The referee was very strict in his penalty for Mori Shigehiro's timeout. After giving a technical foul, Ryonan was going to execute two free throws and one throw. The player who executed the free throw was Ryonan's Sendoh.
Budou was a little surprised that Ryonan would let Sendoh come up to shoot free throws instead of sending out Coach Takeo's most trusted general Shinomiya Tano.
However, such emotions are fleeting. After all, with Sendo's ability, taking free throws is as easy as eating and drinking.
“Swish!”
“Swish!”
Two consecutive net swipes confirmed Jinguji Budo's judgment. Sendoh's free throws were very stable, without any accidents. He basically shot as soon as he caught the ball, without giving himself too much time to adjust.
After the free throw, Ryonan High School got the offensive ball. Under the leadership of Kenji Fujima, the Ryonan players quickly took their positions in the frontcourt.
"Fujima, pass the ball!"
This time, Shinomiya Tano did not let Fujima give Uozumi the chance to hold the ball and attack. After Fujima entered the frontcourt, he immediately turned sideways to push against Maki Shinichi and reached out to Fujima Kenji for the ball.
As the basketball passed from Fujima's hand and fell into Shinomiya Tianye's hand, the audience in the stands suddenly burst into cheers. The sudden cheers made the Hainan substitute players in the audience couldn't help but look sideways.
However, the Hainan players in the stadium seemed to have expected this and were not distracted by the cheers from the stands. Only Mori Shigehiro, who had relatively little experience in the game, looked curiously towards the stands, and then cast his sights towards Shinomiya Tano, while moving his body and raising his position a little, ready to make up for the defense.
Before today's game, Mori Shigehiro had heard of Shinomiya Tano. Since he entered high school, Coach Takato gave him various trainings, a large part of which was defense, and the imaginary enemy of defense was Shinomiya Tano of Ryonan High School.
Coach Takato put all the responsibility of curbing Shinomiya Tano's performance on the shoulders of Mori Shigehiro.
Shigong Tianye, who was holding the ball outside the three-point line, adjusted his body position to the inside line, curled his lips, and immediately dropped the ball to start. With a nitrogen acceleration, he was directly level with Maki Shinichi.
Shinomiya Tanno's breakthrough speed was very fast, and Maki Shinichi hurriedly slid to follow, but he did not start in time, so Maki Shinichi fell behind by half a body length and had already lost the possibility of stopping Shinomiya Tanno. He could only settle for the next best thing and reach out to grab the ball from behind Shinomiya Tanno.
However, just when Shinichi Maki was about to grab the basketball, Shinomiya Tano, who was one step inside the three-point line, suddenly took the ball, took two big steps, and instantly approached the paint area and came in front of Mori Shigehiro.
Then, with the momentum of the sprint, Shinomiya Tano jumped up, grabbed the ball with his right hand, and looked towards the basket. He actually ignored the existence of Mori Shigehiro and planned to shoot from this position.
"That guy Shigong Tianye, has he become inflated?"
"Mori Shigehiro is not just a big, dumb guy with a big physique. This guy has great explosive power!"
Jinguji Takeshi was also stunned when he saw this scene. He didn't expect that Shinomiya Tano would rush straight towards Mori Shigehiro.
"Ah!" Mori Shigehiro, who had already taken position, had a fierce light in his eyes. He raised his hands high and jumped up. His big hands covered the sky and pressed down hard on the basketball in Shigong Tianye's hand.
"It's going to be blocked!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi clenched his fists when he saw this scene, and looked at the field nervously. He had seen Shinomiya Tano and Jinguji Budou compete against each other on the field, and seeing Shinomiya Tano about to be blocked by an unknown freshman, he was a little bit unbelievable at this moment.
However, just when Mori Shigehiro's big hand was about to press on the basketball, Shinomiya Tano, who had caught the ball with one hand, suddenly swung the ball to the side and actually avoided Mori Shigehiro's block in the air.
At the same time, Shigong Tianye still maintained the potential energy of rushing forward in the air, and the next second after avoiding the block, his position crossed with Mori Shigehiro. It was not until this time that Shigong Tianye raised the ball again and shot the ball. At this time, Mori Shigehiro had already fallen back to the ground. Mori Shigehiro, who jumped after Shigong Tianye, fell back to the ground first.
“Swish!”
After Mori Shigehiro landed, a crisp sound of the basketball hitting the net was heard behind him. Mori Shigehiro turned his head and saw the basketball pass through the net and fall to the ground.
“ohhhhh!
!”
"Hey! Did you see that? Did you see that?! Shinomiya Tano actually avoided the block in the air and shot the ball into the basket?!"
"Different from the traditional pull-up layup, this... is a pull-up shot?!"
