As Shimono dunked the ball over Sakuragi and into the net, the time on the scoreboard on the sidelines just reached zero seconds.
The long whistle for the halftime timeout sounded. Sakuragi Hanamichi, who landed at a very fast speed, couldn't withstand the huge force of Shinomiya Tano. He staggered and sat down on the floor, looking up at Shinomiya Tano blankly.
At the same time, the players on the field stared at Shimonoseki for a while, and then looked at the referee on the sidelines.
The referee was also stunned for a moment, and then cast his eyes towards the referee's seat on the sidelines. He saw a middle-aged man standing up in the referee's seat and making a downward gesture for a goal.
Seeing the linesman's signal, he leaned over and pointed his right finger to the ground to indicate that the goal was valid.
The referee ruled that the goal was valid, and the stands, which had been silent for a while, suddenly erupted in cheers. The Ryonan substitutes on the sidelines cheered as they rushed into the field and surrounded Shinomiya Tano in the center.
"Well done, Shinomiya-senpai!"
"The score difference has been reduced to two points. The disadvantage accumulated in the first half has been wiped out!"
As the score in the first half was fixed at 51:53, the players of Ryonan all breathed a sigh of relief. The score difference was nearly ten points before, but now it is only two points.
For Ryonan, this is already the best result.
"hateful!
!”
“This bastard!”
Unlike Ryonan's cheerful and relaxed attitude, the players of Shohoku were all silent at this moment. They failed to maintain their advantage in the final stage of the first half of the game, and most of the Shohoku players could not accept such a result.
Sakuragi stood up and punched the basketball hoop, cursed angrily, and looked at the Ryonan people who had already walked off the court.
"Well done! Well done!"
"Come on, come on, get off the court and take a rest."
"You defended well, Sakuragi. You will definitely be able to stop Shinomiya Tano next time."
At this moment, Kogure Mitsunobu seemed not to see the expressions of the Shohoku players. He walked into the court clapping his hands, came to Sakuragi, patted Sakuragi on the back and praised him.
Sakuragi Hanamichi subconsciously glared at Mugure's words. After seeing that it was Mugure, the anger on Sakuragi's face disappeared, and he said mindlessly and distressedly: "Brother Glasses, what are you talking about?"
"That's too unambitious, isn't it?"
"We were leading by eight points at the beginning, but thanks to the unremitting efforts of the stinky foxes, we were only ahead by two points."
"This result is obviously very embarrassing! In the second half, I don't know how far the opponent will overtake us."
Sakuragi Hanamichi was full of dissatisfaction, and glanced at Rukawa who was about to leave the court. Rukawa obviously heard what Sakuragi Hanamichi said, and glanced at Sakuragi coldly, and walked off the court silently.
When Sakuragi Hanamichi saw that Rukawa Kaede ignored him, his anger suddenly surged up again.
"Asshole, how dare you ignore this genius? I will make him pay!"
When Kogure Mitsunobu saw Sakuragi Hanamichi getting angry, he quickly hugged Sakuragi Hanamichi and said with a smile, "Sakuragi, don't blame Rukawa, he played very well."
"Of course, you played very well too, and you are the backbone of our Xiangbei inside line."
"With the two of you here, we at Xiangbei will be able to enter the second half with a leading advantage."
"Ryonan High School was the national champion last year. No team has ever done this before us."
"You've performed very well. Take a good rest first."
"Only after I regain my strength can I prepare for the next game!"
While comforting Sakuragi Hanamichi, Kogure Konobu pulled Sakuragi towards the rest area on the sidelines.
After being praised by Mugure Gongyan, Sakuragi's mood really improved a lot. A bright smile appeared on his face. He grabbed the back of his head with one hand and said with a silly smile: "Really? Is this genius really that important?"
"Hahahaha, Brother Glasses, you really have good taste. You are worthy of being a man with four eyes."
Mugure Konobu smiled gently upon hearing this, and pulled Sakuragi off the field. Not long after the two left the field, Jinguji Takeshi and the others returned to the rest area, and the first-year students Kiyota Nobunaga and Nango and others hurriedly handed water and towels to Takeshi and Mitsui Hisashi.
The third-year students, Kogure Konobu and Chiba Oishi, took care of the first-year students, Sakuragi and Rukawa Kaede, handing them water and towels.
The depression in Sakuragi's heart at this moment completely dissipated with the flattery of Mugure Kuniyoshi, and he returned to his optimistic character.
Rukawa sat on the bench, covering his head with a sweat towel, breathing heavily, sweat oozing out of the pores on his skin. His body and legs were covered in sweat, and his jersey was also soaked with sweat.
