"Why bother calling for a foul? You can't stop me anyway!"
Jinguji Budou's words did not discourage Kazunari Fukatsu and Eiji Sawakita who failed in their defense.
The two of them already had a clear understanding of Jinguji Budo's strength, and after a brief moment of surprise, they quickly regained their composure. It was expected that they would not be able to stop Jinguji Budo's attack.
Now that Takeshi Jinguji has been sent to the free throw line, they can only accept this fact and treat it as Takeshi Jinguji making a three-pointer.
After the referee blew the whistle, the ball was given to Jinguji Budo.
Wu Dao stood at the free throw line, made a slight adjustment, then threw the ball, which went steadily into the net.
After scoring the goal, Jinguji Budou quickly returned to defense without saying anything more to the Sanno players.
The score on the scoreboard jumped, and after Jinguji Takeshi scored a free throw, Xiangbei High School added two more points. Sakuragi Hanamichi saw Jinguji Takeshi steadily score the ball and successfully made a three-pointer, and a bright smile appeared on his face.
He also contributed to Takeshi Jinguji's goal.
Sakuragi Hanamichi is aware that his role on the court is much greater than that of Rukawa Kaede. He feels that with Rukawa Kaede in this position, even if Miyagi Ryouta or other point guards of Shohoku are substituted in, the game against Sannoh can still be played like this.
"Humph! As long as I, the rebounding king Sakuragi Hanamichi, guard the basket."
"Wouldn't it be easy for us, Xiangbei, to beat Sannoh?"
Sakuragi thought so in his heart, and with such self-encouragement, Sakuragi Hanamichi suddenly shouted without any invitation: "Come on, Sanwang, I will knock you all down!"
"Oh! That Hanamichi kid is so enthusiastic!"
"Hey, Hanamichi, don't get carried away! You are Shohoku's weakness!"
"Yeah, yeah, you haven't even scored a few goals, so stop bragging, hahaha!"
In the stands, the bad friends of the Sakuragi Army immediately laughed when they saw Sakuragi Hanamichi suddenly become enthusiastic and full of fighting spirit.
"Tsk, mortal!"
"Just stay on the sidelines and watch this genius perform!"
"Don't forget to cheer for this genius!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi heard the voices of Yohei and others, turned around and yelled at them.
"Here we go, Sakuragi!"
At this moment, Akagi Takenori, who was guarding the basket on the other side, gave a reminder.
Sanno Industrial has launched a new round of attack. Kazunari Fukatsu quickly approached the top of the arc with the ball, and then quickly passed the ball to Zebei Rongji at the corner.
After passing the ball, Kazunari Fukatsu quickly ran towards Jinguji Budou and set a screen for Zebei.
"Um?!"
"Why did you suddenly come to Zebei? Do you want to score in front of me?!"
Wudao was surprised to see Kazunari Fukatsu's pass. Zebei had been defeated by him more than once or twice. After playing for so long in the first half, Zebei's score probably didn't exceed 8 points. For a scoring ace, such a score was obviously not impressive.
After Sanno realized that Zebei could not gain any advantage over Wudao, he would pass the ball away from Jinguji Wudao, trying not to give Wudao the opportunity to participate in Xiangbei's defense, and all his attacks were done away from Wudao.
Fukatsu's pass made Wudao smell something unusual.
However, Wudao did not hesitate at all. He bypassed Fukatsu's pick-and-roll and ran to the free throw line in advance to guard against Zebei Rongji's breakthrough.
Rukawa and Budou had a very good understanding of each other. He did not switch defense with Budou because of the change of the ball handler. He still followed Kazunari Fukawa. However, when Rukawa was running, he deliberately glanced at Zebei who received the ball, wanting to see what he was doing.
"Huh?! Three-pointer!"
Upon seeing this, Rukawa suddenly discovered that Zebei Rongji was raising the ball and wanted to shoot. Without thinking much, he chased after Fukatsu's footsteps and rushed directly towards Zebei Rongji, wanting Zebei Rongji to shoot a three-pointer.
Although Zebei Rongzhi did not show his excellent three-point shooting ability in today's game, Rukawa knew that Zebei was the scoring ace of Sanno. Since he was the scoring ace, he would always have three-pointers, so Rukawa did not dare to let Zebei shoot in an open position.
"Ryukawa!" Seeing this, Wudao couldn't help but let out a low shout, but his reminder was too late. Before Wudao could think about it, he left his original position and ran quickly towards Kazunari Fukatsu.
When Zebei Rongji shot a three-pointer in that position, Jinguji Budou could actually catch up with him, but Budou saw that Zebei had no intention of shooting a three-pointer. The reason was very simple, because when Zebei Rongji raised the ball, his feet were staggered. This position is not suitable for shooting a three-pointer because the force will be dispersed.
With a high probability, he will break through; with a low probability, he will pass the ball.
Budo didn't dare to leave Shenjin open, so he could only bet on Zebei to pass the ball.
