Sakuragi Hanamichi, who had just appeared on the court, completed a slam dunk with the assistance of Jinguji Takeshi. The amazing performance made the audience in the stands cheer loudly involuntarily.
Amid the cheers of the audience, Sakuragi Hanamichi excitedly opened his arms as if actively welcoming the cheers, narrowed his eyes slightly, and trotted towards the Shohoku half of the court.
In a socially "depressed" environment like Neon, Sakuragi Hanamichi's extraordinary and unrestrained behavior allowed the audience to vent their emotions more unrestrainedly, and the cheers became even louder.
The score was 81:80. Although Xiangbei High School was still one point behind Ryonan High School, just listening to the cheers for Xiangbei from the audience in the stands, it seemed as if the lagging team was not Xiangbei High School.
I have to say that Sakuragi Hanamichi's alley-oop slam dunk really boosted morale at this time. With Sakuragi's help, the fighting spirit of the Xiangbei players on the court is now quite strong.
However, Ryonan was not intimidated by Sakuragi Hanamichi's outstanding performance. The players of Ryonan on the court were all experienced masters, and a dunk of this level could not scare them.
And because of this alley-oop slam dunk, Sakuragi caught the attention of Shinomiya Tano and others.
"This little red-haired kid from Xiangbei has an amazing jumping ability."
"The reason Xiangbei High School put him on the court at this time should be to help the team control the rebounds."
"Indeed... This guy's physical condition is better than the previous bleached and dyed boy."
"There must be some way to deal with this kid."
On the court, when Kenji Fujima was dribbling the ball towards the frontcourt, his eyes fell on Sakuragi Hanamichi. Recalling Sakuragi Hanamichi's previous performance on the court, Fujima was quickly thinking about how to respond in his mind.
After dribbling the ball into the frontcourt, Kenji Fujima did not stick to the ball and quickly passed the ball to Shimonoseki on the side.
At the same time, the players of Ryonan began to gather towards the left side of the court. After passing the ball, Fujima Kenji quickly sank into the left bottom corner, and Sendoh still stood at the corner without moving.
At this time, Hanagata also quickly walked towards the mid-range on the left, leaving only Uozumi Jun guarding the basket and allowing him to wrestle with Akagi Takenori.
Seeing the position of Ryonan High School, the audience in the stands also exclaimed, seeming to be quite surprised by the offensive formation of Ryonan High School at this time:
"Ohhh, what is Ryonan planning to do?! Full court... one-on-one?!"
"You gave the ball to Shinomiya Tano. Are you planning to let Shinomiya Tano play solo?"
"Ryonan has finally deployed this formation! They are planning on winning!"
Some viewers have watched Ryonan High School's games, while some have not. The audience who have not watched the game were very surprised at the formation that Ryonan High School has now put up, while the audience who have watched Ryonan's games were extremely excited.
In the stands, Coach Smith was also stunned when he saw Ryonan High School put up such a formation. Then he looked at Shinomiya Tano who was facing Jinguji Budo with surprise, and said to himself in confusion:
"Instead of playing basketball as a team, you let the ace play one-on-one with the ball?"
"Is the success rate of playing one-on-one with Wu higher than that of playing as a team?"
"This is really underestimating Wu!"
The confusion and surprise on Coach Smith's face disappeared in an instant, and then he touched his chin with a smile and looked at the matchup on the court with interest.
At this time, Shinomiya Tano, who received the ball with his back to the basket, had already started his attack. After a back-to-the-basket shot, Shinomiya Tano quickly turned around and broke through. At the moment of the breakthrough, he quickly connected the dribble between his legs and changed direction. At the same time, his body was pressed hard against Jinguji Takeshi's body, creating some gaps for himself when breaking through.
Jinguji Takeshi's strength was indeed inferior to that of his opponent. With the breakthrough of Shinomiya Tane, his position was pushed away a lot by the opponent. However, Jinguji Takeshi's height, arm span and movement speed were excellent. Even though he was behind, Jinguji Takeshi directly stretched out his hand to block Shinomiya Tane's sight.
While the opponent was breaking into the inside, Jinguji Budo's hands were able to block the opponent's vision.
Shinomiya Tano's control of the breakthrough distance is entirely based on the changes in the floor background.
However, Shinomiya Tano didn't care about what the perspective could see at all, and he moved quickly towards the basket during the confrontation. When Shinomiya Tano entered the basket, Sakuragi Hanamichi and Akagi Takenori, who were guarding the basket of Xiangbei High School, had already surrounded him.
