to Daiki Maekawa."
"Sendoh, Amu, you two should help defend the inside more in the next game to make up for the lack of inside defense."
"The center from Aichi Prefecture is of average build, but with the athleticism and strength of the two of you, you should be able to limit him."
"After you come on the court, Sendo, you need to initiate the attack from the mid-range, provide more screens for Amu, and the two of you will attack the inside together to create enough space for Mitsui and Fujima on the outside."
"Ten minutes!"
"You five have ten minutes to secure victory for our Kanagawa Prefecture team!"
Coach Tiangang said, patting the players on the shoulders one by one to show encouragement. He also managed the time very well. Just after Coach Tiangang finished all these, the referee's whistle sounded again, and the short timeout was over.
"It seems that the coach doesn't plan to waste time with the opponent and plans to improve the mid-range offense."
"Today, Mitsui and Fujima's touch was not as hot as expected. On the contrary, Aichi Prefecture's Moroboshi Dai scored very efficiently."
"At this time, stable scoring at the basket and mid-range scoring are the best way to widen the score."
"Although Mitsui and Fujima are both good at attacking the basket, they are still a little worse than Sendoh. As for Amu, his shooting ability is not as good as Sendoh, and his offensive changes are not enough."
"Although replacing you with Sendo sacrifices some of the defensive strength in the interior, the offense is greatly improved."
"Takasago, don't worry. The coach just doesn't want to waste too much energy on the players against Aichi Prefecture."
When Shinomiya Tano saw Coach Takaoka's substitution, he stood up from his seat, vacated his seat for Takasago who was leaving the field, handed him a towel and water, and at the same time tried to comfort Takasago.
Kazuma Takasago was a little embarrassed by Shinomiya Tano's enthusiasm, and did not choose to sit in the seat vacated by Shinomiya Tano, but walked to the side seat and sat down. Kazuma Takasago did not feel happy to have such an absolute core like Shinomiya Tano give up his seat and pass him water and towels, but was a little flattered.
After taking the water and towel handed to him by Shinomiya Tano, Takasago said "thank you" in a low voice, and then turned his gaze to the field.
Shinomiya Tianye saw that Takasago didn't sit in his seat, and didn't say anything more, just nodded and returned to his seat. At this time, Coach Tanaoka also happened to return to his seat, and when he saw Shinomiya Tianye coming back, he smiled and patted the latter's shoulder, his face full of relief.
In the current Kanagawa Prefecture team, besides Coach Tanaka, Shinomiya Tano is the most suitable person to take care of the players' emotions. After all, he is Coach Tanaka's favorite student, and the players will associate what he does with Coach Tanaka, which is conducive to the unity of the team.
After the timeout, players from both teams returned to the court.
"Genius Sendo!" When Dai Moroboshi saw Sendo coming on the field from Kanagawa Prefecture, his face darkened and he murmured. At the same time, Dai Moroboshi turned his head and looked at the rest area of Kanagawa Prefecture, feeling heavy-hearted.
Kanagawa Prefecture has not yet sent out Shinomiya Tano and Jinguji Budou, which means that Kanagawa Prefecture has spared some strength so far. If Aichi Prefecture cannot play these two players as soon as possible, then as the game progresses, Aichi Prefecture's chances of winning will become increasingly slim.
Once the energetic Jinguji Takeshi and Shinomiya Tano enter the field, it will be an absolute disaster for the Aichi Prefecture players who have consumed too much energy.
"Hey! What are you looking at?"
"I think you should be more vigilant against your opponent."
Just when Moroboshi's attention was distracted by the sidelines, Maki Shinichi had already arrived in front of Moroboshi at some point and brought his thoughts back to the court.
It was not until this time that Moroboshi Dai realized that there had been huge changes in Kanagawa Prefecture's defense.
Aichi Prefecture had the ball, but no one from Kanagawa Prefecture returned to defend. Instead, all the players pressed forward to defend on the spot.
"Full-court press?!"
Moroboshi Dai was stunned for a moment, but he quickly came to his senses the next second and turned around to run towards the baseline. Seeing this, Maki Shinichi also hurriedly moved his feet to catch up. At the same time, the basketball was sent out from the baseline of Aichi Prefecture and hit the ground into the hands of Moroboshi Dai. Moroboshi Dai, who received the ball, had no intention of dribbling at all. He actually passed the ball back to the young man with a crew cut, and then quickly passed Maki Shinichi and ran towards the frontcourt.
After the young man with a crew cut got the ball, he actually started to advance quickly with the ball, and had no intention of passing the ball to his teammates.
Seeing this scene, Shinichi Maki quickly gave up on Moroboshi after a brief hesitation, turned around and ran towards the young man with a crew cut. He wanted to steal the ball from the center from Aichi Prefecture!
Shinichi Maki was extremely fast. Facing the center from Aichi Prefecture, he had no hesitation and rushed out from the side and reached out to steal the basketball from the opponent's hand.
But surprisingly, facing Maki Shinichi's steal, the center from Aichi Prefecture actually did a light dribbling move, easily avoided Maki Shinichi's steal, and crossed Maki Shinichi's defense line in one step.
"What?!" This sudden bad luck stunned Maki Shinichi, who had missed his shot. Even the players from Kanagawa Prefecture on the sidelines let out a low cry.
A center forward with such good dribbling skills?!
As the buzz cut youth broke through, Dai Moroboshi entered the frontcourt, and Kanagawa Prefecture's full-court press failed. All the players did not dare to stay in the frontcourt for long and quickly returned to defend. At the frontcourt, the buzz cut youth passed the ball to Moroboshi on the side, and then quickly cut into the inside. As he moved, Sendoh quietly followed him into the paint area.
Zhu Xingdai, who received the ball, faced the defense of Maki Shinichi. After a fake move of raising the ball, he quickly dropped the ball and broke through. He made an abrupt stop and pulled back while moving. When Maki Shinichi thought that the opponent was about to change direction, he flipped his wrist and the basketball hit the floor under Maki Shinichi's crotch, and passed the ball through the crotch.
The basketball hit the ground and bounced accurately into the hands of the young man with a crew cut who had entered the inside. As soon as the latter got the ball, Sendoh stuck to his back.
"Um?!"
"This guy's steps are pretty fast!"
The young man with a crew cut murmured in his mind, and tried to back-up Sendoh, hoping to use his strength to overpower Sendoh. However, to his surprise, his back-up shot not only did not help him get closer to the basket, but instead caused Sendoh to push him and make him stagger, making his grip on the ball unstable.
As a teammate of Shinomiya Tano, Sendoh's physical fitness is no longer comparable to that of his junior high school days. Although he is not as good as traditional forwards like Akagi and Uozumi, his strength is enough to face the center from Aichi Prefecture.
After one unsuccessful attempt, the young man's offense and defense immediately changed. He steadied his body and tried to back the ball again. However, at the moment when his body was close to Sendoh, he made a mistake in his steps, took a low step, quickly turned around with the ball and cut into the basket. The next second, he passed the ball to the basket and faked a shot with the ball.
However, at this moment, Sendoh seemed to have anticipated it. He stretched out a big hand and hit the basketball accurately.
Sendoh's defensive speed is also very fast. Not only can he keep up with the opponent's movements, he can even fully see through the opponent's fake moves and directly make a steal.
The basketball rolled down, and Fujima, who was not far away, was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He took a few steps and controlled the ball. Without any pause, the next second after getting the basketball, Fujima quickly started to advance towards the frontcourt. At the same time, Shinichi Maki, Mitsui Hisashi, and Sendoh who stole the ball all started and rushed towards the frontcourt.
At once, four people from Kanagawa Prefecture rushed towards the front from four directions.
Kanagawa's fast break was very fast, and the people from Aichi Prefecture had to try their best to keep up, but as they tried hard to catch up, the people from Aichi Prefecture lost their defensive changes.
Fujima held the ball and passed the ball to Maki Shinichi who was running. When the latter got the ball, two defensive players from Aichi Prefecture also surrounded him. However, when Maki Shinichi approached the three-point line, he made an emergency stop and passed the ball to Mitsui Hisashi, who instantly attracted the attention of everyone in Aichi Prefecture.
Mitsui Hisashi took the ball, threw it towards the basket, then relaxed and jogged backwards.
Everyone's eyes followed the basketball and found Sendoh who had already run into the inside.
Sendoh Akira looked up at the path of the basketball, jumped lightly, caught the ball easily in the air, and dunked it into the basket.
As Sendoh and Mitsui Hisashi cooperated in the alley-oop, the stadium fell into a brief silence. After a long time, a tsunami of cheers broke out from the stands.
