Rukawa Kaede's gorgeous offensive performance won him countless cheers from the audience. At the same time, his performance also made Sakuragi Hanamichi jealous, and his jealousy was suppressed in his chest.
On the court, offense and defense switch.
Miuradai, whose defense had just been breached, began to organize an attack.
The difference between the two teams has now reached 16 points, but the players of Miuradai are still quite calm. They are not impatient when organizing the offense. The basketball is fully passed between the players, and they wait quietly for offensive opportunities to appear.
It has to be said that although the strength of Miuradai's players is average, their mentality is still pretty good. Putting aside the small moves on the court, overall, Miuradai can still be considered an excellent team.
Xiangbei High School adopts a zone defense tactic, the main purpose of which is to strengthen the defense in the interior and mid-range.
Miuradai's outside offensive capabilities are not strong, and Xiangbei's style of shrinking the defense line has a very obvious inhibitory effect on Miuradai's offense.
On the court, Sakuragi Hanamichi stood at the edge of the paint area near the free throw line. While observing the Miuradai guard who was holding the ball at the top of the arc, he glanced at the black No. 4 player who was walking towards him, and took the initiative to leave his original position and walk towards him.
"Red-haired brat!"
The captain of Miuradai is the third-year student Murasame Kengo, who is 186cm tall, about the same height as Sakuragi Hanamichi. However, in the previous series of attacks and defenses, Murasame Kengo suffered a great loss at the hands of Sakuragi.
Sakuragi Hanamichi's height and physical fitness are not worse than Murasame Kengo, and he is even stronger than him. In addition, Sakuragi has a good defensive vision, fast footwork, and rich experience in single defense, which greatly limits the performance of Murasame Kengo.
In order to get rid of Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense, Murasame Kengo couldn't help but start some small moves. Only with this little cleverness did Murasame Kengo help the team barely gain a foothold. Obviously, the strength of the two teams was very different, but the score difference was still not more than 20 points.
However, the situation is still not optimistic for Miuradai. Murasame Kengo knows that he must do something else, otherwise, Miuradai will never be able to force out the main force of Shohoku High School.
That's right, at this point in the game, Kengo Murasame didn't even expect the team to win.
He only thought about defeating Xiangbei High School when the game just started. But now, he no longer had this thought in his mind. As long as he could force Jinguji Budou and Mitsui Shou off the court, it would be a big victory for Miuradai.
But Kengo Murasame knew that if he didn't do something now, it would be impossible to force Shohoku's main players off the field.
This red-haired first-year student in front of me is an obstacle that must be cleared!
"Bang!"
With a muffled sound, Murasame Kengo leaned his back against Sakuragi Hanamichi's chest and raised his hand to ask for the ball.
The next second, the basketball was thrown high into the hands of Murasame Kengo. Murasame Kengo quickly collected the ball, slightly tilted his head to look at Sakuragi Hanamichi's position, and directly shot the ball from behind, leaning his back hard on Sakuragi Hanamichi.
"Bang!"
There was another muffled sound. Murasame Kengo's back-to-back attack was powerful, but the defending Sakuragi Hanamichi was well prepared. He planted his feet on the ground and did not retreat even a step under Murasame Kengo's back-to-back attack. Moreover, Sakuragi's defensive action was very clean, with his arms raised high, without any signs of active force.
"whispering sound!"
"This little red-haired devil!"
Murasame Kengo gritted his teeth secretly, no longer having any fluke mentality. Although it was not the first time he had fought against Sakuragi, he still wanted to try to break through Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense with his own strength, but unfortunately, the strength he should be most proud of was not enough to shake Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense.
Murasame Kengo, who no longer had any hope of luck, decisively turned around with the ball, and while turning around, the elbow of the hand protecting the ball directly hit Sakuragi Hanamichi's waist. This time, Murasame Kengo exerted 99% of his strength, directly hitting Sakuragi Hanamichi so hard that his breathing stopped and his body paused.
However, because Murasame Kengo's elbow was so fast and he blocked the referee's sight with his body when he broke through, the referee didn't see it at all. The audience in the stands couldn't see this subtle move.
"Hey!" Murasame Kengo easily broke through Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense and invaded the paint area. Nanxiang, who was on both sides of the paint area at the baseline, was unable to make up for the defense and could only stand under the basket and raise his hands to barely interfere.
Murasame Kengo, who was near the basket, forced a layup and the basketball hit the front of the basket and went into the net.
"Well done, Captain!"
"Nice shot, Captain."
When the players of Miuradai saw that Kengo Murasame had scored a goal, they all came up to praise him. Kengo Murasame was also very pleased with the praise from his players. He nodded with a smile and put on a captain's attitude, saying to his players, "Don't give up! We still have a chance!"
