A player like Sakuragi Hanamichi, when he is truly focused on the game, can unleash terrifying fighting power that no one can imagine.
Shoyo High School, whose average height is over 185cm, completely lost air superiority due to the efforts of Sakuragi Hanamichi.
If there is no air superiority in a game, will there still be suspense? Maybe there will be a different answer in a few decades, but in today's high school basketball, there will be no other answer at all.
86:73.
With Sakuragi Hanamichi grabbing his 17th rebound of the game, the game between Xiangbei High School and Shoyo High School completely lost its suspense.
In the end, Xiangbei won the game with a 13-point lead. After the game, Xiangbei's players rushed into the court cheering and surrounded Sakuragi Hanamichi and others who helped Xiangbei win the victory.
"Sakuragi, your rebounding is really great!"
"Mr. Key! Sakuragi, you really are a genius."
Amid the praise from his teammates, Sakuragi grinned and began to get carried away again. After celebrating with his teammates for a while, Sakuragi seemed to have thought of something and raised his fist in the direction of Haruko.
Haruko saw Sakuragi's action and waved her hands happily, feeling happy that Sakuragi helped the team win. However, Haruko Akagi's action made Akagi Takenori, who was originally planning to praise Sakuragi, silent. After a snort, he sat back on the stool: "Asshole..."
"Not bad, this way, we have won the first battle!"
"The next ones to face are Ryonan High School and Kainan."
"With the strength of Sakuragi and his team, there shouldn't be any problem beating Hainan. For now, it seems that we still have to focus on preparing for the match against Ryonan!"
Mitsui Hisashi did not run into the court to join his teammates' cheers, but sat next to Jinguji Budou and began to plan how their Shohoku team would play the next game.
"There won't be any problem attacking Hainan..."
"That... may not be the case."
Wu Dao looked towards the player tunnel on the sidelines, where Hainan's players were walking into the stadium along the tunnel, preparing for their next game between Hainan and Ryonan High School.
The one walking in front of Hainan was the head coach of the team, Gaotou. Behind the coach was a burly man who was unfamiliar and estimated to be two meters tall.
When Wu Dao saw the player from the Hainan team, Tong Kong shrank back and couldn't help but mutter, "Why is this guy in the Hainan team?!"
"Number 15... Was it recruited by Coach Gaotou?!"
Mitsui Shou also noticed Wudao's abnormality at this moment. He followed Jinguji Wudao's gaze and saw Mori Shigehiro wearing the No. 15 jersey and entering the field with the team!
At the same time, the players of Ryonan High School also walked into the stadium through the player passage on the other side. Shimonoya, Sendoh and others followed Coach Takeoka into the stadium.
Mori Shigehiro's presence seemed to have attracted the attention of everyone in Ryonan High School, and they all looked at Hainan's No. 15.
"Who is that?!"
"I've never seen him in Hainan's team before! Is he a freshman?!"
"A freshman with this body type... ..Hainan's strength this year is probably much stronger than before!"
Mitsui Hisashi also noticed that Mori Shigehiro was an unusual player. His height of more than two meters and his sturdy figure gave a great visual impact.
Mori Shigehiro's physique is not very "high school". In Mitsui Hisashi's opinion, this No. 15 player from Kainan is even half a circle bigger than Akagi, and that bigger half a circle is not just bloatedness, but solid muscles.
"Ryonan is in trouble, hehe! Let's wait and see!"
"Let's go, let's go to the stands."
After taking a close look at Mori Shigehiro, Jinguji Takeshi suddenly laughed, grabbed the unopened backpack, patted Mitsui Hisashi on the back, and said excitedly.
The rest area on Xiangbei's side is what Hainan will use next. When Coach Anxi saw Coach Gaotou of Hainan, he also smiled and greeted him while waiting for the players to pack up. While chatting and waiting with Coach Gaotou, Coach Anxi's eyes also looked at Mori Shigehiro from time to time.
I am quite curious about the new faces in this Hainan team.
Coach Takato obviously noticed Coach Anzai's interest in Mori Shigehiro, but he had no intention of introducing this new player to Coach Anzai. He continued the conversation intermittently, but his eyes occasionally glanced at Coach Tanaoka in the rest area on the other side. The urgency in his eyes was not concealed at all.
Coach Anxi obviously noticed that Coach Gaotou didn't seem to be interested in chatting with him. After the players packed up, he immediately said goodbye and led the players through the player tunnel to the stands. Not long after the Xiangbei High School team left the court, the Xiangyang players also packed up their things and vacated the rest area.
The conference's cleaning staff quickly cleaned the floor. Players from Ryonan High School and Hainan changed into their jerseys and sneakers in their respective rest areas, preparing for the game.
However, before the game started, the coaches of the two teams walked to the podium at the same time. After a brief greeting to the referee, the two coaches suddenly looked at each other in silence.
