"You bastards! Are you worthy enough to play basketball?!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi's angry shouts eventually drowned out the audience's discussions and spread into the stadium.
Some of the spectators who were nearby were all looking at Sakuragi Hanamichi in amazement, wondering why this freshman from Xiangbei suddenly went crazy. Meanwhile, the third player from Kumamoto who was lazily preparing to serve on the court also heard the sound coming from the stands.
Looking in the direction where the voice came from, I saw Sakuragi Hanamichi with an angry face.
"The players of Xiangbei... What can Xiangbei, who has players like Jinguji Budou, understand about us?"
"I'm just a freshman who got into Xiangbei High School by luck. Why are you pretending?"
The captain of Kumamoto only looked up at Sakuragi, then looked away, muttering something, and walked to the baseline to serve. The speed of the basketball was slow, giving people a sense of weakness, and it was obvious that he was not playing seriously.
The moment the basketball was served, the defender of Mingpeng Industries rushed forward quickly, but the force of the serve was too weak, which gave Mingpeng Industries a chance to steal the ball.
Kumamoto's third defender was squeezed by his opponent, and when the basketball flew over, he couldn't rush to get the ball, and watched the basketball being snatched away by his opponent. However, he didn't chase after the opponent immediately after losing the ball, but stood there stupidly, watching his opponent dribbling the ball into the basket, and then sent the ball into the basket with a light layup.
The performance of Kumamoto Third made Sakuragi Hanamichi even more angry. Although he was not familiar with the players of Kumamoto Third, and even before the national competition, Sakuragi Hanamichi had never heard of the name of this school.
But when Sakuragi Hanamichi saw Kumamoto Third's performance in the game, he was extremely angry.
Sakuragi Hanamichi didn't know why he was so angry. Perhaps it was because Kumamoto Third was wasting the opportunity of the national competition.
At this moment, Sakuragi Hanamichi unconsciously thought of the other two teams from Kanagawa Prefecture.
The Hainan High School that fought with the Shohoku High School until the last second; the Shoyo High School that was full of enthusiasm even though it was behind by more than ten or twenty points.
Those opponents who take the game seriously and refuse to admit defeat in the face of strong opponents will not be able to participate in the national competition, but teams like Kumamoto Third that have no fighting spirit are able to perform poorly on the stage of the national competition.
Thinking of this, Sakuragi Hanamichi became even angrier.
"asshole!
!”
"If you don't want to play anymore, then get out of here and don't insult my eyes on the court!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi shouted, grabbing the back of the chair in front of him with both hands, as if he would pounce at the next second. The several first-year students of Xiangbei around Sakuragi Hanamichi heard this, not only did they not think that there was anything wrong with what Sakuragi Hanamichi said or did, but they nodded in agreement.
Kiyota Nobunaga, who had always been at odds with Sakuragi Hanamichi and always bickered with him, also nodded, rarely agreeing with what Sakuragi Hanamichi said and not picking on him.
At this time, the players of Meiho Industries in the stadium also looked up at the stands. Captain Kijiro Hirabayashi recognized Sakuragi Hanamichi when he saw him.
After the recent match between Shohoku High School and Sanno Industrial, many spectators and players from other teams have noticed this freshman from Shohoku High School.
Some teams privately call Sakuragi a "talented blue-collar worker", using this name to recognize Sakuragi Hanamichi's talent in rebounding. Of course, it only recognizes his talent in rebounding.
Recognizing Sakuragi, Hirabayashi Kijiro quickly glanced at him and quickly retracted his gaze. He looked at the player from Kumamoto No. 3 who was preparing to serve, and suddenly shook his head, smiling and muttering to himself:
"How can a first-year genius like you possibly understand what these guys are feeling right now?"
"You who stay under the wings of Jinguji martial arts have no idea how cruel reality is."
"For a team like Kumamoto Third that comes from a small division to make it to the second round is already pretty lucky."
"But luck is not something that can keep the team going downhill."
"Meeting us, Mingpeng Industries, means their luck has run out."