In the game against Ryonan High School, Rukawa consumed a lot of physical energy. He originally played as a point guard, and during the game he frequently held the ball to attack, so his physical energy consumption was much greater than other players.
After the Xiangbei players returned to the rest area, Coach Anxi did not lead the players back to the lounge, but let the players rest directly in the rest area beside the stadium.
As for Ryonan, Coach Takeo also chose the same approach as Coach Anzai.
Going back and forth between the locker room and the court will make the players a little slack. If they are facing a weaker team with a huge gap in strength, this is not a problem, but if they are facing a strong team that is evenly matched, it is necessary for the players to maintain a certain sense of tension.
"Martial Arts, how are we going to play in the second half?"
Sitting on the bench, Mitsui Hisashi glanced at the scoreboard on the sidelines, then turned and asked Jinguji Budo beside him.
At this moment, he did not choose to ask Coach Anzai how to play in the second half, but asked Budo instead. Mitsui Shou knew very well that no matter what Coach Anzai planned, how Xiangbei would play in the second half would depend on Jinguji Budo's decision.
In Shohoku, Jinguji Budo is enough to influence all the decisions of Coach Anzai.
Although Coach Anxi will not completely let the team run wild like Coach Lu and play pure superstar basketball, Coach Anxi's arrangements will definitely comply with Wu Dao's ideas to the greatest extent.
"How do we fight..."
"My idea is to start with defense first."
"In the last few minutes of the first half, we had big problems with Xiangbei's defense."
"Sakuragi and I switched our defensive positions, essentially to limit Shinomiya Tano's performance."
"But in those last few balls, our defensive strategy was not executed thoroughly enough."
"And the ball was intercepted and blocked in the frontcourt. This kind of mistake is too fatal."
"Fortunately, we have some lead. If not, we would have fallen behind by now."
"So, I want to start with defense."
When Jinguji Budou spoke, he glanced at Rukawa Kaede who was sitting not far away. Then he told Mitsui Shou what he was thinking. Budou did not control his volume when he spoke, and the surrounding players could hear it.
When the substitute players heard this, they all nodded, thinking that Wu Dao’s words made sense.
But Mitsui heard something different from Wudao's words. Although Wudao deliberately avoided talking about how Rukawa handled the basketball in the last few attacks, Mitsui could still hear that Wudao was pointing at Rukawa.
Xiangbei was intercepted and blocked at the critical moment in the final stage, and part of the reason for this was that Rukawa Kaede had problems with his ball selection.
If he could pass the ball to Mitsui Hisashi and Jinguji Budou, regardless of whether the attack would succeed or not, at least this kind of mistake would not have happened.
"Let's start with defense. We need to slow down the tempo."
"We need to have enough time to adjust our positions."
Although Mitsui Shou heard the hidden meaning of Wu Dao's words, he did not directly bring these things to the table. Mitsui Shou could understand Wu Dao's meaning, and in order to protect Rukawa Kaede's self-esteem, the two of them had a tacit understanding at this moment.
"What about attacking?"
"Brother Budao, how are we going to play on the offensive end?"
Jinguji Takeshi and Mitsui Hisashi have a tacit understanding, but that doesn't mean everyone has this tacit understanding.
Sakuragi Hanamichi is the kind of person who doesn't "read other people's cues". After hearing Wu Dao's defensive plan, he directly asked how to attack.
Compared to how to defend, Sakuragi Hanamichi obviously wants to know more about how to attack.
"... ..."
Sure enough, after Sakuragi asked this question, both Budo and Mitsui fell silent. Today's Xiangbei is a little different from before. As a point guard, Rukawa has his own ideas, and many times the established tactics may not work.
Instead of playing a "chaotic" tactic, it would be much better not to formulate a tactic from the beginning and let the players play freely.
Wudao thought so in his heart, so he did not answer Sakuragi's question immediately.
But at this moment, Coach Anxi, who had been sitting in his seat, suddenly stood up, walked in front of Rukawa Kaede and Takeshi, the starting players, and after a light cough, said:
"In the second half of the game, we will use Rukawa Kaede as the core of the attack and launch our offensive!"
"Nango-san will replace Sakuragi-san on the court. On the offensive end, he will be in charge of the power forward position. On the defensive end, he will switch with Budo and guard Shinomiya Tano on the outside."
"Budou, Mitsui, Akagi, Nango, the four of you, surround Rukawa-san and attack!"
Coach Anxi's decision surprised all the players. They looked at Coach Anxi one by one with eyes full of surprise.
