The score difference became 5 points and the ball returned to Xiangbei High School.
At this moment, everyone with a discerning eye could see that Xiangbei's playing style had changed dramatically compared to the past. Although Xiangbei was now behind Sannoh, no one thought that there was a problem with Xiangbei High School.
On the contrary, everyone’s first impression when seeing Xiangbei play like this is that Xiangbei’s style of play has finally started to make sense.
Although Jinguji Budou realized that Rukawa was weakening his possession of the ball, he did not try to stop Rukawa, nor did he try to correct him with his strength.
In Wudao's opinion, it is a good thing for Rukawa that he plays like this now. It shows that this lone wolf in junior high school is really beginning to integrate into the team. It also means that Rukawa is adapting to the role of point guard.
As for whether the reduction in ball possession will have any impact on Budo? Of course not. Jinguji Budo's status in Xiangbei High School will not change because of one game.
Moreover, it is actually very easy for Xiangbei to abandon Rukawa Kaede's playing style. They just need to replace Miyagi Ryouta, and Xiangbei will naturally return to the previous star basketball.
The triangle offense that Coach Anxi arranged before the game was obviously of no use at this time, and the Xiangbei players on the field did not play the game according to the triangle offense.
Not long after, Rukawa dribbled into the frontcourt. With the ball approaching the top of the arc, Rukawa did not choose to pass the ball immediately. After briefly observing the defensive formation of Sanno Industrial, Rukawa made a pick-and-roll gesture to the inside players.
Seeing Rukawa calling for a pick-and-roll, Sakuragi Hanamichi came up happily to provide cover for Rukawa.
Although Sakuragi Hanamichi dislikes Rukawa Kaede in his heart, his body is still very honest. The reason why he covers for Rukawa Kaede is very simple, that is, sometimes Rukawa Kaede will pass the ball back to Sakuragi Hanamichi after dribbling the ball.
Give Sakuragi Hanamichi the opportunity to make an open mid-range shot.
Compared to waiting for rebounds under the basket, Sakuragi Hanamichi still hopes to participate in the team's offense. Compared with defense, Sakuragi Hanamichi is more eager to score and attack.
Although Rukawa may only pass the ball to Sakuragi once out of three breakthroughs, Sakuragi Hanamichi will try to get it whenever possible.
Rukawa Kaede obviously caught Sakuragi Hanamichi's psychological weakness and always called for pick-and-rolls. Sometimes when Akagi saw Rukawa Kaede calling for a screen, before he even started to move, Sakuragi would actively rush forward.
"These two people actually work together harmoniously."
“It really opened my eyes.”
Jinguji Budo watched Rukawa Kaede quickly drop the ball and break through with the help of Sakuragi Hanamichi's pick-and-roll, while Fukatsu Kazunari was half a step behind Rukawa Kaede when he bypassed Sakuragi's pick-and-roll. However, Nobe Masahiro, who was originally defending Sakuragi Hanamichi, chose to move closer the moment Rukawa Kaede broke through.
Sakuragi Hanamichi was left in a high position.
Although the chance to attack the basket was not very good, Rukawa still began to speed up and quickly approached the basket. Kawata Masashi under the basket saw Rukawa attacking the basket but did not move. He just looked at Rukawa coldly. He believed in the ability of Nobe and Fukatsu. He did not need to shoot, his teammates could block Rukawa's attack!
Sure enough, when Rukawa jumped for the ball, Kazunari Fukatsu had already successfully come to his side and reached out to hit the basketball in Rukawa's hand. Masahiro Nobe also jumped with Rukawa's ball, jumped up suddenly, and put his hands in front of Rukawa, trying to block Rukawa's layup.
Rukawa Kaede in mid-air turned his head quickly to look at Mitsui Hisashi in the corner, while with both hands, he grabbed the ball and passed it behind him.
He passed the ball without looking at the person, and accurately sent the ball to Sakuragi Hanamichi who was in the open position.
“Here it comes!”
"This genius has been waiting for this opportunity!"
After getting the basketball, Sakuragi Hanamichi roared excitedly, bent his knees slightly, and then directly threw the ball out.
"Ding~~" The basketball flying towards the basket hit the front edge of the frame, bounced back along the same path, and fell back into Sakuragi Hanamichi's hands.
“... ..”
The basketball bounced back into his hands, and Sakuragi Hanamichi slammed the ball into the net, but his face turned blue and purple, and he didn't look very happy.
With a sigh of relief, Sakuragi raised the ball and shot again.
“It feels good!”
Sakuragi murmured softly, and his face became much more serious, but the moment the basketball was shot, Kawata Masashi's backup defense was in place. He jumped up and slapped the basketball, blocking the ball.
