Sakuragi Hanamichi's "Emperor" step layup naturally received the referee's whistle, and his goal was also declared invalid.
Kiyota Nobunaga, who had originally had high hopes for Sakuragi Hanamichi, hugged his head in frustration and wailed in regret:
"Ahh! I actually believed that idiot again! I really am a big fool!"
"Red monkey, play ball for me, you idiot!"
Kiyota Nobunaga cursed fluently, and his angry look did not make Sakuragi feel ashamed. Instead, he stiffened his neck and replied:
"Idiot, just pass the ball to this genius."
"I have mastered the offensive skills. Now it's time for me to show my genius!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi is not a person who would easily admit that he is "incompetent". Kiyota Nobunaga's ridicule has no other effect except to make Sakuragi more motivated.
While the two were chatting and joking, Ryonan had already kicked off and counterattacked.
Fujima felt that this was a good counterattack opportunity, so he advanced at a very fast speed. Sendoh, Fukuda and others from Ryonan also hurriedly followed Fujima's steps and quickly rushed towards the Shohoku half.
"Damn Lingnan, he actually attacked by surprise!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi and Kiyota Nobunaga did not realize that the other side had begun to counterattack until the Ryonan group crossed the center line. They cursed in unison and hurriedly chased after Fujima and the others.
But by the time they realized it, it was already too late. Ryonan was playing 3 against 3 in the frontcourt, and only Rukawa and Katsume Ichiro on the Shohoku side returned to defense in time. Although Nango had returned to the court, he tried to stop Fujima who was advancing quickly with the ball, but was dribbled past by Fujima.
Fujima and Sendoh passed the ball quickly to each other while breaking into the three-point line. Rukawa, who had just landed, couldn't judge who would attack for a moment. When the two approached the basket, Sendoh, who had the ball, faked a shot and passed the ball to Yoshitaka Fukuda who cut in later, and Fukuda scored with a one-handed dunk.
Although Ichiro Katsumi, who also returned to defense in time, wanted to block it, Fukuda Yoshitaka's jumping ability was much stronger than his, and he could not stop Fukuda from attacking the basket.
The scoreboard was ticking, and the small score advantage that Xiangbei High School had just gained was immediately beaten back by Ryonan High School.
"Sakuragi is such a wild card when he plays basketball."
"I thought he was already in form, but now it seems that he is still too easily influenced."
"His eccentric personality may be this kid's biggest weakness."
Mitsui Hisashi looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi on the field and couldn't help but sigh.
He also saw the growth of Sakuragi Hanamichi, and Mitsui Shou also approved of Sakuragi Hanamichi's attempts on the offensive end. However, after being called out by Kiyota Nobunaga, Sakuragi Hanamichi's concentration obviously dropped a lot.
When a player is playing a game, concentration is actually very important. A player with a strength of 9 points can play a strength of 10 points when he is focused. Similarly, if his strength is only 7 points or even 6 points, when his attention is not on the game, the strength he can play may only be 4 points, 3 points, or even lower.
The upper limit is limited, but the lower limit... ..
"It is indeed Sakuragi's biggest problem at the moment."
"However, Sakuragi's floating upper and lower limits are not only a headache for us at Xiangbei, but also for our opponents."
After hearing what Mitsui Shou said, Wudao nodded, but his eyes looked towards the Ryonan half.
There, Shinomiya Tano, who had already stood up and was about to return to the game, was pulled back to his seat by Coach Tanoka.
Although Sakuragi Hanamichi's performance made Coach Tanaoka think that the game situation had already evolved into an uncontrollable state. However, after Sakuragi Hanamichi's eye-catching operation, Coach Tanaoka felt that the game situation seemed far from that level, and it would be a good thing to give the players more time to practice.
Look, hasn't Yoshitaka Fukuda, who was originally unable to defend against Hanamichi Sakuragi, now found the trick to defending Hanamichi Sakuragi
To grow your abilities, you still have to play games!
After Sakuragi's two mistakes, Kiyota Nobunaga really gave up on Sakuragi Hanamichi. When he reorganized the attack again, Kiyota Nobunaga called a pick-and-roll himself, and rushed forward with the ball under the cover of Katsume Ichiro. When Ryonan High School completed the switch, Kiyota Nobunaga passed the ball back and gave the ball to Katsume Ichiro on the outside.
After getting the ball, Ichiro Katsume made a fake shot, then moved sideways, faced the defense, and shot directly.
"Ding~" Kamii Ichiro's shot was affected by the defensive players, and the three-pointer went directly out of the basket.
This time, Jun Uozumi, who had been on guard, directly trapped Koichiro Nango behind him, occupying the best landing spot for the basketball.
"Hmph! The rebound is mine!" Yuzumi Jun watched the basketball fall, growled, jumped up and grabbed the basketball.