Surrounded by his teammates, Murasame Kengo, who began to return to defense, didn't notice that Sakuragi Hanamichi had already come behind him silently with a dark face.
"What is this kid.....going to do?!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi's abnormal behavior instantly attracted the attention of the referee and the audience in the stands, and everyone focused their eyes on Sakuragi Hanamichi.
Murasame Kengo also seemed to feel the slight chill on his back, so he slowly slowed down his pace and turned his head.
"Ah!" Murasame Kengo turned around and saw Sakuragi's gloomy face. He was startled and couldn't help but exclaimed. When he came to his senses, he immediately cursed guiltily:
"Asshole! What are you doing?!"
Murasame Kengo was shocked by Sakuragi's state, but when the other Miuratai players came over, Murasame Kengo became more confident and mocked:
"Hey, hey, hey, what do you want to do?!"
"Hit me?!"
"Come on, do it! Do you know what kind of bad consequences will come from hitting someone on the court?!"
"Swoosh, swoosh, I guess you're a member of Shohoku, right? Jinguji Budo of Shohoku knows a lot about this."
"At that time, he was suspended for hitting someone in a junior high school game. He only returned to the court in high school."
"Red-haired brat, are you going to learn from him?!"
"Come on, do it, do it!"
As Murasame Kengo spoke, he put Lian in front of Sakuragi. Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was already angry, suddenly looked up, and his scarlet eyes scared Murasame Kengo so much that he took a step back.
The referee on the sidelines saw that a conflict might break out and rushed over immediately. Kiyota Nobunaga and others also noticed that Sakuragi Hanamichi was not in a good state and ran to Sakuragi. Kiyota Nobunaga and Nango Koichiro, who had been arguing with Sakuragi the most, grabbed Sakuragi's arms on the left and right, fearing that Sakuragi Hanamichi would do something irrational.
Rukawa Kaede had no intention of stopping Sakuragi. He just stood beside his teammate, looking coldly at the players of Miuradai, as if he was ready to go.
"Sakuragi, don't be impulsive!"
Although Oda Ryumasa couldn't play with Sakuragi, they were teammates after all, so he offered comfort.
"Shohoku! Disperse quickly!"
"Keep playing!"
"Otherwise, you will be given a technical foul."
The referee was also shouting anxiously at this moment. The referees on duty today were all experienced referees. They knew very well that if the conflict between young players was not handled properly, it might cause big trouble.
"..." Unlike the tense atmosphere inside the stadium, Coach Anxi was not in a hurry at all when he saw this scene. He took a sip of tea from his teacup and looked at the stadium from afar. Jinguji Takeshi and Mitsui Hisashi and the others just sat on the bench and were not in a hurry at all.
The rest of Xiangbei's substitutes wanted to rush into the court, but when they saw the looks of Coach Anzai, Wudao and others, they did not dare to act rashly.
"Coach Anxi, this... is it okay for us to not care?!"
Ayako was a little worried and asked the calm Coach Anzai.
“Hohoho.”
"Don't worry, Ayako."
"Sakuragi... is already a mature player."
Coach Anzai chuckled, his words full of confidence in Sakuragi.
“Huh…”
The originally tense atmosphere in the stadium eased after Sakuragi Hanamichi breathed a sigh of relief.
Sakuragi closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time before opening them again. He looked at Kiyota and Nango who were holding his arms on the left and right, and asked in confusion: "What are you two doing here?!"
"Why don't you serve the ball?"
Sakuragi's words stunned Kiyota Nobunaga and Nango, and they looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi suspiciously.
Seeing this, Murasame Kengo, who was standing opposite Sakuragi, also laughed a few times, and without leaving Sakuragi, quickly ran towards the backcourt.
"Um?!"
"Referee, what are you doing?!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi scratched his head, looked at the nervous referee suspiciously, and asked in confusion. When the referees saw Sakuragi's current state, they looked at each other, and then the referee reminded him: "Play the game well and don't have other ideas." Then he walked off the court with the other two referees.
Seeing that no conflict seemed to have occurred, Kiyota and Nango breathed a sigh of relief and went to the baseline to serve.
After everyone left, Sakuragi Hanamichi's expression turned cold again. He looked at Murasame Kengo's departing back and whispered, "I'll kill you!"
The audience looked at the resumed game in confusion, not knowing what had happened.
But for the audience, what happened on the field is not important. What is important is that the game continues.
In the backcourt, Kiyota Nobunaga quickly dribbled the ball across the center line. After approaching the top of the arc with the ball, Kiyota began to observe the positions of the players.