"Ah!" The basketball was blocked by Masashi Kawata. Sakuragi looked at the basketball flying past his ear and shouted in annoyance.
“I will definitely be able to score this goal!”
"Damn ape man, how dare you hinder me!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi turned around and ran towards the basketball, muttering and cursing Kawata Masashi.
However, when Sakuragi ran to the basketball, he suddenly found that someone had already caught the basketball. He raised his head slightly and happened to see the face of Jinguji Takeshi.
"..." Sakuragi opened his mouth, but didn't say anything else. He quickly cut into the inside, muttering, "What bad luck! Brother Budo actually picked up the ball."
"I still had a chance to attack."
Wudao ignored Sakuragi who cut into the inside. After picking up the basketball, he wandered around the three-point line with the ball and was not in a hurry to attack.
The difference between the two teams reached 5 points. Although Rukawa's breakthrough was very reasonable, the overall offensive efficiency of Xiangbei was very low.
Although Sakuragi Hanamichi has a certain offensive ability, it is still a bit difficult for him to shoot high-post mid-range shots. Sakuragi's hit rate in high positions is probably only 30%. It can only be said that he has shooting ability, but it is too early to use him as a conventional weapon.
Akagi under the basket was also able to receive passes from Rukawa, but under the defense of Masashi Kawata, Akagi's basketball shooting percentage was only 50%.
In this court, apart from Jinguji Budo, the most efficient player is not Rukawa Kaede, but Mitsui Shou who is facing Matsumoto Minoru. However, Matsumoto Minoru himself seems to realize that he is no match for Mitsui Shou in a head-on confrontation, so he does not control the consumption of physical energy when defending, and uses the death coil to reduce Mitsui Shou's chances of receiving the ball.
This also leads to the fact that when Rukawa Kaede breaks through and passes the ball, he often does not choose Mitsui Shou, who is the most closely guarded.
As for Budou, his situation was similar to that of Mitsui Hisashi. Zebei Rongzhi did not dare to leave Jinguji Budou's side for a moment, and he did not even have the idea of using a sudden pass to attract the opponent's attention and then pass the ball to Budou.
The only way to successfully pass the ball to Wu Dao is perhaps when you just enter the frontcourt with the ball.
"The gap cannot be widened any further."
"Five points is a lot."
Wu Dao glanced at the scoreboard with his peripheral vision, thinking to himself. His dribbling rhythm also began to change. He lowered his body slightly, dribbled between his legs, switched the basketball to his left hand, and used his right hand to protect the ball directly on Zebei Rongzhi's body. After a blast, Wu Dao accelerated and broke through.
Jinguji Budou's strength is very strong, far surpassing Zebei Rongji. His right hand is against Zebei, making it impossible for Zebei to get too close to Budou.
When approaching the free throw line, Jinguji Budo still did not change his posture, but after one dribble, he directly grabbed the basketball with his left hand and dribbled the ball with one hand.
After two steps, Takeshi Jinguji went straight to the basket and jumped up. The terrifying bounce made the height of the ball in his left hand several dozen centimeters higher than that of Masashi Kawata who jumped on the spot. In front of Masashi Kawata, Takeshi Jinguji picked up the ball and sent it directly into the basket.
The easy layup directly added two points to the scoreboard of Xiangbei High School.
The audience on the sidelines burst into amazing cheers as Jinguji Budou scored the goal.
Rukawa Kaede was standing on the side of the basket at this time, looking solemnly at Jinguji Budo who was preparing to return to defense, without saying a word.
It was too easy. It was too easy for Jinguji Budo to score in front of Sanno. This made Rukawa Kaede begin to doubt whether his playing style was helpful to Xiangbei.
Maybe.... if we just give the ball to Jinguji Budou to play alone, this match will become much easier?!
Maybe reasonable ball handling is not more useful than the star's play? At the beginning of the first half, Xiangbei relied on Jinguji Budou's personal strength to lead the opponent by 6 points, but when Rukawa Kaede handled the ball reasonably, this advantage was quickly wiped out, and now Sanno is leading by 3 points.
If the ball blocked by the opponent had not been picked up by Jinguji Budou, the score difference would have most likely become 7 points.
Rukawa Kaede thought so in his heart, lowered his head and remained silent. He seemed to be a little depressed. He followed Jinguji Budou's footsteps and started to return to defense.
After completing his position, Wudao keenly noticed Rukawa's mood. After all, Rukawa's dejected look was too conspicuous.
Before the attack from Sanwang came, he could not help but remind:
"Rukawa, what's wrong? Are you confused?"
"Do you feel like I'm scoring too easily? Do you want to give me the ball and let me play one-on-one?"
"Don't do that."
"You played very well. You are actually quite talented at the point guard position."