Most of the audience had never seen such a combination of alley-oop and slam dunk on the court, and Sendoh's slam dunk completely aroused the enthusiasm of the audience in Kanagawa Prefecture.
"Amu, Mitsui and Sendoh really have a tacit understanding in their cooperation!"
"Mitsui..."
Coach Tiangang was still admiring the team members' good cooperation one second ago, but the next second he seemed to think of something sad and his brows twitched.
"Sendoh Akira is indeed a talented player. He is able to reach this level in his first year of high school. His future is definitely limitless."
"With Sendoh's appearance, this match should officially come to an end."
"It's a pity that I still didn't get to see Shinomiya Tano and Jinguji Budou take the field."
"With Aichi Prefecture's strength, there's no way to force those two to play..."
In the stands, Akita Prefecture's head coach Goro Domoto sighed softly. Then he stood up silently and said to the Akita Prefecture players:
"Let's go, it's time to prepare for the match against Hyogo."
“There’s nothing to see here anymore.”
Goro Domoto led the Akita Prefecture players off the field.
The situation on the field, just as Goro Domoto had judged, gradually lost its suspense.
Sendoh Akira's alley-oop was just the beginning of Kanagawa Prefecture's powerful offensive. With Sendoh's appearance, Kanagawa Prefecture's mid-range offense and rim attack were elevated to a higher level.
It is already very difficult for a small and agile team like Aichi Prefecture to face Shinichi Maki, and now they have to deal with Sendoh, which is even more difficult.
Although Aichi Prefecture is also a strong basketball county, there is no one in their team who can limit Sendoh and Maki Shinichi one-on-one. Even Dai Moroboshi often needs his teammates' backup defense when facing Maki Shinichi. With the help of his teammates, the two of them can complete the defense against Maki Shinichi.
But in this way, Xiandao's performance becomes unstoppable.
And the most fatal thing is that Fujima and Mitsui Hisashi, two players from Kanagawa Prefecture who "can only shoot", also began to show their strength. After realizing that their three-point shooting was mediocre today, they started to play ball-holding offense and mid-range shots.
The level of these two people's single breakthrough is also quite terrifying. Although their physical fitness is not as strong as Sendo, the threat of attacking the basket is also quite huge.
In one-on-one situations, Fujima and Mitsui are also unstoppable.
At the same time, after abandoning the traditional center like Takasago and Maekawa Daiki on the offensive end, the other four players of Kanagawa Prefecture began to speed up crazily. Facing the small and fast Aichi Prefecture, they not only fully adapted to the opponent's rhythm, but even played faster than the opponent.
As a result, Aichi Prefecture's defense line really became a sieve, and was hit in many places.
As the game progressed, Zhu Xingdai's physical energy was consumed greatly, and his offensive efficiency was not as efficient as at the beginning. Unfortunately, the center he relied on, the young man with a crew cut, seemed to have met his nemesis and was frequently blocked or intercepted in front of Sendoh.
As Aichi Prefecture failed in both offense and defense, the score between the two teams quickly widened.
By the end of the first half, the score between the two teams was 57:41.
In the second half, Coach Takeo had no intention of adjusting the lineup and still let these five people play. Ten minutes into the second half, Kanagawa was already leading by 35 points. At this time, Coach Takeo made adjustments and replaced Daiki Maekawa who was almost being run to death by his "teammates", fulfilled his promise and sent him to Takasago.
Takasago's appearance also sent a signal to other players. After he came on the court, Kanagawa began to slow down, lengthened the offensive time, minimized the number of rounds, and avoided excessive physical consumption of the players.
No matter how hard the Aichi Prefecture players tried, they could not close the score. Although Dai Moroboshi's condition improved in the second half, it did not have any effect under the offensive of Shinichi Maki, Sendoh, Mitsui and Fujima.
In the end, Kanagawa Prefecture defeated Aichi Prefecture 112:80 and secured a place in the quarterfinals of the Autumn National Games.
Shortly after Kanagawa Prefecture won the game, Coach Tanaoka also received news from another stadium, and learned that Kanagawa Prefecture’s next opponent in the quarter-finals would be Kyoto!
“Kyoto… ..”
"They beat Chiba 110:64..."
"In the high school arena, besides our Kanagawa team, is there any other team that can possess such a terrifying offensive power?"
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...