When Xiangbei High School began to organize an attack, Coach Anxi called a timeout at the referee's bench, then returned to his seat, called Sakuragi Hanamichi, and whispered in Sakuragi's ear:
"Sakuragi, you'll be on the court soon, watch carefully... what are you going to do?!"
Coach Anzai's sudden question made Sakuragi Hanamichi, who had been on the sidelines for nearly 30 minutes, suddenly excited. He immediately walked over to Coach Anzai and asked:
"Dad, are you planning on letting me play in the game?!"
Sakuragi's focus was not on Coach Anzai's question, but he was keenly aware that he might have a chance to play, and immediately asked excitedly.
Coach Anxi nodded, then shook his head and said softly: "Before you go on the court, do you know what you need to do?!"
Coach Anzai asked again, and this time, Sakuragi Hanamichi finally calmed down, touched his chin with his right hand and looked thoughtful.
At this moment, the Xiangbei players in the court had all entered the frontcourt. After entering the frontcourt, Rukawa Kaede immediately passed the ball to Mitsui Hisashi who came over to receive the ball.
Then he quickly bypassed Mitsui Hisashi and cut into the middle distance, moving very quickly. Fujima Kenji, who was defending Rukawa, also followed closely behind Rukawa, not wanting to give Rukawa a chance to receive the ball in the middle distance.
However, there is a height difference between Fujima Kenji and Rukawa. When Mitsui Hisashi, who got the ball on the outside, saw Rukawa enter the mid-range on the right, he immediately passed the basketball out.
When the basketball flew over Fujima and Rukawa, it was directly caught by Rukawa who jumped high. Although Fujima, who was defending him, tried hard to jump up and catch the ball, he did not jump as high as Rukawa.
Rukawa Kaede landed with the ball and shot a jump shot directly from the spot, shooting directly in front of Fujima without any hesitation.
However, although Kenji Fujima cannot defend against Rukawa Kaede's mid-range shooting, Ryonan High School is not just composed of Fujima.
As early as when Rukawa cut in, Hanagata Toru's attention had already been attracted by Rukawa. At this time when Rukawa was shooting, Hanagata Toru had already quickly come in front of Rukawa and stretched out his hand to block Rukawa's sight.
The sudden appearance of the flower shape had some impact on Rukawa's shooting. Normally, if Rukawa just jumped and shot on the spot, he would be able to rely on muscle memory to score the ball even if his vision was blocked.
However, he cannot rely on muscle memory to make a fadeaway jump shot without looking at the basket. Out of ten such shots, he may only make three.
But this time, the goddess of luck was obviously not on Rukawa's side, and the basketball went straight out of the basket.
“Ding~~”
After a crisp sound of iron hitting the target, the basketball flew out, and the rebound was directly caught by Jun Yuzumi who was in a better position.
"Okay! Fight back!"
After grabbing the rebound, Jun Uozumi roared, passed the ball quickly to Sendoh who was rushing over, and then quickly moved towards the frontcourt of Xiangbei.
Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was standing by the court, saw the entire attack by Xiangbei High School. He spat and taunted, "You deserve it, you stinky fox!"
"With such skills, are you qualified to be the main attacker?!"
"Dad, I know what I'm going to do!"
"I will use my brilliant basketball skills to help Xiangbei High School recover from the disadvantage!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi stood up, looking full of confidence, but seeing Sakuragi like this, Coach Anzai just silently grabbed Sakuragi's wrist and pulled Sakuragi Hanamichi back to his seat.
"No... Look again."
On the court, offense and defense alternated.
The players of Ryonan High School quickly entered the frontcourt under the leadership of Fujima.
After a pick-and-roll by Shinomiya, Fujima Kenji found a loophole in Shohoku's defense and quickly broke through with the ball. Jinguji Budou, who was defending Shinomiya, did not switch defense with Rukawa, but continued to follow Shinomiya.
When Rukawa saw Shinomiya's pick-and-roll, his attention was attracted by Shinomiya, and he was a beat slow to react when he was chasing Fujima Kenji.
Fujima got the chance to create some distance between himself and Jinguji Budou, then he paused and shot directly along the three-point line.
"Three-pointer!" The Ryonan players on the sidelines cheered one by one. At the moment Fujima took the shot, it seemed as if they could already see Fujima scoring the goal.
But the next second, Jinguji Budou, who was still more than one meter away from Fujima, suddenly took a step forward and rushed to Fujima's side, then raised his hand to block the basketball.
Fujima's shooting speed was not as fast as Mitsui Hisashi's. His body had an obvious pause to adjust before shooting, which gave Jinguji Budo a chance to react.
Although the distance between the two was quite far, Jinguji Budo was still able to touch the basketball with his fingertips thanks to his terrifying physical fitness.
"Da~~"
There was an inaudible sound, and the trajectory of the basketball obviously changed.
"Touched! Rebound!"
As a pitcher, Kenji Fujima realized at the first moment that Budou Jinguji had touched the basketball, and immediately shouted loudly, reminding the Ryonan players under the basket to be prepared.
Before he could open his mouth to give the hint, Jinguji Budo had already quickly turned around and chased after the basketball after landing.
At this time, after hearing Fujima's words, Jun Uozumi, Toru Hanagata and others under the basket all raised their heads and looked at the basketball in the air. They did not notice Jinguji Budou who was rushing towards the inside quickly.
"Dang~" The basketball hit the edge of the basket and flew outwards.
Fujima's shot this time was very short. The basketball hit the front of the basket and flew straight in the direction of Jinguji Takeshi, who happened to catch it in his hands.
After getting the basketball, Jinguji Budou quickly passed the ball and in the blink of an eye crossed the three-point line and rushed towards Ryonan's half.
However, when Budou attacked with the ball, Ryonan had already had time to react. Shinomiya Tano and Fujima Kenji both double-teamed Jinguji Budou, not wanting to give Jinguji Budou a chance to fast break.
Being double-teamed, Jinguji Budou passed the ball with a backhand and directly gave it to Rukawa who was coordinating a fast break from the side. Rukawa got the basketball and quickly crossed the center line and headed towards the Ryonan basket.
When Shinomiya saw Rukawa Kaede grab the basketball and rush to Ryonan's basket alone, he did not speed up to chase him, but just followed Jinguji Budou, not wanting Budou to have a chance to attack. And Sendoh did not speed up to chase him, and like Shinomiya, he guarded Mitsui Shou and his own people.
Even if Rukawa's attack was successful, it would only be two points. But if Rukawa had the chance to pass the ball back to Jinguji Budou or Mitsui Hisashi, the score would not be two points if it was successful.
In front of these two super scorers from Xiangbei, the two players from Ryonan made the decision easily.
"Bang!
! "As Rukawa Kaede dunked the ball into the basket with one hand, the scoreboard on the sidelines finally jumped, and the score between the two teams came to 79:78, and the difference was narrowed to one point.
At the sidelines, Sakuragi Hanamichi saw that Jinguji Budou actually assisted Rukawa Kaede to score a slam dunk, and he immediately stomped his feet in anger:
"Damn it! That stinky fox actually scored a slam dunk!"
"What are you doing, Budo-kun?! Why don't you play the ball yourself? Pass it to the stinky fox!"
“Damn it!
!”
Sakuragi Hanamichi was a little angry when he saw Rukawa Kaede stealing the show, and his face turned red.
"Sakuragi, do you understand what you are going to do?!"
Coach Anzai put his arm around Sakuragi Hanamichi's shoulders and asked.
"Of course!"
"Follow Brother Budo's..."
As soon as Sakuragi Hanamichi said this, he saw Coach Anzai turned his head and looked at him. His deep eyes fell on him, making Sakuragi Hanamichi subconsciously swallow back the next words.
After thinking for a while, Sakuragi nodded heavily and said, "Rebound!"
"Up to now in the game, the offensive efficiency of both our Xiangbei and their Ryonan High School players has dropped significantly!"
"The most important thing for us at Xiangbei High School now is to control the rebounds!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi is no longer a rookie basketball player. He has been playing for more than a year. For a player as talented as him, more than a year has allowed Sakuragi to grow into an outstanding player.
Even in the talented Xiangbei High School, Sakuragi Hanamichi's talent has been demonstrated to audiences across the country through a limited number of games.
If placed in other teams, players like Sakuragi Hanamichi would undoubtedly be the focus.
Today, Sakuragi already has his own understanding of basketball, and his ability to read the game and the situation is no longer what it used to be.
When he got serious, he immediately realized what the most important thing was at the moment.
Coach Anzai finally heard the answer he wanted to hear from Sakuragi Hanamichi, and a slight smile immediately appeared on his face.
On the court, after Xiangbei High School scored a goal, the game did not enter the time of suspension.
Between offense and defense, Ryonan High School has launched a new round of attack.
Kenji Fujima, who was in control of the ball, saw that the score difference was only one point, so he gave up the idea of shooting a three-pointer. He dribbled the ball steadily into the frontcourt and made a pick-and-roll gesture to Toru Hanagata in the inside, but Hanagata had not yet reached the designated pick-and-roll position.
Sendoh on the side had already quickly passed Mitsui Shou and cut into the middle distance. At the same time, Sendoh's running position was also very tricky. He took advantage of Hanagata's position and successfully shook Mitsui Shou off.
Seeing that Sendoh had an open position, Fujima quickly faked a breakthrough and passed the ball to Sendoh.
“Swish!
”
The latter took the ball and took a mid-range jump shot, and the basketball went into the net.
After Sendoh scored the goal, the referee sounded a long whistle and the game entered a timeout.
During the one-minute timeout, the players hurried back to the dugout.
After the players returned to the rest area, Coach Anzai did not emphasize too much on tactics and strategies. He just patted Rukawa on the shoulder, and the meaning was self-evident.
Then, Koichiro Nango, who had a mediocre performance in the ten minutes he played, was replaced by Hanamichi Sakuragi.
Although Koichiro Nango, who was replaced by Sakuragi, looked indignant, he had no objection to Coach Anzai's decision.
Sakuragi played for some time in the first half of the game, and his performance was indeed more impressive than Nanxiang.
Even if Nango Koichirō is unwilling to admit this, the facts are there and there is nothing to say.
While Xiangbei was making substitutions, Ryonan's coach Takeo quickly arranged a defensive strategy:
"Several of Xiangbei's starters played from the first half to the second half. With less than ten minutes left, the physical condition of these players will definitely face a major test."
"From the game just now, we can see the signs that Xiangbei's offensive efficiency has begun to decline."
"We in Lingnan are the same in this regard."
"So, from now on, we at Ryonan need to shrink our defense as much as possible and control the rebounds."
"When attacking, we should get as close to the basket as possible. Only in this way can we improve our success rate."
"Tian Ye, you should play more ball-handling offense. Your physical fitness is the best in the country. At times like this, you should rush into Xiangbei's inside line and cause damage."
"Don't worry about not being able to score, just relax! I noticed that you didn't play as freely as before in this match. What's wrong? Did Jinguji Budo's defense affect you?"
Coach Tanaoka said, looking up at Shinomiya Tano.
When Shigong Tianye heard this, he just smiled and shook his head, saying: "It has no impact, I know what to do."
After receiving a positive response from Shinomiya Tano, Coach Tanoka put his arms around the waists of Sendoh and Fujima and shouted:
"Okay! Then let's put the ball in Tian Ye's hands!"
"In this game, our Ryonan High School—"
“We will win!
!”
The cheers of Ryonan came from their rest area. Some of the surrounding spectators were infected by the confidence and enthusiasm of the Ryonan players, and excitedly knocked on the plastic bottles in their hands, making loud noises.
The one-minute pause passed quickly.
After the two teams rearranged their tactics, the players walked towards the center of the field.
"Ohh! Shohoku's red hair!"
"That first grader is on the field?"
Sakuragi Hanamichi, who stepped into the court with his teammates, attracted the attention of the audience. Some of the audience who were deeply impressed by Sakuragi immediately pointed at Sakuragi on the court and shouted loudly.
Sakuragi also enjoyed the feeling of being the center of attention and waved happily to the audience in the stands.
After the players from both teams returned to the field, the referee blew the whistle to start the game.
Shohoku High School served the ball from the backcourt and the basketball was given to Rukawa. After Rukawa entered the frontcourt, he quickly passed the ball to Jinguji Budou.
Wudao, who had the ball, held it with one hand and made a pick-and-roll gesture towards Sakuragi who had just entered the court.
"Huh?!" After receiving Takeshi's signal, Sakuragi made a big circle and quickly ran towards Takeshi, standing next to Shinomiya Tano. When Takeshi quickly dropped the ball and broke through, Takeshi reminded Sakuragi:
“Follow me!”
After receiving the signal, Sakuragi Hanamichi ran back and cut into the inside, but the breaking Budo did not go straight to the basket, but moved towards the top of the arc.
Sakuragi's running speed is quite fast, even faster than Hanagata.
Seeing Sakuragi approaching the basket quickly, Jinguji Takeshi grabbed the ball with one hand and threw it towards the basket, making a wonderful pass.
"Alley-oop!"
"Hanagata, stop him!"
Shinomiya Tano shouted loudly, reminding his teammates, but at this time, Sakuragi Hanamichi had already entered the basket, looked at the basketball above, jumped up directly, grabbed the basketball in the air, and dunked it hard towards the basket.
"Bang!
”
A shocking loud noise sounded in the stadium, and Sakuragi Hanamichi scored a direct slam dunk.
Sakuragi landed and pounded his chest excitedly, growling.
From the stands, cheers like a tsunami poured into the stadium.
... ... ... ..