"You can't play with me forever, just do what you think is right."
"Whether it's reasonable or not, as long as we can win the game, anything is fine!"
"Play the way you think you can win."
Wudao smiled and said that he actually approved of Rukawa's attempts. Although the effect was not so good at the moment, it was only because Wudao had a good touch today. If Wudao had a bad touch and Rukawa only knew how to pass the ball to the ace, then Xiangbei's loss would be a foregone conclusion.
The attempts made by Rukawa Kaede have more benefits than disadvantages for the team and himself.
Wu Dao's words made Rukawa Kaede firmer. He was not a weak-willed person. Wu Dao's words only accelerated his determination to make up his mind.
Sanno Industrial's attack came, and Xiangbei's morale was high. The players on the field were very active in defense. After trying a single breakthrough, Kazunari Fukatsu decisively gave up and passed the ball to Masashi Kawata in the interior.
Masashi Kawata, who received the ball in the interior, was immediately double-teamed by Mitsui Hisashi and Akagi Takenori. With no chance to shoot, Masashi Kawata could only pass the ball to Matsumoto Minoru.
The latter shot from mid-range near the baseline. Shooting at a 0-degree angle is quite difficult, and even though it was an open position, Matsumoto Minoru still failed to seize this open opportunity.
The basketball crashed out of the basket, and the rebound was grabbed by Sakuragi Hanamichi. His explosive power is much stronger than Nobe Masahiro, and Sakuragi, who is on the defensive side, was in a better position than Nobe at the beginning, so it was natural for him to grab the defensive rebound.
"Steady up, don't play fast break!"
After Sakuragi grabbed the rebound, he wanted to throw the ball to the front court, but at this moment, the Xiangbei players off the court called out in unison.
Sakuragi froze and held the ball in his arms. After the Sanno players left to return to defense, he passed the ball to Rukawa who came up to receive the ball.
At this time, Jinguji Budou had already run to Sanno's half, and the one who was about to make a fast break was him... ..
Although Zebei and Fukatsu of Sannoh noticed Wudang in advance and caught up with him, Wudang was definitely one against two in the frontcourt, so he had a big advantage.
Unexpectedly, Rukawa's reasonable playing style has influenced the other players of Xiangbei, and stopped Sakuragi from passing the ball.
Seeing that Xiangbei did not pass the ball to Jinguji Budou, Kazunari Fukatsu and Eiji Zebei, who were standing in front of Budou, both breathed a sigh of relief. Fukatsu also walked away from Budou and walked towards Rukawa Kaede who entered the front court with the ball.
"Shohoku, we missed the chance to counterattack! Jinguji Budo is already in position."
"... What a crap opportunity! Didn't you see that two of Sanwang's men have already returned to defense?"
"What did you say?! Isn't it easy for Jinguji Budo to defeat those two people?!"
"Easy? What's easy?! Isn't it easier to stabilize the position than to fight one against two in the front court?"
The way Xiangbei High School handled the offense in this round caused a lot of discussion among the audience in the stands. Many of the audience in today's game were Xiangbei fans, and most of the fans who liked Xiangbei High School knew Jinguji Budou and had seen Jinguji Budou's games.
One against two in the front court, if the one is Jinguji Budou, it is indeed an advantage... Many viewers who are familiar with Jinguji Budou have already reached a consensus on this.
But it is not the case for another part of the audience. They only know that playing one against two is risky and that slowing down the tempo will make the position more stable.
The Xiangbei players on the field had no time to listen to the discussions of the audience in the stands. Everyone's attention was on Rukawa Kaede.
This kid is very clever at passing the ball. If his teammates aren't paying attention, they might miss Rukawa's pass.
Takeshi Jinguji was still standing at the corner, leaning against Zebei and reaching for the ball. While Zebei was resting his arm on Takeshi's back, his eyes kept glancing in the direction of Rukawa, ready to make a move.
"This guy probably won't pass the ball to Jinguji Budou. He will probably call for a pick-and-roll and a pass."
"Then I'll double-team him and should be able to steal the ball easily!"
"They probably didn't expect that I would dare to let go when facing Jinguji Budo!"
Zebei was planning in his mind, but suddenly a red light appeared in his peripheral vision, and the basketball fell directly into Jinguji Budo's hands. Jinguji Budo, who had his back against Zebei Rongzhi a second ago, turned around and swept the ball to the basket the moment he got the ball. Without waiting for Zebei Rongzhi to react, he raised his hand and shot a three-pointer.
"!
!”
Zebei was shocked and turned his head to look at the basket. He happened to see the basketball fall steadily into the net with a crisp sound.
36:36.
Sanno Industrial just made one mistake, and the 5-point difference was instantly wiped out by Shohoku High School.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .