Sanno Industrial and Shohoku High School scored successively, making the second half of the game full of tension from the beginning.
Moreover, this round of offense also set the tone for the two teams' play in the second half.
During the transition between offense and defense, Kazunari Fukatsu quickly entered the frontcourt with the ball. The brothers Masashi Kawata and Mikio Kawata occupied a corner under the basket, respectively blocking Hanamichi Sakuragi and Koichiro Minamigo behind them to gain position.
At this time, the opponent that Kazunari Fukatsu faced changed to the shorter Miyagi Ryouta. In front of Miyagi Ryouta, it became extremely easy for Kazunari Fukatsu to pass the ball. He easily lifted the ball and threw it directly to Masashi Kawata in the inside.
At the same time, Kawata Masashi quickly stepped back with his right foot as the basketball flew towards him, and stepped directly on the floor behind Sakuragi Hanamichi's heel. The moment the basketball was in his hand, he turned around and forced himself up. At the same time, Kawata Masashi's back pressed against Sakuragi Hanamichi, making it impossible for Sakuragi Hanamichi to turn around and chase.
Sinking step.
The beautiful offensive steps made Sakuragi lose the ability to chase and defend, and he could only watch Kawata Masashi break into the basket and dunk the basketball into the basket with a backhand.
"That gorilla-faced guy used his body to block me when he turned around, and I can't catch up with him!" Sakuragi Hanamichi looked back at Masashi Kawata who had completed the slam dunk and fell back to the ground, his handsome face full of solemnity.
"Sinking step!"
"Damn it, I was careless and didn't notice when he caught the ball."
Sakuragi Hanamichi recalled the turn and breakthrough by Kawata Masashi just now, and realized that the opponent had already changed his steps before receiving the ball, but this change was ignored by Sakuragi Hanamichi who was focusing on the ball.
Now thinking back to Kawata's breakthrough, Sakuragi Hanamichi realized the defensive problem just now.
The drop step is actually a basic step for inside players, but in today's high school basketball environment, there are not many players who have this footwork technique and can skillfully integrate this technique into the offense.
Sakuragi Hanamichi is not a rookie. Under the training of Jinguji Budo, although Sakuragi's own skills under the basket are not very good, he has seen many skills. Combined with Sakuragi's beast-like intuition, Sakuragi Hanamichi often has an outstanding performance on the defensive end.
After only one round of attack from Masashi Kawata, Sakuragi already had an idea of how to respond.
Between offense and defense, Miyagi Ryouta quickly dribbled the ball into the frontcourt, and then quickly passed the ball sideways to Jinguji Takeshi. After the basketball was in hand, Jinguji Takeshi also looked towards the basket, preparing to break through with the ball.
Although Jinguji Budou played the entire first half, his physical condition was maintained quite well. He had plenty of physical strength. In addition, he mostly did shuttle runs in the first half and did not have many singles with the ball. In addition, Sannoh rarely gave Zebei opportunities to play singles.
Therefore, Wudao consumes very little physical energy. The intensity of the confrontation and the amount of exercise in the first half of the game are just warm-ups at best. In the second half of the game, no matter how Wudao performs, physical energy will not be a problem.
After getting the basketball, Wudou dropped the ball and dribbled between his legs with a high center of gravity towards the three-point line, while paying attention to the positioning of the other Sanno players.
Facing Jinguji Budou who was holding the ball, Sendo Eiji was a little nervous. He bent his waist and stepped back in small steps, always keeping a distance of nearly 30cm, not daring to get too close or too far away.
Although Takeshi Jinguji is so tall, he has a strong ability to control the ball. If he attacks rashly, he will definitely be blocked by the opponent. However, if he is too far away, Takeshi Jinguji has a strong long-range shooting ability.
All Zebei could do was to maintain the depth of defense and slow down the opponent's speed at the moment Jinguji Budo broke through, allowing his teammates to double-team him quickly.
Yes, at this point in the game, Zebei Rongji had already abandoned the unrealistic idea of single-handedly defending against Jinguji Budou.
He plans to rely on the strength of the team to defend against the attack of Jinguji Budo. As long as they can resist Jinguji Budo, Shohoku High School will definitely not win!
"Don't be impatient. Don't be impatient."
"Watch his movements carefully and don't be fooled by him."
Zebei Rongzhi stared at Jinguji Budo's every move, not daring to relax for a moment. Suddenly, Jinguji Budo, who was dribbling the ball with a high center of gravity, suddenly lowered his center of gravity, grabbed the ball with his right hand in front of the right, and rushed forward, obviously preparing to break through.
Zebei Rongzhi's child hole shrank slightly, and he quickly moved to fill the position, he was afraid that he would react too slowly.