Together with Jinguji Budo who had been following Shinomiya Tano, there were a total of three people double-teaming Shinomiya Tano at this moment.
However, just when Shimonoseki fell into the encirclement, Shimonoseki, who was moving, suddenly grabbed the ball with his left hand and held it around his waist. While taking a big step, his ball protector also pressed his body tightly against Jinguji Budou. After two steps, he jumped up directly without even looking at the direction of the basket, and made a hook shot.
Shimono Shimotsuna's shooting point was also very far, the basketball flew directly out of his hands and flew towards the basket.
"Rebound! You can't make a shot like that!"
Jinguji Budo shouted loudly when he saw that Shinomiya Tano was still forcing himself to attack under such circumstances. However, when he turned around, he suddenly found that both Sakuragi Hanamichi and Akagi Takenori were attracted by Shinomiya Tano's breakthrough.
At this time, there was only one person under the basket of Xiangbei, and that person... was Jun Uozumi from Ryonan High School.
“Ding~~”
The basketball hit the rim and fell directly from the other side of the basket.
In fact, Shinomiya Tano didn't even think about scoring this goal. He had already succeeded when Akagi and Sakuragi surrounded him.
Jun Yuzumi under the basket caught the basketball easily, then suddenly jumped up and dunked the ball into the basket with both hands. The dunk was so powerful that the entire basketball hoop began to shake violently.
After successfully scoring, Jun Uozumi fell back to the ground, turned around and ran quickly towards the front court amid the cheers of his teammates.
"Damn it!" Sakuragi kicked the floor angrily, and before Akagi could, he actively went to the baseline and sent the ball out.
But this kid didn't pass the ball to Rukawa, but gave it to Wudao.
Wudao took the ball, glanced at Sakuragi, and passed the ball to Rukawa with a backhand.
The little thoughts of this boy Sakuragi Hanamichi have been seen through by Jinguji Takeshi!
Between offense and defense, Xiangbei High School, led by Rukawa, entered the Ryonan half. At this time, Fujima Kenji no longer defended near the midline like he did before when defending Rukawa, but honestly settled at the top of the arc, passively waiting for Rukawa to approach.
After seeing Fujima Kenji's defensive position, Rukawa Kaede's expression slightly condensed, and he subconsciously began to speed up his dribbling, wanting to break through with the ball himself.
But at this moment, Mitsui Shou on the side immediately shouted: "Hey, Rukawa Kaede, look!"
Mitsui's shout was like pouring a basin of cold water on Rukawa's head. Rukawa, who had the ball, quickly calmed down and passed the ball to Mitsui with a backhand.
Mitsui Shou finally breathed a sigh of relief after getting the basketball. He thought that Rukawa Kaede was going to play by himself again.
It’s not that Mitsui Hisashi doesn’t trust Rukawa’s offensive ability, but compared to Rukawa, he trusts himself more and trusts Jinguji Budou’s offensive ability more.
"Pick and roll!"
After receiving the ball, Mitsui did not break through immediately, nor did he pass the ball immediately. Instead, he made a pick-and-roll gesture and shouted to Rukawa.
This Rukawa Kaede is good in everything except his awareness of proactively setting screens for his teammates.
Perhaps it is because Rukawa is used to being the focus and ace of the team on the court, so he is still lacking in this aspect.
Of course, in addition to Rukawa Kaede, Jinguji Budou, one of the outside players of Shohoku High School, also has the same shortcomings.
But... Rukawa Kaede and Jinguji Budo are different.
Rukawa quickly set a screen for Mitsui from the top of the arc, and after Mitsui passed the ball in the direction of Rukawa's screen, he immediately changed direction and broke through.
After a breakthrough, Mitsui Hisashi immediately stepped back to the three-point line and made a three-point shot directly along the three-point line.
The extremely fast shooting speed caught Sendoh off guard. He was already a beat slow in reaction due to Mitsui's fake move, and he was completely helpless in the face of Mitsui's step-back shot.
He could only watch helplessly as the basketball flew over his head.
“Swish!
!”
There was a slight sound and the basketball went into the net.
The scoreboard on the side of the court was ticking. With 12 minutes into the second half, Shohoku High School and Ryonan High School were tied 83:83.
“ohhhhhh!
!
”
"Mitsui! Mitsui! Mitsui!
