Toyoma High School is indeed a very outstanding team. The players have a good understanding with each other, and under the leadership of Nan Lie, the team has become like a rope.
Compared to Toouou, who has rich game experience and sharp offense, these freshmen of Xiangbei High School seem a little immature.
However, this does not mean that Shohoku High School led by Sakuragi Hanamichi and Rukawa Kaede will lose to Touou.
Touou's players are indeed much more mature and their offense is very sharp, but these freshmen from Shohoku High School are able to make up for their lack of experience with "talent".
As the game progressed, the situation did not go as Coach Jinping had initially imagined, with Toyotama controlling the pace of the entire game.
On the contrary, as the game progressed, Xiangbei High School took the initiative relying on its excellent inside strength.
The inside line of Shohoku, led by Hanamichi Sakuragi and Koichiro Nango, completely defeated the inside line of Touoma High School.
13 minutes into the first half, Xiangbei High School was already leading its opponent by 6 points with a score of 36:30.
The most dazzling performance of Xiangbei High School was not Rukawa Kaede, who repeatedly broke through Nan Lie to score. Even though Rukawa Kaede had scored an excellent result of 14 points in just 13 minutes, he was still not the focus of the audience's attention.
The most eye-catching person on the Xiangbei side is the red-haired boy who is active under the basket.
“Ding~”
There was a slight sound in the stadium.
Rukawa once again successfully broke through Nan Lie's defense, invaded the three-point line, and then shot directly from a high position before Touou could fill in. The hasty shot was inaccurate and the basketball crashed out of the basket.
Rukawa Kaede, who made the shot, had no change in expression and had no intention of returning to defense. Instead, he looked towards the basket.
"Ohhh!"
"Another rebound!"
"Well done, you stinky fox, I knew you couldn't make the shot!"
Under the basket, Sakuragi Hanamichi saw Rukawa Kaede miss the shot, but instead of showing disappointment because of his teammate's miss, he shouted excitedly. At the same time, he moved his body to try to grab the best rebounding position.
The defending side, Michiru Kishimoto, already had the advantage of position, and with her heavy center of gravity, she trapped Sakuragi behind her.
At the moment the basketball began to fall, Kishimoto Miri felt his back go empty, and the force that was originally supporting his back suddenly disappeared.
"Um?!"
Just when Kishimoto Miri was surprised, Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was originally stuck behind him, actually turned sideways to release some of his strength, turned around and stuck to Kishimoto's back, and then inserted from the side in front of Kishimoto.
"Bang!" Sakuragi Hanamichi turned around to block the position and sat down, directly pushing Kishimoto Miri away. At the same time, the basketball also fell for a distance.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
“I succeeded!”
Sakuragi Hanamichi jumped up excitedly and grabbed the basketball directly. Behind him, Kishimoto Miri also tried to grab the rebound, but his position was bad and his jumping ability was not as good as Sakuragi Hanamichi's. Even if he jumped with all his strength, his hand was still more than 20 centimeters away from catching the basketball.
It's out of reach!
After grabbing the rebound, Hanamichi Sakuragi raised the ball and faked a move. Kishimoto, who had landed on the ground, covered Sakuragi's eyes with one hand and did not fall for his fake move.
The next moment, Sakuragi Hanamichi straightened up, seemingly preparing to shoot, but this time, Kishimoto Misaki did not hesitate, she jumped up directly, blocking the basketball from behind Sakuragi.
However, the moment he jumped up, Sakuragi caught the ball again. After a brief accumulation of strength, when Kishimoto Misaki began to fall, Sakuragi Hanamichi jumped lightly and shot.
The basketball hit the backboard and went into the net, making a crisp sound.
As Sakuragi Hanamichi successfully scored at the basket, the audience in the stands cheered.
“ohhhh!
"The guy with the back hair got the rebound again! And he scored again! He has more than ten points already, right?"
"This guy has already grabbed 7 rebounds. His opponent is totally not good enough!"
"Shohoku's first-year students are so strong that they completely suppressed Touou!"
"Without Jinguji Budo's senior players playing, Touou will be unstoppable! I didn't expect Touou to be so weak that they can't beat Shohoku's substitute lineup!"
The discussions of the audience in the stands reached the stadium. These words made Kishimoto Misaki's face turn pale and blue. He was filled with anger, but had no way to vent it.
There's no way. Even though what the audience said was unpleasant, the truth is the most hurtful, isn't it
Up to now in the game, the number of rebounds that Kishimoto Miri has grabbed can be counted on one hand. Even the fingers of one hand cannot be bent, but the number of rebounds he has grabbed has been counted.
3.
After 13 minutes of play, he, a power forward, only got 3 rebounds, while his opponent, Sakuragi Hanamichi, got twice as many rebounds.