Unlike the opponents he had met before, when facing Jinguji Martial Arts, even if he was a little out of position, he would be thrown over by Jinguji Martial Arts, because Jinguji Martial Arts was fast and strong, and he wanted to rely on his body to resist and limit Jinguji Martial Arts' acceleration, but he couldn't do it at all.
If the opponent is like Rukawa Kaede, even if Zebei Rongji is half a body length behind, as long as he can keep up, he can use physical confrontation to affect the opponent's dribbling rhythm and reduce the opponent's breakthrough speed.
But this technique is useless against Jinguji Budo!
“Bang!”
However, just as Zebei Rongji moved to block, Jinguji Budou, who had clearly dropped the ball on the right side with his right hand, stretched out his left hand, grabbed the ball and pulled it back, misstepped his steps, swayed his body, and changed direction to break through from the left, easily passing Zebei Rongji and rushing towards the inside.
Sam Gold!
"Oh! So fast!"
"Is this a breakthrough? So easy?"
The swift and gorgeous breakthrough instantly caused exclamations from the audience in the stands.
After successfully breaking through Sawakita Eiji, Jinguji Budo leaned forward as he approached the free throw line. Before the double-team of Kawata Masashi and Fukatsu Kazunari formed, he raised the ball in his right hand and threw it lightly towards the basket seemingly casually.
"Shua!" The basketball was shot, and one second later, the basketball fell directly and steadily into the net, making a crisp sound. Jinguji Budo's seemingly random shot actually scored the ball steadily.
As the basketball went into the net, cheers filled the court.
"Good throw, Budo!"
"That's awesome, Jinguji-senpai!"
The basketball went into the net and there was a cheer from the Xiangbei bench. Mitsui waved his towel excitedly and shouted loudly towards the court.
Kiyota Nobunaga also cheered. Although he didn't play, his enthusiasm was still high. After seeing Jinguji Budo's breakthrough move, the boy tried it with empty hands on the spot after cheering, and felt that he had mastered this breakthrough technique.
In the stadium, after scoring the goal, Jinguji Budo quickly returned to defense with the team. The players of Sanno looked at each other, their morale was a little low, but Kazunari Fukatsu clapped his hands and shouted:
"Don't let him scare you! Next time you defend, I'll come straight over!"
"Now, prepare to attack!"
Kazunari Fukatsu received the serve from Mikio Kawata in the backcourt, and while shouting to his teammates, he quickly ran towards the frontcourt with the ball.
His encouragement did have some effect, and the players on the field regained their composure.
Although Zebei Rongzhi had a gloomy look on his face, his eyes were full of fighting spirit, and he was obviously not defeated by the terrifying oppressive feeling of Jinguji Budo.
Sannoh quickly entered the frontcourt, and the players' running positions were the same as in the previous attack. Zebei and Matsumoto Minoru quickly sank to the bottom corners on both sides, leaving enough space for the inside players to display their skills.
After his teammates in the interior were in position, Kazunari Fukatsu at the top of the arc once again lobbed the ball to Masashi Kawata.
While the basketball was still in the air, Masashi Kawata turned his head slightly, glanced at Hanamichi Sakuragi, moved his right foot, and once again touched the floor behind Sakuragi's heel, preparing to turn around.
But this time, Sakuragi Hanamichi was the first to notice it. He put his hands on Kawata Masashi's back, quickly pulled his right foot away, and stepped behind Kawata's foot again.
"Huh?!" After getting the basketball, Masashi Kawata quickly turned around with the ball and found that Sakuragi Hanamichi quickly followed and appeared directly in front of him. He couldn't help but let out a light exclamation.
However, Kawata did not stop. Seeing that Sakuragi was not brushed away, he directly exploded the ball on the spot, turned his body sideways, and hit Sakuragi Hanamichi hard in the chest.
Sakuragi supported himself on Kawata Masashi with both hands, his cheeks slightly puffed up, holding his breath and blocking Kawata Masashi's strong attack, only retreating half a step. He actually withstood the opponent's attack.
On the other side, Koichiro Nango reacted quickly and decisively let go of Mikio Kawata and went around to defend. When Masashi Kawata made a second strong shot, he reached out and grabbed the basketball in Masashi Kawata's hand.
However, his action was noticed by Masashi Kawata, who quickly grabbed the basketball and passed the ball sideways between Sakuragi and Nango to Mikio Kawata.
Mikio Kawata's reaction was a little slow. He didn't notice Kawata Masashi's wonderful pass at all. It was just that Masashi Kawata's power and position of the ball were so good that it happened to hit Mikio Kawata's chest.
Mikio Kawata just stretched out his hand subconsciously and held the basketball steadily. He looked down at the basketball in his hand, and then Mikio Kawata under the basket quickly threw the ball, and the basketball hit the backboard and went into the net.