Instantly, a new round of cheers broke out in the stands. Shinomiya Tano's wonderful aerial performance completely convinced the audience who were still skeptical of Ryonan.
“Is this true... Such an exaggerated hovering in the air...?” Sakuragi Hanamichi was originally worried that Shinomiya Tano would be defeated by a first-year student, but at this moment, he was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped to the ground.
Today's Sakuragi is no longer a rookie who knows nothing. After playing for so long, he knows very well what Shimonoseki's mid-air behavior means.
Others have already landed, but he is still in the air.
This exaggerated air stay means terrible air combat ability, which also means that ordinary players cannot stop Shinomiya Tano's attack at all.
"First year, you're welcome."
"Come on defense!"
After scoring the goal, Shinomiya Tano hooked his finger at Mori Shigehiro, but in his eyes, there was no trace of Mori Shigehiro at all, and he did not take Mori Shigehiro seriously at all!
Soon, Ryonan High School began to defend under the leadership of Shinomiya Tano.
Mori Shigehiro, who was provoked by Shinomiya Tano, was now thinking about the opponent's attack just now and remained silent.
"I thought that even when attacking, Shinomiya Tano should use mid-range shooting."
"But I didn't expect that he would play like this?!"
"That terrifying bounce and hovering... How can we possibly stop it?!"
The high-headed coach on the sidelines frowned and looked thoughtful. Although Shigong Tianye only hit one ball, the difference can be seen from this one ball. Even Mori Shigehiro may not be able to stop the opponent!
"Hey, Budo, what do you think we should do if we encounter this?!"
Mitsui Shou also looked at the field with a serious expression at this moment, and asked the martial arts beside him. He was also surprised by Shigong Tianye's operation. In the previous game with Xiangbei, Shigong Tianye did not seem to show much ability in this aspect. The offense relied on pure strength, or mixed with a small amount of feints and shots.
Mitsui had never seen this kind of attack method that relied on bouncing and staying in the air to crush the opponent.
"How to deal with it? Just defend as you should. Let Akagi go forward, use his physical strength to fight against him. If he can't do it anymore, let Minamigo go. If Minamigo can't do it anymore, let Sakuragi go."
"He's just a first-year student. No matter how powerful he is, can he withstand a round-robin battle?"
"At worst, double-team me. I'll keep a close eye on Amu, and Miyagi will try to steal the ball. This is the kind of person that big guys fear the most."
"As long as Akagi can save face, everything will be easy!"
Wudao casually replied to Mitsui Shou's question, "Mori Shigehiro's ability is indeed quite good, but Hainan wants to rely on such an inside player to snatch victory from Xiangbei? That's too simple."
"I'm not talking about him!"
"I say, Shinomiya Tano, how do you block that kind of attack?!"
"It wasn't revealed in the previous match against Shohoku. I didn't expect that this guy Shinomiya Tano had such a hidden card!"
Mitsui Shou said this resentfully, as if he was angry at Shinomiya Tano's poor performance during the practice match.
"Oh... you mean Shinomiya Tano!"
"As for him, this kind of projection can only be used on Mori Shigehiro."
"On my side, the effect will be discounted."
"Come to think of it, Shinomiya Tianye has shown it before, but you may not have noticed it."
"After all, compared to me, this guy's jumping and air-staying abilities don't have the same overwhelming difference as Mori Shigehiro now."
"Hainan's defense against Shigong Tianye is of no reference value to us."
Wu Dao said this, looking towards the court.
At this time on the basketball court, Ryonan High School made huge adjustments on the defensive end under the command of Shinomiya Tano.
Sendoh Akira and Shinomiya Tano, who were originally responsible for defending Kamiso Ichiro, switched defense. At the same time, Hanagata no longer defended Takasago Kazuma in the interior, but instead moved to the outside to block Kamiso Ichiro. Shinomiya Tano, who was originally defending Maki Shinichi, now moved to the inside and targeted Takasago Kazuma.
Maki Shinichi, who had advanced to the frontcourt, saw Ryonan's switch of defense at a glance. After a little thought, he immediately understood Ryonan's intention.
Hanagata, who was blocked by Mori Shigehiro, lacks strength, but has good speed and height, so he is more than capable of defending Kamiso Ichiro.
Shinomiya Tano is a power-type player. He is much stronger than Yuzumi. He also has speed and explosive power, so he can keep an eye on Takasago while taking care of Yuzumi at the same time.
At this time, Sendoh Akira came in front of Maki Shenyi. His speed and strength were comparable to Maki Shenyi. It was not a problem for him to defend against Maki Shenyi alone. Although he could not kill Maki Shenyi, it was more than enough to curb his attack.
This change in formation made Mu Shenyi cautious when passing the ball and he did not dare to give it away easily.
