"Defend! Defend! Defend!"
As Shimotsuna attacked the basket and scored the ball, the score between the two teams became 96:95, and the difference was narrowed to one point.
Xiangbei High School's offensive round.
Rukawa dribbled the ball and slowly advanced towards the frontcourt. As Rukawa got closer and closer to the frontcourt, the Ryonan supporters in the stands began to shout for defense in unison and rhythmically.
As Rukawa dribbled the ball across the center line, all the shouts disappeared. The audience held their breath and watched Rukawa holding the ball on the court, not daring to breathe loudly.
The originally lively atmosphere in the stadium fell into an eerie silence at this moment.
There were 1 minute and 56 seconds left in the game and 26 seconds left in the shot clock.
Rukawa Kaede quickly glanced at the scoreboard on the sidelines, took a deep breath, and dribbled the ball towards Ryonan's three-point line.
At this time, the defensive formation adopted by Ryonan High School was a standard zone defense. However, because Jinguji Budou and Mitsui Shou both had strong shooter attributes, Ryonan High School's defensive formation was stretched wide by Xiangbei.
It is actually not easy to have defensive coordination between players.
Rukawa looked at the defensive position of Ryonan High School, and actually chose to call for a pick-and-roll after approaching Fujima. He raised his left hand in front of him to signal his teammates.
"This freshman from Xiangbei is called a pick-and-roll?"
"Are you planning on fighting on your own?!"
"Want to show off your abilities at this critical moment?!"
Fujima Kenji saw Rukawa Kaede's pick-and-roll gesture, and he couldn't help but feel a little confused. If he put himself in his shoes, Fujima is now a freshman point guard at Xiangbei High School. When the team has a strong scoring point, he will definitely not choose to call a pick-and-roll, but help his teammates to do the pick-and-roll after passing the ball.
Give the team's real ace as many opportunities as possible.
Although the Xiangbei players were a little surprised after seeing Rukawa's pick-and-roll signal, they were still quite active in cooperation.
Takeshi Jinguji was cutting into the inside at this time. Seeing Rukawa's signal, he was about to run out of the inside again, but he saw Sakuragi Hanamichi rushing ahead of him and taking the initiative to move to the high position to see that he was actually setting a pick-and-roll for Rukawa.
“?!”
Fujima thought that Mitsui Hisashi on the side would come to screen and roll, but he didn't expect that Sakuragi Hanamichi, who seemed to have always been at odds with Rukawa Kaede, would actually come forward to screen and roll.
He was not careful for a moment and was pushed to the spot by the opponent. He had no way to chase after the breaking through Rukawa.
Rukawa accelerated and rushed forward, instantly passing Fujima Kenji and quickly rushed towards the inside line of Ryonan High School.
When Jinguji Budou, who had already entered the basket, saw Rukawa Kaede successfully break through, he hurriedly left the inside and ran towards the three-point line in the left corner.
Shinomiya Tano, who was chasing Jinguji Takeshi, also looked serious after seeing Rukawa's breakthrough. He glanced at Jinguji Takeshi who went to the bottom corner, hesitated for a moment, and then chased after Jinguji Takeshi directly.
But before he left, he still reminded Hanagata and Uozumi:
"This kid has pretty good skills, don't be fooled!"
After Shinomiya Tano left quickly, Hanagata Toru's defense had already quickly filled in on Rukawa Kaede. In fact, even if Shinomiya Tano didn't say that, Hanagata Toru still didn't let down his guard against Rukawa Kaede.
At this point in the game, any defense must be cautious!
Hanagata quickly lowered his center of gravity and quickly came in front of Rukawa, with his arms raised horizontally, obviously guarding against Rukawa's breakthrough.
The moment he saw Hanagata, Rukawa made an abrupt stop, dribbled the ball between his legs, and then turned sharply to the right, trying to get past Hanagata's defense. However, Hanagata kept his center of gravity very low when defending, and although he played as a power forward, his displacement speed was not slow.
With a sliding step, he caught up with Rukawa in an instant and blocked Rukawa's sight with one hand.
After turning around the world, Rukawa quickly faced the basket and grabbed the ball with both hands, turned to the left, and then turned back.
After two consecutive turns, the distance between Rukawa and Hanagata was nearly one meter.
After pausing for a short moment, Rukawa Kaede jumped up and shot, and the basketball flew directly out of his hands.
"Oh! Well done, Rukawa!" Akagi Takenori stood under the basket and saw Rukawa's series of operations. The beautiful passing moves made Akagi Takenori couldn't help but praise him.
But just as Akagi Takenori finished his words, a blue figure suddenly jumped out from behind Rukawa Kaede and slapped the basketball directly from behind Rukawa Kaede.
"Um?!"
The sudden block surprised Rukawa Kaede. Looking back, he happened to see Sendoh Akira falling quickly from mid-air. Noticing Rukawa Kaede's gaze, Sendoh also smiled at Rukawa Kaede.