Putting aside the scoring, when it comes to fighting for rebounds, the two players are completely at two different levels.
The biggest reason why Touou High School was suppressed by Shohoku was not how sharp Rukawa Kaede's attack was, but that Sakuragi Hanamichi's rebounds gave Shohoku High School repeated opportunities for second attacks.
In fact, in terms of shooting percentage, the overall difference between the two teams is not much, which makes rebounds the key to determining victory or defeat!
Coach Anzai actually saw through the nature of this game very early on. When Sakuragi Hanamichi began to show his talents, he knew that even if Shohoku High School did not let Jinguji Takeshi and others play, they would not be able to lose this game.
At 38:30, with Sakuragi Hanamichi's second attack, the difference between the two teams has reached 8 points. In the Xiangbei rest area, the substitutes cheered loudly, they already felt that victory was within reach, and each of them was very enthusiastic.
On the contrary, there was deathly silence on the Touou bench. Coach Jinping looked at the court with a serious expression. For a moment, he could not think of any good way to help the team recover from the disadvantage.
What should we do if our opponent completely beat us in rebounding
This kind of problem, even if a better coach is asked to solve it, I am afraid it cannot be solved.
For any team, it will be very difficult to win if they cannot control the rebounds.
Unless... the opponent has no offensive ability, but it is obvious that these people from Xiangbei High School have good offensive power.
There is another situation, that is, the team has an absolute overwhelming advantage on the offensive end, and the team's overall hit rate is much higher than that of the opponent.
But judging from the current game situation, the efficiency of the two teams' attacks is actually not much different.
Faced with such a gap in the teams' hard power, Coach Jinping really didn't know how to adjust to help his teammates win.
Just as Coach Jinping was thinking of countermeasures, something strange happened on the court.
With the help of Kishimoto's high-post pick-and-roll, Nan Lie easily broke through Rukawa's defense and quickly dribbled into the basket. When he was preparing for a layup, Nan Lie encountered the defense of Sakuragi Hanamichi.
Facing Sakuragi, Nan Lie was not afraid at all. After passing the ball, he took two steps and jumped directly. In order to avoid Sakuragi's defense, Nan Lie changed hands and made a layup.
However, Sakuragi Hanamichi saw everything about his changing hands in the air.
"snort!"
"How could a layup of this level possibly break through this genius' defense!"
"More naive than a stinky fox!"
Sakuragi shouted loudly, and his body in the air actually made slight adjustments. Sakuragi, who was originally blocking on the left side, moved his hands and pressed firmly on the basketball sent by Nan Lie.
“Bang!”
After a dull sound, the basketball flew rapidly outside the three-point line. Miyagi Ryouta, who was quick-eyed and quick-handed, caught the basketball in his arms, then accelerated and launched a counterattack.
Sakuragi, who successfully blocked Nan Lie's shot, did not stop for a moment after landing. His figure flashed in front of Nan Lie's eyes, caught up with his teammates on the fast break, and rushed towards Touou's half.
Defensive counterattack.
The speed of Xiangbei High School's counterattack was so fast that the only player from Touou High School, Itakura on the outside, could return to defense in time, but there were three Xiangbei players on the attack.
Rukawa Kaede, Kiyota Nobunaga, and Miyagi Ryouta formed an "arrow" shape and quickly broke towards Touou, three against one in the frontcourt. After two simple passes, Shohoku directly crossed Itakura's defense line, and Kiyota Nobunaga dunked the ball into the basket.
The score difference between Shohoku High School and Touou High School has reached double digits.
40:30.
Cheers broke out from the Xiangbei bench, and Mitsui Shou also stood up and clapped with a smile on his face.
"This Sakuragi kid actually intercepted the opponent's trump card!"
"That's Osaka's top scorer! That's a really solid block!"
Mitsui Shou applauded and praised. Xiangbei was able to suppress Touou so easily, Sakuragi Hanamichi's contribution was really huge, not only did he contribute a lot of rebounds, but he also put a lot of pressure on Touou on the defensive end.
Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense is no longer at the rookie level. The opponents he usually faces are not just inside players like Akagi. Sakuragi, who plays as a power forward, actually often has to face people like Jinguji Takeshi who attack the basket during practice games.
Compared to players of the level of Jinguji Takeshi, Mitsui Hisashi, and Rukawa Kaede, Nan Lie's attacking level cannot 100% bypass Sakuragi's defense.
Although Nan Lie has excellent shooting skills and is quite fast, his jumping and burst are far from comparable to those of talented people like Jinguji Takeshi.
"Beep—" Touou was forced to counterattack, and Coach Jinping on the sidelines could no longer sit still. Although he had not thought of a countermeasure, he hurriedly called a timeout, intending to let the players calm down.
