"The strength is not bad, almost the same as when I was in junior high school."
Shinomiya Tano was obviously interested in Sakuragi Hanamichi. Although he overpowered Sakuragi Hanamichi in the block just now, this block also made Shinomiya Tano use all his strength. Since he entered high school, Sakuragi Hanamichi was the first opponent who required him to use all his strength to block. Such a person had never appeared before even in the national youth team.
Sakuragi Hanamichi's abilities in certain areas are already at the top level in the country!
"Given time, this red-haired kid will definitely become one of the strongest opponents of our Ryonan High School!"
"It will probably be difficult for Lingnan to stop this kid in the future."
"But that has to be after I leave Lingnan!"
Shinomiya Tianye thought to himself. At the same time, Sendoh and Fujima Kenji had already crossed the center line and ran towards the front court. On the Xiangbei side, Katsumi Ichiro, Rukawa Kaede and Kiyota Nobunaga were all running back on their way to defense. Shinomiya Tianye looked towards the front court and threw the ball out.
The force of Shimono's pass was surprisingly strong. In the blink of an eye, the basketball caught up with Sendoh and others in front from behind and landed in front of Sendoh.
Sendoh grabbed the ball and accelerated towards the basket. At the same time, Rukawa had already caught up to him, but he did not take the initiative to steal the ball. Instead, he followed Sendoh closely and put pressure on him.
As Sendoh crossed the three-point line, he suddenly slowed down while holding the ball. The moment he passed the ball, he took big steps left and right while swinging his arms widely with both hands holding the ball.
Sendoh's strange rhythm of advancement quickly broke through Rukawa's defense line, and he easily invaded the basket and made a reverse layup to send the ball into the basket.
Sendoh, who scored the goal, smiled at Rukawa and then quickly returned to defense.
"... .." Rukawa looked at Sendoh's departing back, breathed a sigh of relief, walked to the basket and grabbed the ball forcefully, as if he was venting his anger.
When Kiyota returned to the court, Rukawa passed the ball and then ran quickly towards the front court without saying a word.
Kiyota Nobunaga, who received the ball, could clearly feel that the aura around Rukawa Kaede who passed by him had changed greatly. He could feel that Rukawa Kaede's concentration in the game had become higher.
"Ryonan High School's genius Sendoh... puts a lot of pressure on Rukawa Kaede!"
Kiyota Nobunaga sighed inwardly and expressed his understanding of his teammate's state.
He and Rukawa have been teammates for a long time. Since he came to Shohoku for training in the third year of junior high school, he has had a lot of contact with Rukawa. Although Kiyota Nobunaga says that he does not admit Rukawa's strength, Kiyota Nobunaga knows that Rukawa is stronger than himself!
Not only himself, looking at the entire Xiangbei High School, there may be only one player who can be said to be superior to Rukawa Kaede.
Kiyota Nobunaga had never seen the scene of Rukawa Kaede and captain Mitsui Shou fighting each other, but on the court, the two of them were at best exploding into each other on the offensive end. Maybe Mitsui Shou was better in scoring ability, but that was based on the assistance of Mitsui Shou's teammates.
If it is a one-on-one defense, Rukawa can more or less limit Mitsui's attack by himself, but conversely, it is difficult for Mitsui to limit Rukawa's attack by himself.
But in today's game, from the beginning to now, Rukawa Kaede has not been able to successfully restrict Sendoh even once. Although the ball possession of Ryonan High School is in the hands of Shigong Tianye most of the time, every time Sendoh has an offensive opportunity, he can grasp it without even a single mistake.
"This year's Ryonan High School is more terrifying than before."
"Shinomiya Tano's playing style has become more mature, and his ability in singles is so good that no one in the country can compete with him."
"If Ryonan only had one Shinomiya Tano, this team would be a little more difficult to deal with at best."
"But when Sendoh is around Shinomiya Tano, this team becomes extremely formidable."
"Even with three teammates below their level, this team is not something the freshmen can handle."
"Don't even mention that Rukawa and his team can't limit Shinomiya Tano's offensive. Even if they can limit Shinomiya Tano, I'm afraid they won't have the energy to deal with Sendoh and his team..."
Jinguji Budo was watching the game from the sidelines, he sighed and shook his head.
This year's Ryonan is very strong, which Wu Dao had expected, but he did not expect that this year's Ryonan has become so strong.
To be honest, just looking at the ability that Shinomiya Tano is showing on the sidelines, Wudao is not sure he can stop the opponent.
