Sakuragi Hanamichi dunked over Hanagata Toru. This was the first ball that the first-year student of Xiangbei returned to the court and shocked everyone.
Shinomiya Tianye looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi with a surprised look on his face. After a moment of surprise, he turned around and looked at Jinguji Budou:
"You guys from Xiangbei...are planning to use this kid to break the balance on the court?"
"It seems to be having some effect at the moment."
Although the match with Sakuragi Hanamichi was very short, and Sakuragi's basketball skills were indeed very average, Shinomiya Tano saw something called "possibility" in Sakuragi Hanamichi.
He had never seen anything like this from other first-year students in Xiangbei.
Sakuragi Hanamichi is very talented. In Shinomiya Tano's opinion, this kid's talent is probably ranked in the top three in Kanagawa Prefecture. Such a first-year student is enough to attract his attention.
"It's not really a break in the balance, but I'm just taking this opportunity to try to adjust."
"How about it, our first-year students in Xiangbei are not bad, right?"
Seeing that Sakuragi Hanamichi had already fallen to the ground, Budou returned to defense amid the surprised gazes of the Ryonan players, smiling and replying to Shinomiya Tano. He then stopped talking to Shinomiya Tano, and when he crossed paths with Sakuragi, they fist-bumped in celebration.
"... ..."
Shinomiya Tianye silently watched the Xiangbei people leaving, and started to jog forward.
This year's Xiangbei is much stronger than last year's Xiangbei. This is not only reflected in the personal growth of the starting players, but also the depth of Xiangbei's bench can reflect the increase in Xiangbei's strength.
"A new force in Xiangbei... I will come and test your quality myself."
Shigong Tianye murmured and quickly ran to the front court. In the backcourt, Fujima Kenji had received the serve from his teammate and quickly dribbled the ball forward. After he entered the frontcourt, Shigong Tianye immediately ran to screen and roll.
Fujima took advantage of Shinomiya Tano's pick-and-roll and quickly broke through with the ball.
At the same time, on the Shohoku side, Jinguji Takeshi and Miyagi Ryouta also switched defenses in time. Takeshi intercepted Fujima Kenji who was trying to break through, while Miyagi Ryouta switched defense in front of Shinomiya Tano.
A simple pick-and-roll gave Shimoya Tano a chance to make a big move.
After the breakthrough, Kenji Fujima did not run towards the inside of Shohoku. Instead, he led the defense of Budo and ran sideways, widening the distance between him and Shinomiya Tano. At the same time, he quickly passed the ball and lobbed it high to Shinomiya Tano.
When Miyagi Ryouta saw Fujima pass the ball like this, he thought about stealing the ball, but when the basketball really flew over, Shinomiya Tsunayo easily blocked Miyagi with his body, and casually reached out and took the ball in his hand.
The entire action of catching the ball seemed easy and freehand, and Miyagi's defense was unable to cause him even the slightest pressure.
With the ball, Shigong Tianye turned around quickly. While turning around, the ball protector simply blocked Miyagi's waist and easily stopped Miyagi Ryouta who was about to chase and defend. In the blink of an eye, Shigong Tianye completed the breakthrough and moved towards the inside line at a high speed.
Wudao stood in front of Fujima, looking at Shimonoseki who was rushing towards the inside, without moving, and narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Go ahead and try it, Sakuragi!"
Wu Dao murmured in his heart.
Under the basket, Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was originally defending Hanagata Toru, seemed to have heard the murmurs of Jinguji Budou, and quickly gave up Hanagata and rushed to defend Shinomiya Tano.
Shimono Shimada who was speeding up to attack the basket saw Sakuragi Hanamichi who was moving up to defend, but he didn't have any intention of slowing down to avoid him. As he approached the basket, he directly took the ball and jumped, raised his right arm high, grabbed the ball with one hand, and glided rapidly towards the basket.
"Look at how powerful this genius is!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi also has a short run-up distance, although the distance is far less than that of Shinomiya Tano, but he can also play his jumping ability to a certain extent. Sakuragi on the defensive side shouted and jumped up, raised his hands high, and blocked the basketball.
"Bang!"
Shinomiya Tano's body and Sakuragi Hanamichi's body collided in the air. To everyone's surprise, the moment Shinomiya Tano's body collided with Sakuragi, the gliding trend was abruptly curbed.
“Stop it!
!”
“We can stop it!”
When Akagi Takenori, who was standing under the basket, saw this scene, he was overjoyed.
He had been dunked over countless times by Shinomiya Tano. Being able to stop Shinomiya Tano from gliding forward in the air was the first step to a successful defense. However, Akagi Takenori had never been able to do even this "first step".
But now, what he couldn't do, Sakuragi Hanamichi, a freshman, actually did it.
"Boy, you're still a long way from stopping me!"