While Hirabayashi Kijiro was talking to himself, Kumamoto Sanzo served the ball from the baseline again. This time, the point guard of Meiho didn't have a chance to steal the ball. But even though he failed to steal the ball, Meiho's guard still had no intention of returning to the court to defend, but instead directly stuck to the Kumamoto guard who had the ball.
At the same time, other players of Meiho Industries also blocked other players of Kumamoto, and even used a full-court pressing tactic just five minutes after the start of the game.
It seems that Mingpeng is not satisfied with his current leading advantage and wants to defeat his opponent completely in one go.
The average height of Meiho Industries' players is generally taller than that of Kumamoto Third's players. At this time, they used full-court pressing, which immediately increased the pressure on Kumamoto Third's players.
The players of Kumamoto Third have no fighting spirit. In addition, their hard power is indeed inferior to that of Meiho Industry, and the basic skills of their defenders are not that good either.
Under Mingpeng's defense, it was like the early domestic back line running into the American defense.
Not to mention successfully dribbling the ball across half court, even landing the ball became extremely difficult at this moment.
The two guards entangled in Kumamoto's half for a while, and Kumamoto's guard couldn't stand the pressure anymore and wanted to pass the ball, but in his hasty pass, his teammates hadn't run out of the open space yet, and the basketball was directly intercepted by Meipeng's players halfway.
With two simple dribbles, Mingpeng's power forward took the ball into the basket and easily scored a layup.
The score difference instantly reached 24 points.
But for Kumamoto, the score difference is not the most important thing. The most important thing is the situation. Under the defense of Meiho Industries, they couldn't even dribble the ball across half court.
"But..." When Sakuragi saw Kumamoto's ugly appearance, the anger in his chest burst out. Just as he was about to speak, he felt someone pulling his clothes from behind.
The force coming from behind was so strong that Sakuragi Hanamichi couldn't withstand it. He was pulled back to his seat and sat down on the bench.
Sakuragi turned his head in confusion and looked at the person who was pulling him, and found that the person who had just pulled his clothes was Jinguji Budou.
Seeing that it was Budo, Sakuragi could only complain quietly: "Why are you pulling me... Wasn't what I said right?"
“Those rubbish in Kumamoto…”
Without waiting for Sakuragi Chuaido to finish, Wudao shook his head, put his arm around Sakuragi's shoulders, and said:
"There's no need to be angry. They are already high school players. Even though they can't be said to be very mature, they should be sensible enough."
"You don't need to say too much. What you just said is enough."
"If they could have listened, they would have listened a long time ago."
“Besides, it’s not necessarily that the Kumamoto players didn’t understand what you said.”
"Sakuragi, basketball is very cruel. If you want to reach the top, there will be many people left behind by you."
“You can’t lift those people up one by one and force them to follow in your footsteps.”
"You have talent, you have environment, and your perspective is different from theirs."
"The choices they make now may not necessarily be the ones they want, but they may just be forced into it."
"No matter what their attitude towards basketball is, the consequences will be borne by themselves."
"Whether they regret or feel resentment in the future, it's up to them to bear it. You can't make choices for them. All you can do is make your own choices."
Wudao comforted Sakuragi Hanamichi. His words were not only heard by Sakuragi Hanamichi, but also by Nango Koichiro and others who were sitting closer.
When the first-year students heard this, some understood it, while others only understood half of it. But at the same time, the first-year students of Xiangbei all fell silent. Even Sakuragi Hanamichi snorted coldly, folded his hands in front of his chest, and slightly closed his eyes, not wanting to watch the game on the field anymore.
On the court, as Meipeng Industries began to use a full-court pressing defensive tactic, the situation completely turned in favor of Meipeng Industries.
Eleven minutes into the first half, Meipeng Industrial had a 36-point lead. Having secured victory early, Meipeng's coach replaced the second-team substitutes and used this full-court competition opportunity to train the young players.
At this point, the opponent of Shohoku High School in the next game has been officially confirmed, which is Meiho Industries from Aichi Prefecture.
At the end of this long and arduous game, Mingpeng Industry won with a terrifying score difference of 96:23.