Lightning exploded in the sight of the two coaches.
"Oh!"
"snort!"
With a cold snort each, they turned around and returned to their rest area.
"Tian Ye, Xian Dao, in today's match, the two of you must not stay behind for even a moment, attack hard!"
"That guy Gaotou still refuses to accept the defeat. Today, we must make him accept the defeat!"
After returning to the rest area, Coach Tanaoka immediately found Shimoya Tano and Sendoh Akira, put his hands on their shoulders and gave them some advice.
"Uh... Coach, we didn't intend to hold back."
"Don't worry, we will do our best~"
Sendoh had just changed his shoes and looked at Coach Tagola who had a serious face, and replied in a relaxed tone.
However, his tone made Coach Tiangang frown.
"Asshole!"
"Be serious!"
"You must play well in today's match!"
"Hanagata, Fujima, Uozumi, the same goes for the three of you. You must be serious!"
"I can feel that Hainan is different now!"
As Coach Tiangang spoke, he turned his head and looked towards the rest area of Hainan with a serious expression. He said such things to the players not only because he and Coach Gaotou were in competition.
When the experienced coach Tiangang saw the current Hainan team, he immediately realized that they were not easy to deal with! That is why Coach Tiangang said this to Shigong Tianye and others.
"Coach...relax."
"No one can defeat our Ryonan High School!"
Unlike the nervous and serious coach Tago, Shigong Tianye, like Sendoh, seemed very relaxed. After saying this, Shigong Tianye tightened his shoelaces, then stood up from his seat, glanced at the rest area in Hainan, clapped his hands, and said to his teammates:
"Come on, tell the coach, is there anyone who can defeat us, Ryonan?!"
Under the guidance of Shinomiya Tano, the players of Ryonan High School shouted "No" in unison. The vigorous events made Coach Takeoka look slightly stunned, and then he shook his head and laughed.
"Yeah....Why am I so nervous?"
"With this kid around, Hainan should be the one who should be nervous."
Coach Tiangang sighed inwardly, smiled and nodded to the players, and sat down in his seat peacefully.
At this time, the stadium cleaning staff finally mopped the floor.
After changing into their equipment, the Ryonan players, led by Shinomiya Tano, walked onto the court and began warming up.
"oooohhhhhh"
"Lingnan! Lingnan! Lingnan!"
As the players of Ryonan High School walked onto the field, the stands suddenly erupted in amazing cheers. The Ryonan cheerleaders in the front row waved a banner that read "Courageous and Brave" and shouted at the top of their lungs.
Shortly after Ryonan High School entered the field for warm-up, the players from Hainan High School also entered the field one after another to begin warming up.
"Bang!
”
However, shortly after the Hainan players entered the field, during Hainan's warm-up half, a loud noise was heard, instantly attracting everyone's attention.
During the warm-up phase, Mori Shigehiro dribbled the ball into the basket and slam dunked with both hands. The slam dunk was so powerful that the entire basketball hoop creaked, and the noise of the slam dunk attracted the attention of the audience.
"hiss!
!
”
"What a great slam dunk!"
Some spectators who had seen Mori Shigehiro's dunk in person exclaimed in surprise. Jinguji Budo in the stands also cast his eyes towards the court, staring at Mori Shigehiro, stroking his chin with an interested look.
The Ryonan players on the court were also attracted by the movement in the opposite half. Sendoh looked at Mori Shigehiro who was hanging the basket with one arm, as if he saw a chimpanzee hanging on a tree branch. He was serious for less than two seconds, and then a smile appeared on his face.
Shinomiya Tano just took a quick glance and then looked away, not taking Mori Shigehiro's dunk seriously.
Indeed, in the high school basketball world, there are not many players who can do a two-handed dunk. Many people can only do a free dunk at best.
But that only applies to ordinary high school teams.
In Ryonan High School, the number of people who can dunk can be counted on one hand. He can easily do a two-handed dunk of this level, so he is not surprised.
However, the thoughts of the audience watching the game today were different from those of Shimono. Most people's first thought when they saw a high school student dunk with both hands was shock.
"Just to show your power..."
"The slam dunk was indeed great, but it was on the wrong target!"
Jinguji Takeshi looked at Mori Shigehiro for a long time, then finally withdrew his gaze, smiled and murmured.
Sure enough, as soon as Jinguji Budou finished speaking, Ryonan High School changed its previous simple warm-up style and started to play some fancy moves.
Sendoh, Uozumi, and Hanagata performed dunks one after another, and Fujima and Fukuda Yoshitaka even teamed up to perform an aerial relay. Suddenly, the audience's attention was attracted to Ryonan.