On the court, offense and defense switch.
Facing the defense of Uekusa Tomoyuki, Kiyota Nobunaga, who had the ball, chose to break through on his own.
Compared to the experienced and agile Kenji Fujima, Tomoyuki Uekusa is undoubtedly much easier to deal with.
Kiyota Nobunaga made a quick stop and start, easily getting rid of the opponent's defense and cutting into the basket.
However, when he just approached the free throw line, Shinomiya Tano, who was guarding the inside, had already moved forward, looking at Kiyoda Nobunaga with a smile, waiting for Kiyoda Nobunaga's next move.
Facing Ryonan High School's number one ace, Shinomiya Tano, who easily blocked Sakuragi Hanamichi, Kiyota was obviously afraid. He did not choose to force a layup, but instead passed the ball to the side to Rukawa who also cut into the inside.
However, just as Kiyota Nobunaga passed the ball, Shinomiya Tano on the opposite side seemed to have expected it. He flashed and pounced towards Rukawa Kaede.
Rukawa, who received the ball, saw Shinomiya Tano rushing towards him and raised his head slightly to look at the basket. His action instantly aroused the vigilance of Sendoh who was chasing him. He stretched out his hand to block Rukawa's sight while chasing him, driving Rukawa towards the defense zone where Shinomiya Tano was.
"We're getting double-teamed!"
Seeing this, Mitsui Shou clenched his fists and let out a low cry.
Rukawa on the field was obviously aware of his situation and decisively passed the ball back to Katsume Ichiro outside the three-point line. At this time, Katsume Ichiro was just in an open position. Ryonan's Fukuda Yoshitaka was running towards Rukawa, looking out of control, and created a huge defensive gap.
“Good opportunity!”
Mitsui's eyes lit up, and just as he finished speaking, the sound of a basketball hitting the net was heard from the court.
"Beautiful!" Mitsui Shou clapped happily when he saw his teammates' successful attack. Under his leadership, the Xiangbei rest area also cheered.
"Never mind, never mind!"
"Great defense, we still have one goal!"
Hikoichi Aida, who was watching the game on the sidelines, loudly comforted the players on the field and was in a very good mood.
However, the face of Coach Tanaka in front of him was not so good.
"The three-point shot... This freshman from Xiangbei High School has a very beautiful shooting posture."
"When I saw him, I felt like I was seeing Mitsui Shou back then."
"Although Yoshitaka Fukuda's performance on the offensive end is remarkable, he is really not good at defense..."
"The firepower of this Xiangbei team is also quite strong!"
Coach Tiangang watched for a long time and couldn't help but sigh. Then he turned his head to look at the first-year players in his rest area and shook his head secretly.
Unlike Xiangbei High School, which is full of talented players this year, the freshmen who joined the team this year at Ryonan High School do not have any outstanding freshmen. Coach Tian Gang thought that relying on the reputation of Ryonan High School as the national champion, they would definitely be able to attract many junior high school players to join.
However, the level of this year's freshmen really did not satisfy him. At first, Coach Tiangang thought that there were no outstanding players in this year's freshmen class. However, when he saw the team that played in Xiangbei today, Coach Tiangang immediately dispelled this idea.
Among the first-year players of Xiangbei who played, he only knew Rukawa Kaede, and he didn't know any of the other players.
Coach Tiangang didn't know where Coach Anzai recruited these players from. Each of them has pretty good skills and their own characteristics. Although the red-haired guy's level is average, his talent is really visible to the naked eye.
If the opponent was not Shimoya Tano but someone else, the ball that he was about to slam dunk would probably have been scored by the other party.
Coach Takeo felt that all the outstanding high school freshmen in Kanagawa Prefecture this year seemed to have been taken away by Shohoku.
...
As the game progressed, the hidden dangers of Ryonan High School hidden under the strong performance of Shinomiya Tano began to slowly be exposed.
Although the second-year Uekusa Tomoyuki has a steady ball control, is very active in defense, and has very abundant physical strength after long-term training in Ryonan, his talent is limited. His speed and explosiveness are far inferior to Kiyota Nobunaga. When facing Kiyota Nobunaga, he is often singled out by Kiyota.
Fortunately, Kiyota's mid-range shooting ability is average, and Ryonan has Shinomiya Tano to assist Guan Ping in the interior, so Ryonan's defense was not completely penetrated.