"What?!"
"It got out?!"
Masashi Kawata's pass surprised Sakuragi and Minamigo. Neither of them had expected that Masashi Kawata, with his muscular face, could make such a delicate pass. This was something neither of them had expected at the beginning.
Masashi Kawata, who was a point guard, is actually an enhanced version of Shinichi Maki. The freshmen of Shohoku have no idea how terrifying this guy is.
From a martial arts perspective, the threat posed by Masashi Kawata is actually much stronger than that posed by Eiji Zekita. He is an enhanced version of Shinichi Maki and a weakened version of Tanaka Shinomiya.
Compared to Zebei's previous gimmick of "the best high school student in the country", Masashi Kawata, the best center in the country, is much more solid.
"Sakuragi, well done. You've already spotted his sinking steps."
"Great defense, keep up the good work."
"Nanxiang, you too."
"Don't worry about it. He can't always pass the ball like that. Nanxiang, when you double-team him, pay attention to Kawata Mikio's position."
When Xiangbei served the ball from the backcourt, Budou did not run to the frontcourt immediately. Instead, he first said a few words of encouragement to Sakuragi and Nango and then ran to the frontcourt.
Wudao hadn't noticed Sakuragi before, but when Sakuragi and Kawata Masashi faced off, Wudao suddenly discovered that Sakuragi had made great progress in defense.
Maybe... after today's match with Kawata Masashi, Sakuragi will be able to make a qualitative leap. Training and competition are different after all!
Soon, Miyagi Ryouta crossed the center line with the ball, and before he approached the three-point line, he passed the ball to Jinguji Takeshi.
Compared to when Rukawa plays the point guard, Miyagi Ryouta's playing style when he plays the point guard is too easy to guess.
After passing the ball, Miyagi Ryouta quickly sank to the baseline. Fukatsu Kazunari ignored Miyagi Ryouta and went straight towards Budou.
Seeing this scene, Wu Dao couldn't help but smile, and passed the ball back to Miyagi Ryouta, smiling and whispering:
"That's really disrespectful."
Sure enough, Miyagi Ryouta took the ball in the mid-range, stopped calmly, paused for a second, and then threw the ball.
“Swish!”
The basketball went into the net.
Miyagi Ryouta's mid-range shooting ability is indeed average, but he has been doing shooting training almost without interruption. Compared with Miyagi Ryouta in his first year of high school, his shooting has made great progress.
Maybe his shooting percentage is still very poor due to strong defensive interference, but if he shoots in open space and has enough time to aim, Miyagi Ryouta's shooting will not be so bad that he will be completely left open.
"Haha, good shot, Miyagi."
Wudao smiled and fist-bumped with Miyagi Ryouta to celebrate. Sanwang's defense in this round was too problematic.
Kazunari Fukatsu apologized to his teammates, and after getting the ball in the backcourt, he quickly advanced to the frontcourt. His attention was so distracted by Jinguji Budo that he neglected Miyagi.
This ball also alerted Kazunari Fukatsu that the point guard of Xiangbei was not so bad that he could not even make an open shot.
Quickly dribbling the ball into the frontcourt, Kazunari Fukatsu tried to get past Ryouta Miyagi with a front-body change of direction, but Miyagi, who was quick-eyed and quick-handed, tapped the basketball with one hand.
However, Kazunari Fukatsu evaded the ball, and although Miyagi touched the ball, he was unable to steal it. However, under the influence of Miyagi Ryouta, Kazunari Fukatsu quickly hugged the ball and was unable to continue his advance.
"Hey!"
"You are really lucky!"
Miyagi Ryouta saw Fukatsu Kazunari stop and said to Fukatsu with a smile. Fukatsu also looked at Miyagi Ryouta with some surprise and quickly passed the ball to Kawata Masashi in the paint.
At this time, Masashi Kawata was staring at Hanamichi Sakuragi with his back and reaching out to catch the ball.
However, at this moment, Masashi Kawata clearly felt the resistance on the right side behind him disappear.
Sakuragi Hanamichi suddenly loosened his hands and wanted to go around Kawata Masashi's left side to defend.
Kawata was alert and was about to adjust his position, but Sakuragi Hanamichi suddenly turned around without the ball, stuck to Kawata Masashi's back, and went directly from Kawata's right armpit to Kawata's front, and actually grabbed the ball first.
"What?!
!”
When Kawata saw Sakuragi Hanamichi suddenly appear in front of him, he was slightly stunned and exclaimed in disbelief.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
"I have seen all your movements clearly!"
"See, this is the strength of this genius!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi, who completed the steal, held the ball with both hands, tilted his head back and laughed. Sakuragi Hanamichi, who successfully bypassed Kawata Masashi and completed the steal, instantly became the focus of the whole audience.
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