However, at this moment, he suddenly discovered that Sakuragi Hanamichi was standing in the middle distance with his back to the basket.
Originally, Kiyota Nobunaga would definitely ignore Sakuragi Hanamichi who was asking for the ball, but now... After what happened just now, Kiyota Nobunaga also knew that Sakuragi had a lot of anger accumulated in his heart. If he was not allowed to vent, he would probably explode.
Therefore, Kiyota didn't think any more and chose to pass the ball to Sakuragi Hanamichi.
"very good!"
As the basketball came into his hand, Sakuragi Hanamichi's expression eased a little and he quickly turned around to face the basket.
As he expected, the one defending him was Kengo Murasame of Miuradai.
"Xine!"
Sakuragi, who had the ball, had a fierce look in his eyes. After a fake shot, he quickly broke through with the ball. However, Sakuragi's breakthrough was very different from the previous ones.
As Sakuragi was breaking through, he actively used his shoulder to hit Murasame Kengo's chest hard. With his speed, he could easily bypass Murasame's defense, but this time, Sakuragi took the initiative to seek confrontation.
A huge pressure came from his chest, and Murasame Kengo's breathing stagnated, his eyes widened, as if he couldn't believe that Sakuragi was so blatant. After taking several steps back, Murasame Kengo finally stood firm, but the pain in his chest still made him feel a little short of breath.
After Sakuragi broke through Murasame Kengo, he quickly rushed to the basket, ignoring the Miuratai players who were defending him, and dunked the ball directly into the net. The Miuratai players who tried to block his dunk were also knocked to the ground by Sakuragi's impact and had a close contact with the floor.
"Hmm..." Sakuragi Hanamichi's dunk shocked the audience, and then they burst into amazing cheers.
The referee looked at Kengo Murasame, then at the Miuratai players lying on the ground, but did not blow the whistle.
Although Sakuragi Hanamichi's breakthrough was not clean, the series of actions from breakthrough to dunk were very smooth. The shoulder lowering action was not obvious. Although the referee saw it, it was a callable move or not.
As for Sakuragi's slam dunk, there is no need to say more, it was very clean, a beautiful slam dunk.
After successfully scoring a dunk, Sakuragi Hanamichi fell back to the ground, glanced coldly at Murasame Kengo, and began to return to defense. His stern look even stunned Kiyota Nobunaga, who was about to come up and high-five to celebrate.
"Red monkey... what happened?!"
Kiyota Nobunaga felt strange. According to his judgment of Sakuragi, it was already considered subtle for Sakuragi not to blow a kiss to the audience after scoring the goal. Unexpectedly, Sakuragi didn't say anything and just started to return to the court
Nango was also very surprised. After looking at Kiyota Nobunaga, he silently followed Sakuragi and started to defend.
Although they didn't know what happened to Sakuragi Hanamichi, they knew that Sakuragi Hanamichi seemed to be starting to focus on the game.
This is good news for them!
"Wow wow wow!" Coach Anzai laughed happily while watching the performance of Sakuragi Hanamichi on the field. Although he looked calm on the surface, Coach Anzai was actually worried about Sakuragi.
"Really... mature."
"Well done, Sakuragi!"
Wudao looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi on the field, secretly praised him in his heart, stretched, adjusted himself to a comfortable position, and watched the next game.
After Sakuragi regained his form, Miuradai completely lost hope of winning.
Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was focused on the game, showed unparalleled rebounding talent. His jumping ability, rebounding speed, and intuition about where the basketball would land were much better than others.
Sakuragi alone is the one who protects the sky of Xiangbei.
On the offensive end, Sakuragi Hanamichi's movements were very large and he committed two fouls as the game progressed, but Sakuragi also understood the referee's penalty standards, and there were no offensive fouls in the second half of the game.
On the contrary, Murasame Kengo, who was defending him, was turned into a sieve by Sakuragi. Sakuragi's breakthrough was somewhat similar to that of Shinomiya Tano, and he was also accustomed to using the digging steps learned from martial arts. Sakuragi blended his strength and speed very well, making his every breakthrough difficult to resist.
Under Sakuragi Hanamichi's venting attack, Miuradai completely collapsed.
As the game came to an end, Shohoku High School crushed Miuradai 121:57 and successfully advanced to the top four.
In his high school debut today, Rukawa Kaede scored a terrifying 48 points in a single game, while Sakuragi Hanamichi scored 26 points, second on the team. The rest of the players also scored in double digits.
In the quarter-finals, the freshmen of Xiangbei High School showed a strength that shocked everyone.
"It was a pretty good first game."
"We guys finally have... qualified substitutes!"
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