Shimono Shimono shouted loudly, and although his body stopped moving forward, he still grabbed the ball with his right hand and threw it towards the basket quickly.
Shimono Shimono was clearly more than 20 centimeters away from the basket, but when he threw the ball with one hand, he actually slammed the ball from top to bottom into the basket.
"What?!" Sakuragi Hanamichi was not as tall and as wide as Shinomiya Tano, and although his jumping ability was only slightly inferior, his absolute jumping height was much lower than Shinomiya Tano's. He really hadn't expected Shinomiya Tano's move, and even if he had expected it, he couldn't have stopped it.
"clang!"
There was a slight sound behind him. After landing, Sakuragi Hanamichi couldn't wait to look back, only to find that the basketball had already fallen out of the net, hit the floor, and rolled towards the baseline.
On the sidelines, Ryonan's scoreboard was flipped over and two points were added.
"!
"Sakuragi Hanamichi looked at the basketball on the ground in astonishment, his face full of disbelief. Even Jinguji Budou looked at Shinomiya Tianye in astonishment.
He imagined that Sakuragi Hanamichi would not be able to stop Shinomiya Tanaka now, but Wudao had thought that Shinomiya Tanaka would use pull-up and fake moves to avoid Sakuragi's defense, but he had never thought that the opponent would actually use such a method to forcibly break through Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense.
The strength that Shigong Tianye has now demonstrated has exceeded the imagination of martial arts.
"Hey! First graders!"
"Come and try to stop me!"
Shinomiya Tano put his thumb on his chest, raised his chin slightly, and spoke condescendingly to Sakuragi Hanamichi with a look of arrogance on his face.
If the mouth could be a little more crooked, it would be a living urban dragon king...
“But… Damn it!
”
Sakuragi looked at the arrogant Shimonoseki, clenched his fists, and his face was full of unwillingness.
"Sakuragi's defensive ability is definitely not bad now. It was unexpected that he lost in the aerial battle in this way."
"Shigong Tianye is too strong. Once he reaches full speed, it can be said that he is unstoppable."
"At this stage, it may be difficult for Sakuragi to affect Shinomiya Tano's offense."
"Let's focus on the fight for rebounds..."
Wu Dao thought to himself, and quickly turned around and ran to the front court. Sakuragi quickly adjusted his mentality, quickly followed Wu Dao and others, and advanced to the front court.
For Sakuragi, this is not the first time he has failed. He believes that he will have a chance to successfully get under the basket and defeat Shimonoseki!
Between offense and defense, Xiangbei High School quickly launched a counterattack.
After the basketball was passed continuously between the Xiangbei players, it was given to Mitsui Shou. Mitsui Shou moved to the top of the arc with the ball. After Wudao's pick-and-roll, he quickly flashed behind Wudao and took advantage of Wudao's body position to make a three-point shot from a long distance.
Now Mitsui's three-point shooting range has expanded a lot, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in his shooting stability.
The basketball hit the base of the basket and bounced upwards.
Under the basket, the two strong men, Akagi Takenori and Uozumi Jun, were already pushing against each other, each trying to occupy the appropriate landing point that he had judged.
On the other side of the basket, Hanagata Toru also spread his arms, trapped Sakuragi behind him, and protected the small area under the basket that belonged to him.
Sakuragi pushed twice but failed to move the flower shape that had already landed. He looked up at the falling basketball and silently took two steps back.
The basketball fell and landed where Hanagata was standing. Seeing that the landing point of the rebound became clear, Yuzumi Jun quickly changed from wrestling to blocking, preventing Akagi from getting the ball.
Huaxing looked at the falling basketball and suddenly jumped up as if to catch the ball in his hands.
"Snap!" Hua Xing grabbed the basketball with both hands and was about to hold the ball in his arms when an arm suddenly stretched out from behind him, directly touched the bottom of the basketball, and pushed it towards the back of Hua Xing's head.
"What?!" Hanagata pushed the basketball away, and having lost the rebound, Hanagata murmured in surprise. He quickly turned around and saw that the basketball had fallen into the hands of Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was actually holding the ball slightly, as if preparing to shoot.
"Don't even think about it!"
"Fake move! This kid has no basketball skills, flower shape!"
Upon seeing this, Hanagata stepped forward quickly. Although Shinomiya Tano, who was guarding Jinguji Martial Arts outside the field, reminded him loudly, at this moment, all of Hanagata's actions were subconscious reflexes, and Shinomiya Tano's reminders were of no use at all.
Sure enough, Hanagata raised his center of gravity, and Sakuragi Hanamichi directly dropped the ball and broke through, passing by Hanagata's side in an instant, going straight to the basket, grabbing the ball with his left hand, and suddenly dunking with one hand.
Sakuragi Hanamichi's dunk was quite loud. His previous dunk was blocked by Shinomiya Tano, but this time he quickly saved his face in his own way.