"Snap!" Sure enough, Zebei Rongji, who was holding the ball, made a fake move to jump up Rukawa Kaede, then quickly dropped the ball, accelerated the breakthrough, and passed directly by Rukawa Kaede.
Takeshi Jinguji turned his head and looked at Fukatsu, and found that Fukatsu was quickly moving towards the bottom corner, while Matsumoto Minoru had also quickly cut into the inside.
As Zebei started to break through, other outside players of Sannoh moved together.
"At this point, we still plan to use Zebei as the location."
"It seems that Sanwang has been forced into a corner and has no better options. They need Zebei to bring more changes to their offense."
Budou chased after Kazunari Fukatsu and looked at Sawakita Eiji who rushed into the inside.
Rukawa Kaede has caught up with Zebei, and is only one body length away from him, while Sakuragi Hanamichi has also left the basket and went out to defend Zebei Eiji.
Zebei Rongzhi crossed the free throw line with the ball and quickly passed it, grabbed the ball with one hand and jumped up, and shot it directly under Sakuragi's interception. The basketball flew over Sakuragi Hanamichi's fingertips and flew directly towards the basket. The next second, the basketball fell and steadily pierced into the basket with a crisp sound.
The smooth and sharp breakthrough shot easily broke through the defense of Sakuragi and Rukawa. The offensive power of Zebei Rongji was clearly demonstrated with just one goal.
"Damn it, this soft shot actually went in?!"
Sakuragi turned his head and saw the basketball go into the net, and cursed in dissatisfaction. At this moment, Rukawa Kaede cast his eyes on Zebei Rongzhi, with a surprised look on his face.
Very strong, this ace of Sanno Industries is very powerful!
Rukawa Kaede can clearly recognize this.
but... .
Such a strong ace was suppressed by Jinguji Budou and couldn't score any points. How strong was Jinguji Budou to be able to block such an ace? !
Zebei Rongji and others began to return to defense. Rukawa received the serve from his teammate in the backcourt and began to advance with the ball. His eyes were fixed on Jinguji Budou who was running in the front, thinking in his heart.
"I'm afraid Sanno Industries has not been able to bring out the strength of Senior Jinguji..."
Rukawa Kaede looked at Jinguji Budou's back, sighed in his heart, and after entering the frontcourt, he looked at Jinguji Budou deeply and passed the ball sideways.
It was delivered to Jinguji Budo.
Jinguji Takeshi, who caught the ball, was slightly stunned, and then a smile appeared on his face.
"This kid is really considerate of my feelings."
"The guy I was guarding scored a goal after a long time. He knew I had to return the favor, so I let out some anger."
Wudao said softly, holding the ball high, looking down at Sawakita Rongzhi who was alert in front of him.
“Bang!”
Takeshi Jinguji quickly dropped the ball, and after a bomb, his body was directly in front of Zebei Rongji. The next second, Takeshi Jinguji turned around, and at the moment when Zebei Rongji thought that Takeshi Jinguji was going to turn around and pass him, he pulled back, and after turning around, he actually connected with the disguise, directly dribbled away Zebei Rongji, and quickly rushed to the inside.
Jinguji Budo's seemingly simple breakthrough move made Zebei Rongji exclaim "Impossible" in his heart. If a 160cm point guard did this kind of skillful and swift turn, Zebei would not be surprised.
But Jinguji Budo, a man over two meters tall, actually performed such an extraordinary move, which made Zebei feel creepy no matter how he looked at it.
The breakthrough Takeshi Jinguji had no intention of attacking Sanno's inside line. After being chased by Zebei Rongji, he slowed down on his own initiative and launched a physical confrontation with Zebei. Then, after pushing Zebei away, Takeshi Jinguji took a step back and shot a jump shot from mid-range.
Being pushed by Jinguji Budou with his body, Zebei had no way to catch up with Jinguji Budou's retreat. In fact, Jinguji Budou didn't even need to retreat, he just shot directly, and Zebei had no way to stop him.
The shot after the step back even had a fade away, which made Zebei sigh in despair.
It’s impossible to defend against it. It’s really impossible to defend against it!
“Bang!”
“Swish!”
The basketball hit the backboard and went into the net from a 45-degree angle, making a slight sound.
Wu Dao, who scored the goal, smiled and shook his finger at Ze Bei, then turned around to defend.
Sanno Industrial just scored a goal as a team, but turned around and was defeated by Jinguji Budou with the ball. This time, Fukatsu and Kawada, who were trying to double-team, didn't even run far before Jinguji Budou scored.
Zebei Rongji's defense was completely useless in front of Jinguji Budou.
In the rest of the first half, Rukawa seemed to want to see Jinguji Budou's attacking posture when he was at full strength, and began to pass the ball to Jinguji Budou frequently.
After passing the ball, Rukawa doesn't just stay at the top of the arc stupidly, but looks for opportunities to cut into the air.
At the beginning, Jinjin didn't pay attention to Rukawa who was cutting in, and he went up to help Zebei double-team Jinguji Takedo when Jinguji Takedo was attacking with the ball.