The terrifying score difference of 73 points is the largest score difference in the history of the national competition. Meipeng Industry has made history, and Kumamoto Third has also become a part of history with such defense.
After the game, the players of Kumamoto Third did not cry bitterly. Instead, each of them smiled with relief.
Perhaps, the chance to qualify for the national tournament, which is being fought over by many teams in Kanagawa Prefecture, is just a heavy burden for the players of Kumamoto Third.
The victorious Mingpeng Industrial did not cheer much, as the victory of this match was already determined in the first half. The victory was officially announced nearly thirty minutes later, and at this moment, the players of Mingpeng were no longer very happy, as they felt that this match was too long and made them play a meaningless game for more than twenty minutes.
After the game, before leaving the field, the Meipeng players all looked up at the high school in the corner of the stands. The Meipeng players also knew that the next game with Xiangbei High School was the game they really needed to pay attention to.
After this game, the enthusiasm of the Xiangbei High School players for watching the game was mostly exhausted. Like them, the audience did not have much expectations for the next game.
A boring game that dampened everyone's enthusiasm.
After a short break, the match of Group B of Group A began. The two participating teams were Umezawa High School from Saitama Prefecture and Tobita Daini High School from Tokushima Prefecture.
Both teams are rated B, and their player configuration is 2+3, that is, two outstanding players lead three qualified players to play in the game.
Because the two teams were of similar strength, the game was quite intense, but it was far less entertaining than the previous game between Shohoku High School and Sanno Industrial.
There were only a few slam dunks throughout the entire game, which was standard "high school" basketball. No player performed like a supermodel.
After watching two games in a row, the Xiangbei team found that Hirabayashi Kijiro of Meiho Industrial was too eye-catching. From a martial arts perspective, Hirabayashi Kijiro's personal ability should not be inferior to Aiwa's Moroboshi Dai, but it is not known why Meiho lost to Aiwa under his leadership. Maybe his teammates were not as strong as Aiwa? !
In the match between Umesawa and Tobita Daini, Tobita won the match with 76:72, leading his opponent by 4 points and successfully advancing to the third round.
After this game, there will be the last game of this morning, between Takamizawa High School from Hokkaido and Urayasu Commerce from Chiba Prefecture.
Among the two teams, Urayasu Commercial is an A-level team. Although his opponent Takamizawa is only a B-level team, Takamizawa showed considerable courage throughout the game.
Compared to a weak team like Kumamoto Third, Takamizawa is a tough nut to crack. At the end of the first half, Takamizawa was already 13 points behind, but at the last moment of the halftime, the players did not relax at all and fought very hard.
In the end, they actually managed to steal the ball and hit the buzzer beater, freezing the score difference at 10 points.
In the second half, Takamizawa's players were even more crazy, running all over the field, looking for any possible opportunities. However, their efforts ultimately did not yield the fruits they expected.
13 minutes into the second half, Takamizawa's players had huge problems with their physical fitness, and the quality of the school's rotation players was also quite poor. After replacing two main players, the team began to collapse.
Sakuragi Hanamichi, who had been holding back for a while, loudly cheered for Takamizawa, but in the end, these players were still unable to accomplish what Sakuragi had hoped for, "overcoming the strong with the weak."
The feeling of loss after all the efforts were in vain not only made Takamizawa's players cry, but also made Sakuragi Hanamichi, an outsider, a little sad. He pounded the bench with his fists and whispered "Damn it".
Wu Dao looked at the scene in the field with neither sadness nor joy, his expression was indifferent.
He has seen countless similar things. Competitive sports are always cruel. For players, failure will run through their entire careers.
For many successful players, their career may end just because they make a mistake in a game or get injured due to not protecting themselves after a game.
Compared to those players who have devoted the first half of their lives to basketball, the failures suffered by these young players on the court now are just a drizzle.
Aren’t the vast majority of ordinary people just like the players on the field, Takamizawa, who work hard but don’t get the corresponding results
"Losing is so painful!"
"So, Sakuragi, we at Shohoku must not lose!"
Wudao put his arm around Sakuragi's shoulders and whispered in Sakuragi Hanamichi's ear.
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