"How's it going? Our first-year students in Xiangbei are pretty good, right?"
Listening to Jinguji Budou's slightly boastful words, Shinomiya Tano just shook his head and smiled.
He turned his head to look at Rukawa Kaede who was starting to return to defense and said with a smile: "First-year students are just first-year students after all."
"If you think he can keep playing like this, then I think the result may disappoint you."
As Shinomiya said this, he stepped over Jinguji Budou and ran towards the front court. Uozumi Jun at the bottom line quickly served the ball to Fujima Kenji, who did not take the ball to the front court like in the previous attack, but threw the ball directly to Shinomiya who was moving quickly towards the front court.
Chase and fast break!
When the Ryonan ball was sent out, Sakuragi Hanamichi and Akagi Takenori had just run out of the paint area, not even across the three-point line, and were still quite a distance from their own half court. Meanwhile, Shinomiya Tano had already approached the midline, and after getting the ball, he quickly attacked Xiangbei.
The sudden fast break caught Xiangbei High School off guard. The only ones who were able to return to defense in time were Jinguji Budou, Mitsui Hisashi, and Rukawa Kaede.
"Xiao San, keep an eye on Xian Dao."
"Ryukawa Kaede, prepare to fill in."
Jinguji Takeshi's figure quickly appeared next to Shinomiya Tano, his eyes looking at the basketball in the other's hand. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sendoh Akira quickly entering the frontcourt, and then he immediately shouted to Mitsui Hisashi and Rukawa Kaede.
There are only two people initiating the fast break of Ryonan High School, while there are three defensive players of Shohoku High School!
Soon, Jinguji Takeshi followed Shinomiya Tano and approached the three-point line. Seeing that Shinomiya Tano had no intention of slowing down, Takeshi realized that he could not wait any longer. He immediately increased his speed, went around in front of Shinomiya Tano, and reached out to hit the basketball.
At this moment, Shimonoya, who was moving at high speed, simply did a simple back dribble and quickly avoided Jinguji Takeshi's interception. At the same time, he used the back dribble to get this little gap and immediately hit Jinguji Takeshi with his side.
"Bang!"
With a muffled sound, Jinguji Budo was pushed two steps away by the opponent and lost speed. With the gap, Shigong Tianye accelerated and rushed directly to the basket.
Facing the rapidly attacking Shinomiya Tano, Rukawa Kaede's expression froze, and his already stern face was now filled with solemnity.
With his eyes fixed on Shinomiya Tano, he watched the opponent gather the ball, take a step, and jump. The moment the opponent was in the air, Rukawa also jumped up and blocked the basketball in Shinomiya Tano's hand with his right hand.
"Boy, can you stop me?!"
Shimono Yamaguchi shouted loudly, grabbed the ball with his right hand and raised it high, and his body directly hit Rukawa in the air. Rukawa's right hand had just touched the basketball in Shimono Yamaguchi's hand when he was directly knocked away by the opponent. Shimono Yamaguchi, who grabbed the ball with one hand, also quickly pressed the basketball in his hand towards the basket.
"Bullying young people is not something to brag about!"
"Shinomiya Field."
However, just when Shimonoseki was about to make a slam dunk, Jinguji Takeshi's figure quickly jumped out from behind Shimonoseki, and his big hand pressed directly on the basketball from top to bottom.
"Ding!" Shimonoya dunked with one arm, but because of the influence of Jinguji martial arts, the basketball was directly dunked on the basket and bounced towards the three-point line at a high speed.
“Caught up?!”
Shinomiya Tano landed quickly and saw Jinguji Takeshi behind him. He murmured, feeling a little surprised.
"Of course!"
"From the beginning, I was prepared for the impact. How could I lose my position so easily?!"
"It seems that you take Rukawa Kaede very seriously. Didn't you even notice that I appeared behind you?!"
Wudao said, turning his head to look at the basketball. The basketball that was dunked by Shinomiya Tano was caught by Sakuragi Hanamichi who was returning to defense.
A rebound that fell from the sky added another goal to Sakuragi Hanamichi's statistics.
"Roar, I really am a genius."
"Got a rebound!"
The basketball fell into Sakuragi's hands, and Sakuragi Hanamichi was all smiles. He then glanced contemptuously at Rukawa Kaede, who was being pushed to the side of the basketball stand by Shinomiya Tano, and quickly passed the ball to Budo, who was rushing towards the Ryonan half.
Jinguji Budo doesn't want to miss this opportunity for a defensive counterattack!
As the basketball entered Jinguji Budo's hands, the players of Ryonan began to rush back to their own half.
None of the Ryonan players expected that Shigong Tianye's attack would be intercepted by Jinguji Budou. Therefore, when Jinguji Budou launched a counterattack, not many Ryonan players returned to defend.
Just when Uozumi Jun ran to the center line and turned around to defend, he had only run two steps when Jinguji Budao's figure had already surpassed him. And on Jinguji Budao's body, a blue figure also stuck to Jinguji Budao tightly, leaving no gap.
"Have they come up with the defense..."
"But I won't make the same mistake as you."
While dribbling the ball, Budou glanced at Shigong Tianye who was following him, thinking to himself. As Jinguji Budou approached the three-point line, his dribbling speed also slowed down.
It seems that he is ready to give up the fast break and wait for his teammates to enter the court.
"Slowing down?! Do you want to slow down and reorganize?"
As soon as this thought flashed through Shinomiya Tano's mind, he immediately rejected it.
"No, impossible, this guy won't let go of this opportunity!"
Shinomiya Tano's expression froze, and as Jinguji Budo slowed down, his movement speed also slowed down. However, he was still careful, and his defensive position was one foot in front and the other behind, ready to speed up and pursue at any time.
Sure enough, Takeshi Jinguji just paused, and then accelerated again. After crossing the three-point line and taking two steps, Takeshi Jinguji made another quick stop. While the basketball was pulled back quickly, he looked up at the basket.
But after successfully deceiving Shinomiya Tano's center of gravity, Jinguji Takeshi changed direction again, stepped forward to accelerate, and after quickly moving horizontally one step, he directly pulled up for a jump shot.
The basketball flew directly over Shimonoseki's head and then fell steadily into the basket.
The basketball went into the net. Jinguji Budo clenched his right fist, glanced at Shimonoseki, and a slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Shimono Yamada turned his head and saw the basketball hit the net. His expression remained unchanged. He just turned around and glanced at Jinguji Budou indifferently without saying anything else.
He knew the opponent's strength too well, so such an attack was not surprising at all.
Facing the powerful Shohoku High School, Ryonan High School was not willing to be outdone. They turned around and relied on Shinomiya Tano's personal ability to tear apart the Shohoku defense, forcing Sakuragi in the interior to fill in the defensive position.
While being double-teamed by Jinguji Takeshi and Sakuragi Hanamichi, Shinomiya Tano chose the most reasonable way of playing and made a wonderful pass to Hanagata in the open space.
The latter received the ball and went straight into the inside, making a layup and sending the ball into the net.
Between offense and defense, Xiangbei High School once again organized an attack.
This time, Ryonan High School used the same trick again. Hanagata let go of Sakuragi Hanamichi and went to the free throw line, blocking the potential breakthrough route of Rukawa Kaede, and also served to guard against Jinguji Budou.
Facing Ryonan's defensive style, Jinguji Budou quickly ran towards Rukawa, passed the ball to him, and then pretended to break through and passed the ball to Sakuragi.
Sakuragi, who was in an open position, steadied his posture and took a shot.
But maybe it was because the kid was too excited about the game today, he used too much force when shooting, and the basketball hit the rim and bounced out directly.
“Ahh?!
!”
After missing a shot, Sakuragi held his head and shouted, then rushed into the inside to grab the rebound.
Fortunately, Sakuragi used more force when shooting, and the basketball bounced farther, so Sakuragi Hanamichi successfully grabbed the rebound and snatched it.
Sakuragi, who got the ball back, was eager to make up for his previous "gaffe" and shot directly without making any adjustments.
Of course, a rash shot would not achieve the desired effect. The basketball hit the edge of the basket and bounced out again.
“Nani?!
”
“I’ll grab it again!
!”
Sakuragi's jumping and burst are really amazing, much stronger than Hanagata and Uozumi. He actually shot and rebounded the ball in this situation and once again caught the rebound.
When Sakuragi was preparing to shoot again, the voice of Jinguji Budou came from the side of Sakuragi Hanamichi at the right time.
Seeing Jinguji Budou rushing to the mid-range, Sakuragi reluctantly gave the ball away.
Starting with the basketball, Jinguji Budou broke the ball, stopped suddenly with his back to the basket, and after a series of shoulder shakes, he turned over and leaned back to shoot the ball.
Although the defending team's Shimotsuna raised his arms to try to block it, he still couldn't affect Jinguji Takeshi's fadeaway jump shot.
The basketball hit the backboard and went into the net, making a crisp sound.
After scoring the goal, Xiangbei quickly retreated and watched Jinguji Budou score the ball again. The Ryonan players looked at each other. Shinomiya Tano ran to the front court silently. Seeing Shinomiya Tano's departing back, the Ryonan players quickly followed after the serve.