Sendoh Akira also noticed Maki Shinichi's hesitation. He would not miss such an opportunity. He attacked decisively, sticking his body close to Maki Shinichi, and at the same time kept reaching out to try to steal the ball, disrupting Maki Shinichi's dribbling rhythm.
The pressure on the defensive end suddenly increased, but Maki Shinichi did not dare to pass the ball easily. At this moment, he could only choose to force a breakthrough.
After holding the ball, he took a small step and found a brief gap. Maki Shinichi suddenly accelerated in disguise, trying to pass Sendoh, but Sendoh slid and blocked him, and he collided with Maki Shinichi directly. Maki Shinichi, whose route was blocked by Sendoh, did not intend to stop. He pushed Sendoh with his ball protector and forced his way forward.
His strength is stronger than Sendoh, and his fighting style has changed greatly from before.
"Amu, be careful!"
However, just as Maki Shinichi and Sendoh were fighting, a loud shout suddenly came from the side of Maki Shinichi. But just as the voice fell, a blue shadow jumped out from the side of Maki Shinichi and hit the basketball in Maki Shinichi's hand directly.
"Fujima?!"
The basketball was intercepted. Maki Shenyi looked in the direction of the blue shadow and saw who had stolen the ball. His heart sank immediately.
Xiaoguan's threat to Fujima on the offensive end was too weak, allowing Fujima to free up his hands to help other teammates!
"Quick attack!"
Fujima, who cut into the basketball, shouted and called on his teammates to make a fast break, while Sendoh and Shinomiya Tano, who were faster, had already started running. In the blink of an eye, Sendoh had crossed the center line and Shinomiya Tano had also crossed Shinichi Maki and rushed towards the front court.
With three against one in the frontcourt, the chasing Maki Shinichi had no chance of stopping Ryonan's fast break alone.
With Sendoh's fast break layup, two more points were added to Ryonan High School's scoreboard.
"That kid... wasn't very active in defending." As Sendoh made a layup and scored the ball, Shinomiya Tano and Sendoh high-fived, and his eyes suddenly glanced at Mori Shigehiro who arrived late.
"Fujima, speed up. Don't worry about Uozumi and Hanagata. Just speed up."
When returning to defense, Shimono whispered something in Fujima's ear, then turned his head and glanced at the tall coach on the sidelines with a smile, showing that he was in control of the situation.
The direction of the game began to change.
Ryonan High School began to speed up frantically on the offensive end. With the trident of Fujima, Sendoh, and Shinomiya Tano, even without Uozumi and Hanagata on the offensive end, they were still able to easily break through Hainan's defense.
After all, Hainan's outside strength really cannot be compared with Ryonan.
When Ryonan picked up the speed, Hainan had no way to resist. Even in a positional battle, Shinomiya Tano was able to tear through Hainan's defense with his outstanding personal ability. Halfway through the game, Mori Shigehiro still received his third foul.
Facing Shimono, Mori Shigehiro's jumping and air staying abilities seemed not good enough, and he was outclassed by Shimono on the defensive end.
The defense was unstoppable and Hainan's offense was also not smooth.
After Shigong Tianye entered the inside line, it brought great pressure to Mori Shigehiro. Mori Shigehiro, who was originally very comfortable in one-on-one battles, became very uncomfortable with the sudden appearance of Shigong Tianye. If Shigong Tianye's strength was weaker, it would be fine, but the bad thing was that Shigong Tianye's strength was just as terrifying.
The inside attack was not going well, and Maki Shinichi was often harassed by Fujima when he was attacking with the ball.
In response to this situation, Coach Takato replaced Xiao Guan, who lacked offensive threat, with the third-year sharpshooter Miyagi Yoshinori. Although Miyagi's defense was poor, Coach Takato considered that he couldn't defend Ryonan anyway, so he might as well give up defense and maximize the team's offense.
The appearance of Miyaji successfully restrained Fujima, preventing him from double-teaming Maki Shinichi easily. This also made Maki Shinichi feel much more comfortable on the offensive end. With the coordination of Maki Shinichi, Hainan's offense began to get going.
However, Hainan, despite its full firepower, still lost to Ryonan High School.
Halfway through the game, Hainan, which was not doing well on offense and defense, fell behind Ryonan High School by 17 points at 34:51.
At this point, all of Coach Gaotou's plans and calculations came to nothing, and the outcome of the game was no longer decided by him.
The gap in hard power can no longer be made up by the head coach's technical and tactical level.
By the end of the game, the score between the two teams had reached 66:103. The crushing score made the crown of Hainan, the former king, completely dim.
However, Hainan's freshman still attracted a lot of attention. Mori Shigehiro's impressive statistics of 21 points and 12 rebounds also made many people pay attention to this big man.
This gifted young boy encountered the nationally dominating Ryonan High School right after his debut and delivered an answer that surprised everyone.
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