However, at this moment, Sakuragi Hanamichi suddenly ran in front of Yuzumi Jun. Although he was half a beat slower than Yuzumi, Sakuragi Hanamichi, who also jumped up, was ahead of the latter. The height of his fingertips easily exceeded that of Yuzumi and he was the first to touch the bottom of the basketball.
With a soft "bo~" sound, the falling trajectory of the basketball changed and flew towards the basket.
"Shua~"
As the basketball entered the net, the net was gently lifted up.
Sakuragi Hanamichi fell back to the ground as if he had jumped too hard, and his landing was a little unstable. After a stumble, Sakuragi stood firm, pointed at Kiyota Nobunaga, and shouted with a laugh:
"How is it?! Have you seen the strength of this genius?"
"Keep passing the ball to this genius!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi completely ignored the gloomy face of Uozumi Jun and immersed himself in the joy of scoring.
His tip-in did make the Shohoku supporters happy, but after watching the game for so long, the audience also got to know Sakuragi Hanamichi's eccentric personality, and one of the audience members shouted:
"Hey, red-haired boy, don't get carried away!"
"Ryonan is coming to attack!"
The audience in the stands both likes and feels helpless about players with the character of Sakuragi Hanamichi.
Sakuragi's talent is outstanding, even a blind person can see it. And Sakuragi Hanamichi is a player of Xiangbei High School. In such a powerful school, he can get enough playing time in his first year. What does this mean? The audience is very clear.
They don't want their favorite Xiangbei High School to be just a flash in the pan, and the activeness of the new generation of players has encouraged these Xiangbei supporters.
But Sakuragi Hanamichi’s personality is really frustrating. When he doesn’t brag, Sakuragi is still “not bad”, but when he starts bragging, Sakuragi is only “wrong”.
"Asshole, you're so long-winded!"
"Of course this genius knows!"
As a matter of course, Sakuragi Hana started communicating with the unfamiliar audience member. Her outgoing personality made the audience member who had just called out to her laugh.
After Sakuragi just scored a goal, it was impossible for Ryonan not to react. As Ryonan High School launched its attack again, the defense line of Shohoku High School was broken once again.
In the second half of the game, the freshmen of Xiangbei High School relied on the rebounding ability of Sakuragi Hanamichi, as well as the cooperation of Rukawa Kaede, Kiyota, Katsume Ichiro and Nango, and finally kept the score close.
Sendoh, Fujima, Uozumi, Fukuda and others scored, but they were still unable to completely widen the score gap. The difference between the two teams remained between 1 and 4 points.
Occasionally, Xiangbei was able to overtake through Katsume Ichiro's three-pointer.
Yoshitaka Fukuda made up for his defensive weakness and dragged Ryonan High School's defense to the same level as Shohoku.
The second half lasted 13 minutes.
As the game progressed, the physical fitness of Ryonan's players showed a significant decline, and Ryonan's offensive rhythm began to slow down.
But looking at the players from Shohoku High School, each of them is full of energy. Except for Rukawa who shows signs of fatigue, the other players are in good shape.
Kiyota Nobunaga noticed Rukawa Kaede's fatigue and completely slowed down the offensive pace of Shohoku.
The frequency of offense and defense transitions between the two teams began to decrease. At the same time, as fatigue deepened, Ryonan's offensive firepower inevitably began to decline.
In order to avoid a sharp drop in success rate, the Ryonan players on the field all reduced their mid-range shots as an offensive method and began to score through a large number of breakthroughs.
On the other hand, Rukawa, who had consumed a lot of physical energy, was not as sharp in his breakthroughs as at the beginning. Several of his breakthroughs were double-teamed by Ikegami and others and were successfully defended by Ryonan.
In order to quickly make up the score difference, Katsume Ichiro tried to use three-pointers to make up for Shohoku's disadvantage, but his hasty shots did not produce ideal results.
Fortunately, Sakuragi Hanamichi's rebounding performance remained stable and he defended several rebounds for Xiangbei, preventing the opponent from widening the score too much.
But when the game reached 17 minutes, the score between Shohoku High School and Ryonan High School finally reached 88:96, trailing Ryonan High School by 8 points.
At this time, Coach Anzai still did not put Jinguji Takeshi, Mitsui Hisashi and Akagi Takenori back to the court.
Looking at the game situation on the field, Wu Dao shook his head and lost confidence in victory.
The freshmen of Shohoku are very strong, and they are still not at a disadvantage against Ryonan High School led by Sendoh, Fujima, and Uozumi. At this point, the score difference still remains in single digits.
You know, the leaders of the opposing team are all nationally famous masters. Although Shimoya Tano and Hanagata did not play, the current Ryonan High School has the potential to win even against a veteran team like Shanghai South.
It was already quite difficult for Xiangbei to rely on these freshmen to fight against Ryonan.