”
In the stands, De Nan and others saw Mitsui Shou successfully score a goal, and immediately waved flags and shouted loudly.
The supporters of Xiangbei also burst into warm cheers the moment the basketball went into the net.
Mitsui Hisashi, who scored the goal, clenched his fists confidently, turned his head to look at the scoreboard with an excited look on his face.
"Well done, San."
On the way back to defense, Jinguji Budo trotted to Mitsui Shou and fist-bumped with him to celebrate.
"Of course."
"Coach Anzai wants to cultivate a new force in Xiangbei."
"But Rukawa Kaede still has a lot to learn!"
When Mitsui Shou was speaking, Rukawa Kaede had just run past Mitsui Shou. Rukawa Kaede did not make any comment on the evaluation of "Mitsui Senior".
This is indeed the case. Compared to Mitsui Hisashi, Rukawa is still a little immature in offensive techniques.
"Don't worry, just calm down!"
"We still have the ball and we still have the advantage!"
With the support of Kenji Fujima, Ryonan High School quickly settled down.
On the offensive end, Ryonan High School still used the previous tactics, allowing Shinomiya Tano to play singles.
However, this time, Shimonoseki had a little difficulty fighting under the defense of Jinguji Budo.
Takeshi Jinguji knew that he was not as strong as his opponent, so when defending, he simply tried to avoid physical confrontation and instead used aggressive steals to affect Shinomiya Tano's luck rhythm.
Behind Wudao, there is Akagi Takenori, and Sakuragi Hanamichi, who follows Hanagata, has terrifying leg strength and is able to provide backup defense in the first place.
Even if Shimonoya could successfully break through, he would still be facing three against one.
In this situation, whether passing or shooting, Shimonoseki has a high probability of making mistakes.
Up to now, the competition has been about success rate.
As Ryonan's offensive time passed by minute by minute, Shimono finally used continuous changes of direction and physical confrontation to break free from Jinguji Budo's entanglement and enter the inside.
Then, with the help of Takenori Akagi, he made a layup and the basketball bounced directly into the net, adding two points to the scoreboard of Ryonan High School.
After Ryonan made an attack, Shohoku High School immediately retaliated, still with Mitsui's ball-holding attack. This time, after Rukawa's pick-and-roll, Mitsui used the pick-and-roll to break through directly.
His breakthrough immediately attracted Sendoh's pursuit and Hanagata's backup defense. Under the double-teaming of Ryonan's two players, Mitsui chose to pass the ball instead of forcing the shot himself.
The person to whom the ball was given was Jinguji Budo who had already moved to the bottom corner.
Starting with the basketball, Jinguji Budou made a fake shot with one hand, and after the ball landed, he turned around and rushed forward.
"I won't let you get away so easily!"
At the moment Jinguji Takeshi broke through, Shinomiya Tano chased and filled in from the left side of Takeshi. When defending, his body "accidentally" hit Takeshi's body, trying to force Takeshi out of the baseline.
However, at the moment when his body was close to Takeshi Jinguji, Takeshi Jinguji, who had broken through the baseline, jumped directly out of the baseline, and his hands had already completed the ball, making a shooting posture.
"What!?"
Under the astonished gaze of Shinomiya Tano, Jinguji Budo, who was forced out of the baseline by him, shot directly, and threw the ball at a negative angle. The basketball went over the backboard and fell directly into the net.
“Swish!”
The crisp sound of the basketball entering the net touched everyone's nerves. The moment the basketball entered the net, the stadium fell into an eerie silence.
“Wow—”
After a few seconds, thunderous cheers rang out and the sound waves flooded into the stadium.
"How can such a ball go in?!"
"This guy..." Shinomiya Tano's heart sank as he watched Jinguji Budo quickly walk past him.
Shimoyomi Yamada had also tried the negative-angle jump shot during normal training. Although he was able to do it, that was during normal training.
That state is completely different from that during the competition.
But at this time, Jinguji Budo accomplished such a thing easily in the competition, which was enough to show the intensity of the other party's private training.
Of course, what made Shinomiya Tano most uneasy was how hot Jinguji Budo's hand was today, to be able to make such a shot?!
Such a hot hand feeling happened to be shown at the most crucial moment of the game!
"This guy Jinguji Budou, has he only just begun to truly display his full strength..."
"The playing style is completely different from before."
"Today's game actually made my teammates play so much."
"The game has only now entered the most critical moment!"
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..