After coming on the court, two consecutive dunks finally made the Xiangbei bench, which had originally been pessimistic about Sakuragi Hanamichi, lively. Some first-year students cheered for Sakuragi, and Chiba Daishi, who was sitting on the bench, also had a smile on his face. He was also very happy that his junior who replaced him played so well.
Kiyota Nobunaga curled his lips in disdain, his face full of dissatisfaction, and murmured: "I can do it too."
In the rest area on the other side of the court, Aida Hiko was shouting "Great" and "I'll remember this" at the same time. He looked so excited that Sakuragi Hanamichi seemed like a player of their Ryonan High School, and coach Takeo's eyelids were twitching.
"Asshole! Be quiet! Hikoichi!" It was not until Coach Takaoka shouted that Hikoichi Aida calmed down a little, but the excitement in his eyes could not be dissipated.
"The first-year student at Shohoku, the red-haired Sakuragi Hanamichi!"
Until this time, Coach Takeo finally took Sakuragi Hanamichi seriously. He tapped the floor with his feet and his brain was working rapidly.
"This starting lineup of Xiangbei is excellent in all positions."
"Compared to the comprehensiveness of Mitsui Shou, the calmness and strength of Akagi, the speed of Miyagi Ryouta, and the sharpness of Jinguji Budou, Chiba Daiishi, the power forward, seems a little ordinary."
"Looking across the country, there are countless power forwards of Chiba Daishi's caliber. It may not be noticeable in weak teams, but in strong teams, this position becomes Xiangbei's weakness."
"Many times, Akagi would take on most of the responsibility of guarding the rebounds, with Chiba Daishi, Mitsui Hisashi, and Jinguji Budou sharing the rest of the work."
"But this red-haired kid... can fill this gap very well and completely free up Mitsui Shou and Jinguji Budou."
If Sakuragi Hanamichi's suppression of Kanpei and Fukuda in the first half was not enough to make Coach Takeoka pay attention, then Sakuragi's two attacks and one defense have now successfully made him a hit with Coach Takeoka.
Facing Shinomiya Tano and Hanagata, Sakuragi was able to perform like this, which shows that he has the ability to influence the outcome of the battle.
On the court, Sakuragi Hanamichi's two consecutive dunks made the Ryonan players increase their defense against the inside. Fujima no longer defended closely against Miyagi, but retreated to the middle distance in the paint area to ensure that he could double-team the Shohoku inside players as soon as they received the ball.
As for Miyagi Ryouta shooting three-pointers? Fujima really hadn't thought about it.
Apart from the adjustment of Fujima's defensive position, the defense of Shimonoseki and Sendoh Akira is still close to Jinguji Takeshi and Mitsui Hisashi. After all, these two people are different from Miyagi Ryouta, and both have terrifying outside scoring ability.
Seeing that Miyagi Ryouta had many good opportunities to shoot from the outside, Budou also tried to pass the ball to Miyagi Ryouta, allowing him to launch an attack from outside the three-point line.
Miyagi Ryouta also decisively shot a few three-pointers, and Fujima on the defensive side only symbolically stretched out his hand to interfere. Compared with Miyagi's breakthrough, Miyagi Ryouta's three-pointer was much less threatening.
Miyagi's shooting percentage is indeed average, with an overall hit rate of around 40%, and he misses quite a few shots.
As Miyagi Ryouta's shots increased, Shohoku's frontcourt rebounds appeared more frequently. Sakuragi Hanamichi's rebounding ability was also revealed in Miyagi Ryouta's repeated missed shots.
"Ohhhh!
”
Under the basket, Miyagi Ryouta missed another strong shot and the basketball bounced out of the basket.
The basketball had just left the basket and was about to fall when a loud shout suddenly came from behind Hanagata. Sakuragi Hanamichi jumped up, reached out from behind Hanagata, grabbed the basketball, and dunked it into the net.
Hanagata stood on the ground the entire time. The huge force from behind made it impossible for him to jump. He could only watch Sakuragi Hanamichi complete the tip-in.
As the basketball went into the net, cheers broke out from the Xiangbei rest area.
19 minutes into the game, the score between the two teams was 97:83, a difference of 14 points.
There was one minute left in the game, and with such a score difference, the winner was already decided.
However, Sakuragi Hanamichi still maintained a considerable degree of competitive enthusiasm on the court. Although he was behind in the score and the outcome was clear, there was not even a trace of disappointment on Sakuragi's face.
Don't miss any offensive opportunity.
Sakuragi Hanamichi only played for a few minutes in the second half, but he added 4 rebounds and his personal score also increased by 6 points.
Coach Anzai felt very relieved when he saw Sakuragi actively returning to defense after scoring the tip-in.
"We will win... We Xiangbei... We will definitely win!"
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