Sakuragi Hanamichi even jumped up from his seat, walked around behind Coach Anzai, and lifted Coach Anzai's chin with his hand, howling in disbelief:
"Dad, are you crazy? You actually let the stinky fox take the lead?!"
"Can he get there? He can't fight!"
"What's even more ridiculous is that you actually substituted this genius out? If I'm not on the court, won't our Xiangbei team lose for sure?"
"Dad, don't you know how important this genius is to our Xiangbei?"
Sakuragi Hanamichi howled while pulling Coach Anzai's chin flesh.
Mitsui couldn't stand it anymore, so he stood up and grabbed Sakuragi's ears, pulling him away, and hit him mercilessly: "Bullshit, we can still win without you!"
"Idiot, let go of Coach Anxi immediately."
Coach Anzai ignored Sakuragi's noise, laughed a few times, squatted in front of Rukawa Kaede, and asked with a smile:
"Ryukawa-san, do you have confidence in yourself?"
Coach Anxi looked at Rukawa in front of him and pushed up his glasses. Under the lenses, a pair of deep eyes stared at Rukawa, waiting for Rukawa's answer.
At this time, the other members of the Xiangbei team around them all looked at Rukawa Kaede and held their breath quietly.
"I have!" A cold but definite answer came out of Rukawa Kaede's mouth. Hearing this, Coach Anxi nodded, then stood up, returned to his seat, picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea.
When Mitsui Hisashi saw this scene, he looked at Coach Anzai and Rukawa Kaede in surprise, then turned his head to look at Jinguji Budo.
Mitsui thought that Jinguji Budou would be angry and unwilling to accept the "disfavor" at this moment. Unexpectedly, Jinguji Budou remained calm after his main attack position was taken away, and did not show any other emotions at all.
Sakuragi Hanamichi's struggle also weakened. He stared at Coach Anzai in a daze. He didn't expect that Coach Anzai would really give the task of main attack to Rukawa Kaede. He was a little dazed for a moment.
"Hey, Takeru..." Mitsui Shou wanted to say something comforting, but unexpectedly Takeru just smiled at him and didn't take the matter to heart at all.
"Just follow Coach Anxi's instructions."
Without waiting for Mitsui Shou to open his mouth, Wu Dao spoke first, his expression calm.
The surrounding Xiangbei players also looked at each other in bewilderment. Mitsui Shou was the first to react. He looked at Rukawa Kaede deeply and sighed softly. Then he walked to Rukawa Kaede's side and said earnestly:
"Ryukawa Kaede, the players from Ryonan High School are not as simple as you think."
"When handling the ball, you must be careful. In front of Shinomiya Tianye and Sendoh, you must never force the attack. You must learn to take advantage of your teammates' movement."
"Make good use of your own advantages. If there is a chance of mismatch, you must attack in a mismatched position. The target should be Fujima. If it is other players, you should give yourself some buffer space."
"Budo and I will be behind you to support you. If you want to pass the ball, the two of us will definitely find a way to appear by your side."
"Be careful!"
Mitsui Shou repeatedly reminded Rukawa Kaede. He had already understood Coach Anzai's meaning and knew the purpose of Coach Anzai's arrangement.
Coach Anxi probably wanted to use the help of Ryonan High School to let the young Rukawa know what it means to "do things within one's ability." Rukawa played smoothly in the first half, and this smoothness nourished Rukawa's ambition.
But Mitsui Shou knew very well that Rukawa Kaede's current strength could not support his ambitions.
At least, in front of Ryonan High School, Rukawa Kaede definitely cannot play like before.
You will hit a wall!
But it is obvious that persuasion is not going to be helpful. Only by making Rukawa clearly aware of his own shortcomings can he be allowed to return to his earlier more "reasonable" style of play.
After Xiangbei's attack and defense plan was finalized, the rest area fell silent. Nanxiang Koichiro held a ball and did a simple warm-up on the sidelines. His movements also attracted the attention of everyone in Ryonan.
Realizing that the freshman from Xiangbei was about to play, everyone in Ryonan was curious about why Sakuragi Hanamichi was substituted out. In the eyes of everyone in Ryonan, Sakuragi Hanamichi played quite well in the first half, got a few rebounds, and did an excellent job on defense, so he should not have been substituted out.
However, they obviously could not get the answer to such questions.
After watching for a while, everyone in Ryonan chatted and rested among themselves, discussing how to play in the second half.
The halftime break passed quietly in this quiet and tense atmosphere.
... ... ... ... ... ... ...