Ryonan High School could not stop the attack of Shohoku High School, but it was also not an easy task for Shohoku High School to resist the attack of Ryonan.
Between offense and defense, Sendoh set a pick-and-roll for Shinomiya Tano, but this time Shinomiya Tano did not use the pick-and-roll to break through. Instead, he moved two steps horizontally and shot directly from outside the three-point line.
The shooting touch of this "devil muscular man" was unusually soft. Although his shooting speed was not fast, such a sudden and abnormal three-pointer still caught Xiangbei off guard. The basketball fell steadily into the net, adding three points to Ryonan's scoreboard.
From the first year of high school to the second year of high school, Jinguji Budou was not the only one who grew up.
In the past year or so, Shinomiya Tano has made considerable progress. The range of his attack has expanded a lot compared to before, and his means of attack are no longer limited.
"It was actually a three-pointer. It was beyond my expectation."
While running towards the front court, Wu Dao thought to himself that he had not expected Shigong Tianye's three-pointer at the beginning, and the opponent scored a steal. Wu Dao was not in a good mood now.
Shimono Shimono's three-point shot is very unstable, which can be seen from his "aiming" state when he just shot. If there is any interference, the opponent will not be able to make the shot.
Budo's contempt gave Shigong Tianye the opportunity to score.
The game between Shohoku High School and Ryonan High School entered a white-hot stage as the two teams went back and forth.
The individual scorers of both teams are quite powerful, and both of them can mobilize other players in the team to revitalize the entire team.
The match between the two teams gave people a feeling that they were evenly matched and neither side could do anything to the other.
Ryonan High School only played a few rounds of double-team defense strategy against Rukawa Kaede before decisively giving up. The reason was very simple. After Sakuragi Hanamichi missed consecutive shots, the boy's self-esteem simply could not accept such a reality.
When he got a chance later, Sakuragi cherished it more than ever before, and was extremely cautious every time he shot. And it was precisely because of Sakuragi Hanamichi's caution that his hit rate increased significantly.
When Sakuragi can make a mid-range shot in an open position, Ryonan's defensive method is obviously no longer applicable. Although Shinomiya Tano wanted to bet on Sakuragi's hit rate, in his opinion, even if Sakuragi Hanamichi made an open shot, his hit rate might not be as high as Jinguji Budou's.
However, after Sakuragi made three consecutive mid-range shots in the middle of the first half, Shinomiya Tano did not insist on this idea and asked Hanagata to keep an eye on Sakuragi and not give Sakuragi any open shooting opportunities.
Having tasted the sweetness, Sakuragi Hanamichi certainly couldn't just stand there stupidly in the middle distance waiting for his teammates to pass the ball like before. He hoped that he could have more shooting opportunities, so he was unusually active on the court, running all over the court, involving the Hanamichi defense line.
With Sakuragi's involvement, Takeshi Jinguji on the outside line did not have to worry about Hanagata's replacement. In a one-on-one situation with Shinomiya Tano, Takeshi Jinguji was not at all inferior to Shinomiya Tano.
The opponent's strength and bounce are not enough in the face of his shooting and rhythm changes!
On the sidelines, Coach Anxi watched the game on the field, touched his chin, and began to think.
"We and Ryonan are both very strong teams."
"The outcome of this game will depend on which team can defend the opponent first."
"We, Xiangbei... also need to make some adjustments."
Coach Anxi saw that Xiangbei's offense began to stabilize and thought about how to curb Ryonan High School's offensive.
When the first half of the game reached 14 minutes, the score between the two teams was 31:35. Xiangbei High School not only had control of the ball, but also led the opponent by 4 points.
On the court, Takeshi Jinguji faced the defense of Shinomiya Tano and called a pick-and-roll. As Mitsui Hisashi moved forward, Takeshi Jinguji dribbled the ball into the bottom corner, and then near the baseline, he turned sideways and shot the ball against Sendoh's defense.
The basketball flew directly into the net at a zero-degree angle, widening the gap between the two sides to 7 points.
As Jinguji Budo scored the goal, the audience in the stands cheered. When the Xiangbei players returned to defense, they saw Coach Anxi standing on the sidelines and making a "three" gesture to the players.
"Finally, are we ready to start?"
"Let's see if the tactics arranged by the coach can stop Ryonan's attack!"
On his way back to defense, Mitsui Hisashi saw Coach Anzai's gesture, clapped his hands at the players, and also made a "three" gesture.
The Xiangbei players understood and adopted a 23-zone defense when returning to the court.
Leading the defense on the outside are Sakuragi Hanamichi, Rukawa Kaede and... Mitsui Hisashi!
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