During the timeout, Coach Anxi did not arrange any new tactics. He simply encouraged the players and told them to play well, concentrate on the game, avoid injuries, etc.
There are no changes in the technical and tactical arrangements.
As the timeout ended, players from both teams returned to the court.
The purpose of Coach Jinping calling this timeout was simply to interrupt Xiangbei's offensive momentum. He had no way to deal with the current situation on the court.
He could only instruct his players to attack back, and apart from asking them to slow down the pace and increase their success rate, he did not have any other constructive suggestions.
After the timeout, Touou's attack speed did slow down a bit, focusing on Miyagi and Kiyota, two shorter players. As Shohoku's physical energy was consumed, the offensive efficiency declined, so Miyagi Ryouta also slowed down the pace. After the timeout, the offensive and defensive rhythms of both teams slowed down.
Touou High School was intimidated by Sakuragi's threat under the basket, and continued to focus on scoring from the outside after the timeout.
Fortunately, Nan Lie's touch seemed to have improved, and the gap between the two teams did not widen further. Instead, it remained around 10 points, fluctuating back and forth.
At the end of the first half, Xiangbei High School led its opponent by 11 points with 55:44.
During the half-time break, Coach Anzai also made some personnel adjustments, replacing Kiyota Nobunaga with Katsume Ichiro.
At the beginning of the second half, Xiangbei's outside attack was strengthened with the coming of Katsume Ichiro, and Rukawa had more options in offense.
At the same time, Katsume Ichiro, who is 185cm tall, also filled one of the defensive loopholes of Xiangbei, and the overall defense was strengthened.
The situation, which had been able to maintain a balance, completely collapsed with the appearance of Ichiro Katsumi.
Five minutes into the second half, Toyoma High School completely collapsed.
Although the players of Fengyu were all tough guys and did not give up the game, and Nan Lie also attacked frantically, trying to reverse the situation, but the gap in hard power could not be made up by fighting spirit.
The inside advantage created by Sakuragi Hanamichi and Minamigo grew like a snowball as the game progressed.
The balance of victory also completely tilted towards Xiangbei High School.
Midway through the second half, the difference between the two teams reached 15 points.
"The gap in strength inside is too big. Toyotama is doomed to lose."
In the stands, the Sanno Industrial players who had a bye on the first day of the game saw that the game was decided, so they stood up from their seats and prepared to leave the stadium.
On the first day of the competition, the best seeded teams basically had a bye. They, Sanno, would come to watch the game today, mainly to watch the game of Shohoku High School and to see the performance of Jinguji Budou and others.
But unexpectedly, Shohoku only sent a group of first and second graders to defeat Touou. The sufficient backup force surprised Goro Domoto.
However, Domoto was just surprised. For Touou, these first-year students of Shohoku might be very strong, but for Sanno Industrial, these first and second-year students are far from enough.
The backbone of Xiangbei are still the second and third year players.
If Shohoku had sent Jinguji Takeshi and others to play in this game, the outcome might have been decided in the first half.
Unable to tell the strength of Xiangbei High School, Domoto could only lead the team back and let the players prepare well to face the challenge of Xiangbei High School!
However, before leaving, Goro Domoto couldn't help but take a few more glances at Sakuragi Hanamichi. Sakuragi's rebounding ability was something he had overlooked at first. This game gave Domoto a new understanding of Sakuragi Hanamichi. He vaguely felt that this red-haired player from Shohoku might be one of the biggest threats for their Sannoh team against Shohoku.
At the end of the game, Touou High School still didn't make any waves. As the game progressed, Sakuragi Hanamichi got into better form and showed terrifying dominance under the basket.
Judging from the game alone, Sakuragi Hanamichi's ability is probably one level higher than Kishimoto Miri.
This is not the audience's illusion. Wudao knows clearly that Sakuragi Hanamichi's strength is far more than that. Even if he meets a stronger power forward, Sakuragi Hanamichi will not necessarily lose!
Sakuragi has grown up completely. There is no doubt that with his talent and his current skills, Sakuragi is already one of the top power forwards in the country!
93:79.
As the final whistle sounded, Shohoku High School defeated Touou with absolute advantage and won the first game.
In this game, Rukawa Kaede scored 36 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, attracting the attention of the audience.
And Sakuragi Hanamichi scored 21 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 blocks in a single game, which was his first victory in the national competition.
The Xiangbei players rushed into the court cheering and hugged the heroes of the game.
Jinguji Budou stood in his seat, clapping and laughing happily at his jubilant teammates. He inadvertently saw the Toyotama team members leaving the field dejectedly, and muttered to himself:
"Just be thankful that you lost to these guys, Toyotama."
"At least you can still have dreams about basketball!"
"If it were me, what I would bring to you might not just be loss..."
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