But after Takeshi Jinguji made two wonderful passes during the attack, Fukatsu no longer dared to double-team Takeshi Jinguji blindly and began to pay attention to Rukawa's positioning.
If he doesn't double-team, Masashi Kawata needs to guard the basket. If the double-team is not done in time, Zebei will have to face Jinguji Budou's attack alone.
But these two people are not on the same level at all, and it is very easy for Jinguji Budou to break through Zebei.
Sannoh obviously also noticed this situation. Masahiro Nobe, who was originally guarding Sakuragi Hanamichi, completely let go of Sakuragi Hanamichi and formed a double defense with Sawakita Eiji, focusing on guarding Jinguji Budou.
Facing the defense of two people, although Wudao was confident that he could break through the defense of the two, but seeing that there were often open spaces on Sakuragi's side, he couldn't help but take care of Sakuragi and passed the ball to Sakuragi a few times, giving Sakuragi the opportunity to shoot in open spaces.
Not to mention, although Sakuragi was a little off the mark in the previous game, Sakuragi Hanamichi seized several of Takeshi's passes and shot the ball in steadily, which surprised Takeshi and the Xiangbei players off the court.
Yohei and others in the stands who had originally been laughing at Sakuragi also cheered loudly for Sakuragi after Sakuragi scored the goal, feeling that they had gained a lot from spending time with Sakuragi in special training.
Shohoku's offense was smooth, and Sanno Industrial's offense was also relatively smooth. Although Zebei Rongji couldn't break through Jinguji Budou alone, with the help of his teammates' continuous pick-and-roll, Zebei got the opportunity to single out Rukawa Kaede or Mitsui Hisashi.
Facing the defense of these two people, Sendo Eiji's offensive power was still useful. He helped Sanno score several goals in a row. With his activeness, Shohoku was unable to quickly widen the score gap.
At the end of the first half, the score between the two teams was 48:44, and Shohoku High School was only leading Sanno Industrial by 4 points.
Jinguji Budo was not very satisfied with the result of Xiangbei. Such a tight score difference meant that the battle would become more intense in the second half. Sanwang Industrial saw the hope of winning and would definitely fight hard in the second half.
Although Budou himself didn't care whether Sanno fought hard or not, the other members of the Shohoku team couldn't fight as easily as he did.
Facing Sanno Industrial, the other players of Xiangbei were actually under great pressure. Rukawa frequently used breakthroughs to mobilize other Xiangbei players, which caused him to consume a lot of physical energy. Akagi, who was defending Kawata, also consumed a lot of physical energy. Mitsui Shou was frequently entangled by Matsumoto Minoru, which also consumed a lot of physical energy.
Among the five starting players of Xiangbei, only Jinguji Takeshi maintained a good physical condition. The other one was the physical monster Sakuragi Hanamichi. Sakuragi played the entire first half under the basket and was still full of energy, not looking tired at all.
If all the Sanno players broke out and fought desperately in the second half, even if Xiangbei could defeat the opponent, the players would definitely suffer a lot of damage.
This isn’t a county tournament, there are several days of rest between games.
This is a national competition, back-to-back.
If they fight too hard against Sannoh and meet another tough opponent in the next game, the Xiangbei players will simply not be able to face the next strong enemy in full condition.
During the half-time break, Coach Anxi needs to consider carefully how to arrange the troops.
We must firmly capture the mountain king while preventing the team members from suffering too much loss of energy.
"In the second half of the game, Rukawa Kaede, please come down and take a rest!"
"Rukawa-san played well in the first half and deserves praise. In the second half, let Miyagi-san take your place. Take this opportunity to have a good rest."
"We, Xiangbei, will not stop here!"
In the Xiangbei locker room, Coach Anzai began to make personnel adjustments, and the first to be replaced was point guard Rukawa Kaede.
"Mitsui, you should take a break too. Let Katsumi Ichiro take your place."
"And... Akagi, let Nango take your place."
"For the rest of today's game, Rukawa, Akagi, and Mitsui, you three should have a good rest."
"Jinguji Budou, Sakuragi Hanamichi, you continue to stay on the field. Nango, Katsumi, and Miyagi, the three of you will attack around Jinguji Budou and defend around Sakuragi Hanamichi."
"We should shrink the inside line as much as possible and control the rebounds. If Sanwang wants to shoot from the outside, let them shoot. In terms of offensive efficiency, Budo will not lose to them."
"Although there are many first-year students in your group, the task I give you is very simple. Just support Jinguji Budo to score points."
"Also, just hold on to the rebounds! As for defense, if you can defend, then defend. If you can't defend, don't force it and don't foul."
"Use your ultimate attacking power to help Xiangbei win!"
Coach Anxi made personnel arrangements quickly, and it was obvious that he had already had a plan in mind.
Wu Dao looked around at his teammates in the second half and nodded slightly.
Compared with the lineup in the first half, the second team in the second half was weakened in both defense and offense.
But it doesn’t matter, as long as he is on the court, Xiangbei will be able to keep scoring!
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