Although Hainan felt the competitive intention of the Ryonan players, they had no intention of really competing with them. Mori Shigehiro's two-handed dunk just now was just for warm-up, but Hainan didn't expect that Ryonan would suddenly have a stress reaction.
After Ryonan performed a few waves and saw that Hainan did not respond, they stopped and began to warm up in an orderly manner.
However, at this moment, the stadium was filled with a strong smell of gunpowder.
“Beep!
”
Soon, after a quick whistle from the referee, the warm-up was over.
After both teams made their final adjustments, players from both teams began to enter the field.
"Ohhh, so tall! The centers of Ryonan and Hainan are both so tall!"
"Hainan looks really strong this year! They're not weaker than Ryonan!"
As the players from both teams took their positions in the center circle, the cheers of the audience turned into whispers, and the focus of the discussion was Uozumi and Mori Shigehiro, who were standing at both ends of the center line, preparing to jump the ball.
The five players from Hainan High School who appeared on the field were center Mori Shigehiro, power forward Takasago Kazuma, small forward Kamiso Ichiro, point guard Maki Shinichi, and the point guard position was a No. 8 that Wudao had never seen before. From afar, he heard the Hainan players call him Xiaoguan.
In contrast, Ryonan High School has an all-star lineup, with Jun Uozumi at center, Toru Hanagata at power forward, Tano Shinomiya at small forward, Sendoh at shooting guard, and Kenji Fujima at point guard.
The two teams took their positions in the center circle, and it was obvious that the momentum of the Hainan players was weaker.
“Beep!
”
After a long whistle, the referee threw the ball high into the air.
Immediately afterwards, two burly men jumped up from the ground and reached out to kick the basketball.
“Bang!”
With a slight sound, Mori Shigehiro actually reached the highest point before Yuzumi, touched the basketball first, ran and shot the ball towards his team's backcourt, and accurately delivered it into the arms of Maki Shinichi.
"What?!" Yuzumi's face froze after losing the jump ball, and he quickly returned to the court to defend with his teammates.
“Uozumi-senpai’s jump ball… he lost?! Lost to that first-year?!”
Coach Tanaoka was also surprised at Yuzumi's failure in the jump ball, and Hikoichi Aida behind him screamed in shock.
However, the Ryonan players on the field did not think too much about the jump ball. They quickly returned to defense and took their positions in their own half.
Ryonan High School played a standard man-to-man tactic. As Kainan's Maki Shinichi entered the front court with the ball, Shinomiya Tianye stopped Fujima Kenji who was about to defend and walked towards Maki Shinichi. At the same time, he pointed at Kainan's No. 8 and signaled Fujima to defend that player.
After receiving the signal from Shinomiya Tano, Fujima gave up his position and left quickly without saying anything.
And Shinomiya Tano quickly filled the position in front of Maki Shinichi, spread his arms, and hooked his fingers at Maki Shinichi.
"Amu, come over here!"
"Let me see if you have made any progress!"
Shinomiya Tano's arrogant attitude immediately drew cheers from the audience. Ryonan's cheerleaders banged on empty bottles vigorously, making loud noises to cheer for the players.
Maki Shinichi was not annoyed when he heard this. He glanced at Takasago Kazuma who was running to set a screen, and quickly broke through with the ball.
“Peng!
”
However, Takasago's pick-and-roll seemed to be noticed by Shinomiya Tano. Facing Takasago's pick-and-roll, Shinomiya Tano actually had no intention of avoiding it at all, just pretending not to see it, and turned around to follow Maki Shinichi's breakthrough.
His body hit Takasago Kazuma hard.
Takasago didn't seem to expect that Shinomiya Tano would come up directly, and the terrifying force made Takasago stagger and take a step back, which directly affected Maki Shinichi's breakthrough rhythm.
"That's it... You want to pick me too?!"
Shinomiya Tano directly squeezed out Takasago Kazuma's pick-and-roll, quickly stuck to Maki Shinichi, raised one hand high, and blocked Maki Shinichi's shooting route.
Maki Shinichi knew that it would be difficult for him to get rid of Shinomiya Tano's defense. He was also well aware of Shinomiya Tano's strength. He made an emergency stop, looked up at the basket, and quickly passed the basketball in his hand to the inside.
"Snap!" With a light sound, the basketball was firmly grasped by Mori Shigehiro who was in a key position in the inside.
Mori Shigehiro got the ball and dropped it with both hands, then slammed his body hard on Yuzumi Jun. After a back-to-back shot, he actually took the ball and dunked it into the basket.
Although Yuzumi had certain expectations of Mori Shigehiro's strength, he did not expect that Hainan's No. 15's strength was so terrifying. When being back-downed by the opponent, Yuzumi was out of position, leaving the space under the basket empty.
At this moment, he could only look up and watch Mori Shigehiro perform a two-handed dunk in front of him.
"Bang!
”
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