But even so, Ryonan suffered a great blow. Shinomiya Tano had to go to fill the hole in the grass, which resulted in Nanxiang Koichiro in the interior getting a one-on-one opportunity with Guan Ping. Although Nanxiang was suppressed by Yuzumi Jun before, after facing Guan Ping, this guy can be said to be like a fish in water and played very easily.
Although Sakuragi Hanamichi failed to attack repeatedly after he came on the court, he helped Xiangbei a lot in controlling the rebounds. Many times, Rukawa Kaede missed the shot, and it was because of Sakuragi's rebounds that Xiangbei had the opportunity to attack again.
As Yoshitaka Fukuda's playing time increased, his defensive problems were gradually exposed, and Ichiro Katsume also had the opportunity to shoot from the outside.
Although Ryonan High School was able to maintain their advantage thanks to Shinomiya Tano's unstoppable attack, in terms of the situation, Shohoku was completely stabilized.
This is completely different from the "candle in the wind" state at the beginning of the first half.
At the end of the first half, Ryonan High School led Shohoku High School by 19 points with a score of 52:33. Shinomiya Tano scored 40 points in the first half alone.
The gap between the two teams is huge, but Coach Anzai feels that it is already quite good that the freshmen can achieve such a result against Ryonan.
Just looking at the score difference, in the second half of the first half, after Sakuragi Hanamichi came on and Ryonan made substitutions, the score difference between the two teams did not widen further, which was a very good performance.
As the halftime whistle sounded, all the Xiangbei players returned to the rest area.
"Haha, well done, you all played really well, take a break quickly."
When Sakuragi Hanamichi and the others left the court, Mugure Mitsunobu smiled and handed towels and water to the first-year players, while praising their performance. As a third-year senior, he had no airs at all.
However, the first-year students who had just returned all looked very bad.
It is obvious that these strong-willed young people are quite dissatisfied with the results achieved by their team.
Trailing by 19 points, whether it was Rukawa Kaede, Kiyota Nobunaga, Sakuragi, Nango, or Katsume Ichiro, these outstanding players in junior high school had never experienced such a situation.
With 40 points in the first half, Shinomiya Tano showed a terrifying strength beyond their imagination, allowing these young players to witness the pinnacle of high school basketball.
"The first half is over. The players who just came on the field should have a good rest."
"Next, let's take a look at the strength of your seniors."
Shortly after Sakuragi Hanamichi and the others sat down, Coach Anzai stood up and said to the players:
"Mitsui, Akagi, Chiba, Miyagi and... .. Budo."
"Take advantage of this halftime break to warm up."
Coach Anzai glanced at Jinguji Budou and others, pushed up his glasses, and said with a smile.
After receiving the order, Jinguji Takeshi and others stood up from their seats, took off their coats, started changing their jerseys, and prepared to warm up and go on the court.
Wu Dao had already changed his jersey in the second half of the first half. He stood up from his seat, did some simple stretching, and said to Sakuragi and Rukawa:
"Don't be so depressed. You are still young and have plenty of room for improvement."
"Watch our match with Ryonan. I hope you can gain something from it."
"Let's go, start warming up."
After Wudao said a few simple words of comfort, he waved to his teammates, picked up a basketball from the sidelines, and walked into the court first.
"Oh! Look, the starting lineup of Xiangbei has entered the field!"
"Have you started warming up yet?"
"That Jinguji Budou... I haven't seen him for a few months. He has grown so much taller! I couldn't tell much when he was sitting before, but now that he's standing under the basket, it's very obvious!"
"He looks as tall as Uozumi-senpai. Is he playing center this year?"
With the entry of Jinguji Takeshi and others, discussions were heard in the Ryonan rest area. The sophomores and juniors of Ryonan High School were familiar with the players of Shohoku and had played against them before. When they saw Takeshi and others entering the field to warm up, they all looked towards the field curiously.
"The real masters are here!"
"Uozumi, Hanagata, Fujima, just do some simple stretching and don't let your body cool down."
"These guys are different from the first-years before."
"Those guys before were just appetizers. These guys are the strong enemies you will face this year. Cheer up!"
When Coach Takeo saw the Shohoku players entering the stadium, his eyes lit up. His gaze lingered on Jinguji Takeshi for a long time, then he turned his head and spoke to Yuzumi and the others.
Under the instruction of Coach Tagore, Fujima, Hanagata and others began to do simple stretching to maintain their physical condition.
In the stadium, Jinguji Budo made a three-pointer, turned his head and looked at Shigong Tianye and others off the court, thinking in his heart:
"Ryonan..."
"I will fight you seriously!"
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