On the other side of the court, Coach Takeo was looking at the 8-point difference and the time passing by. After a stoppage, he called a timeout and replaced Yoshitaka Fukuda with Tano Shinomiya, intending to deal a fatal blow to Shohoku High School.
As for Xiangbei, Coach Anxi still has no plans to make any substitutions and maintains the first-year lineup.
At this point, Mitsui Shou finally couldn't bear it anymore and asked Coach Anzai:
"Coach, the difference between us and Ryonan is already 8 points. Even if we are training the freshmen, this level of competition should be enough, right?"
"8 points. There are still three minutes left. Jinguji Budou and I will take the court. The outcome of our match against Ryonan is still unknown!"
"Why should we give up the victory?! Obviously, I can participate in the national competition as the first place in the county competition!"
"The seeding quota is also very important! This way, we won't face seeded teams from other counties in the knockout rounds of the national competition!"
Mitsui's doubts are actually the doubts of many other Xiangbei players. In fact, not only Xiangbei's own players are confused, but Xiangbei supporters who are watching the game are also confused. If Coach Anzai did not have a high enough status in the high school basketball coaching circle, his action would have been scolded by the audience long ago.
"The seeded team spot may be very important to others."
"But it's not important to us at Xiangbei High School."
"We, Xiangbei, do not need to be qualified as a seeded team!"
Coach Anzai's words shocked everyone. They thought that Coach Anzai sent Sakuragi and other first-year students to play in order to train them. Now, after hearing what Coach Anzai said, not only that, but he was deliberately planning to lose the game
How could the young and energetic high school students understand Coach Anxi's ideas? In their eyes, winning is everything!
"Why?!"
"If it is true that we, Xiangbei, cannot beat Ryonan, then I will accept it, but why, we clearly still have the strength to spare, and we clearly have a chance, why don't we want the seeded spot?"
"Why don't you win!"
Mitsui Hisashi was getting a little emotional at this moment. He didn't understand Coach Anzai's operation and couldn't comprehend it!
"Don't worry, Mitsui."
"The failure at hand is only the beginning of more victories in the future."
"A seeded spot and a weak knockout opponent are not what we need at the moment."
"What we want is more games and stronger opponents. Winning or losing is not important. What is important is what we get from the game."
"Mitsui Shou, don't just focus on the present, on the present, try to look at the long term."
"Our goal is to dominate the country. I think you haven't forgotten this. I haven't forgotten it either."
"But what does it mean to dominate the country?! To win the championship trophy? Yes, but not entirely."
“We can only be national champions if we defeat all the strong opponents from all over the country.”
"It's not just Ryonan right in front of us, it's all of them! All the powerful enemies across the country!"
Coach Anxi, who has always been a man of few words, became more talkative today. When he spoke to the players, there was an unprecedented light in his eyes.
"Without the seeded team quota, we will have many opponents! And they are all strong opponents!"
"Crush them one by one, this is our goal for Xiangbei this year!"
"In today's match, let Ryonan become the sharpening stone for our new generation of Xiangbei."
"When we reach the whole country, our Xiangbei butcher knife will cut every enemy!"
"and... .."
"The game isn't over yet, how do you know that we, Xiangbei, will lose? Our freshmen haven't given up!"
Coach Anzai's words gave great encouragement to Sakuragi Hanamichi and others. Seeing that Coach Anzai was so enthusiastic and excited, Mitsui was speechless for a moment and didn't say anything else.
After the pause is over.
The players of both teams returned to the court. Shinomiya Tano looked at the Shohoku players and was surprised not to see Jinguji Budou.
He originally thought that Coach Anzai was playing a dirty trick and was planning to let Jinguji Takeshi play the winning ball at the last moment, but he didn't expect that Shohoku really gave up.
Although the words of encouragement from Coach Anzai were very encouraging to the first-year students like Sakuragi, the gap in hard power cannot be made up by words. Coach Anzai is not an encourager who has eaten the fruit of encouragement, and the addition of words to strength is limited.
Shinomiya Tano's appearance on the court completely made up for Ryonan's defensive loopholes, and Shinomiya Tano who entered the inside also taught Sakuragi Hanamichi a good lesson. Sakuragi is probably very clear about what "absolute power" means now.
The outcome was no longer in doubt after Shimono returned to the court.
At the end of the game, Lingnan High School won the game with 108:92.
In the last three minutes, Xiangbei High School only scored 4 points.
The county competition officially came to an end as Ryonan's substitute players poured into the stadium.
"This is the first-year experience package. Let's compete properly in the national competition."
When the team members shook hands, Jinguji Wudao smiled and said to Shigong Tianye. Although the other party had never heard of such a thing as an experience pack, Shigong Tianye still understood Wudao's meaning, smiled and replied:
"Then I hope your first-year students can digest these experiences well. I hope they will have accumulated enough experience next time we meet."
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