“Xian Dao!
”
“It’s actually Xiandao!”
“Ohhhhhhhh!
”
The basketball in mid-air was slapped down by Sendo, hitting the floor and bouncing out of bounds. In the stands, the audience, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly burst into amazing cheers after seeing Sendo block Rukawa Kaede.
Hikoichi Aida, who was sitting in the Ryonan rest area, also shouted excitedly after seeing this scene.
However, the Ryonan players on the field did not relax.
They defended against Xiangbei High School's attack, but not completely.
Because the basketball went out of bounds, the ball still belongs to Xiangbei High School. Xiangbei's offense has not ended yet!
1 minute 44 seconds.
Takenori Akagi went to the baseline, took the ball and prepared to serve, and the Xiangbei players also began to move quickly to prepare to receive the serve.
"Look at Jinguji Budo and Mitsui Shou!"
"Beware of these two guys!"
"Gaozumi and Hanagata control the basket and never let them get the ball near the basket!"
“Defense! Defense!
”
At the sidelines, Coach Tiangang jumped up from his seat, shouted loudly towards the field, and excitedly directed the players' movements.
Shinomiya Tano was determined to follow Jinguji Takedo. No matter how Jinguji Takedo moved, he followed Jinguji Takedo closely and didn't want to give Jinguji Takedo a chance to catch the ball.
When Xiangbei was preparing to serve, Sendoh Akira also stuck to Mitsui Shou, giving Mitsui Shou enough physical confrontation.
When Akagi Takenori served from the baseline, he did want to give the ball to one of Wudao or Mitsui Hisashi.
But with the basketball in both hands, he saw that Wudao and Mitsui Shou were being closely followed and he was unable to pass the ball for a while.
Just as Akagi Takenori was hesitating whether to take the risk of passing the ball, Rukawa Kaede quickly ran towards the baseline where Akagi Takenori was, and behind him, Fujima was blocked by Rukawa Kaede's arm, with an anxious look on his face.
"Ryukawa Kaede!"
"Pass the ball to him, Akagi!"
Takenori Jinguji couldn't catch the ball at the baseline, and when he saw Rukawa Kaede successfully run out of the opportunity, he decisively shouted to Takenori Akagi.
After hearing this, Takenori Akagi did not hesitate any longer. After a fake dribble, he passed the ball directly to Rukawa Kaede who was rushing over.
“Bang!”
Starting with the basketball, Rukawa quickly bent down and swept the ball. After pretending to break through, he quickly retracted his feet and broke through Fujima Kenji from the right side, and Fujima Kenji was left behind by Rukawa.
"Bang!
”
After two simple dribbles, Rukawa quickly invaded the basket, then he received the ball and jumped up, dunked the ball into the basket.
The sound of a slam dunk came from the court, and the players on the Xiangbei bench cheered after seeing Rukawa Kaede successfully score.
"Well done, Rukawa Kaede!
!”
"You kid, you have successfully made up for your mistake!"
"Well done! Rukawa Kaede!"
After seeing Rukawa Kaede successfully score, Kiyota and others couldn't help but cheer. At this point in the game, Kiyota Nobunaga and others had already forgotten the "competitive" mentality between themselves and Rukawa Kaede.
For Xiangbei, the most important thing at the moment is to surpass Ryonan High School and win the game!
!
Rukawa Kaede's goal made everyone in Xiangbei feel relieved. 98:95, Xiangbei High School has successfully led the opponent by 3 points. This score difference is a huge advantage for Xiangbei.
Because this means that Ryonan High School needs two goals to overtake the score.
There is 1 minute and 40 seconds left in the game.
Ryonan's offensive round.
Looking at the three-point difference, the players of Ryonan were under a lot of pressure. Fujima also slowed down the pace when attacking, wanting to make full use of the offensive time.
Coach Tanaoka on the sidelines had already sat back on the bench, tapping the ground with his feet, looking a little anxious.
He still had a timeout in his hand, but Coach Tiangang had no intention of using it. His players played very well, and strictly speaking, the team was still running smoothly.
The reason why they are in such a passive situation now is not because the players are not good enough, but simply because Xiangbei is strong enough!
Coach Takeo didn't want the timeout to disrupt the team's offensive rhythm, because judging from the current situation, it was Shohoku that was stumbling in offense.
As long as they can remain patient, Coach Tiangang believes that opportunities for their team will definitely come!
Fujima controlled the tempo and quietly looked for loopholes in Shohoku High School's defense.
Soon, Fujima noticed that the red-haired player of Shohoku seemed to be standing a little forward, and the opponent's attention seemed to be a little distracted. He did not pay attention to Hanagata Toru, but kept looking at Shinomiya Field in the distance.
Realizing this, Fujima decisively changed the rhythm of his dribbling. After a series of dribbling, Fujima Kenji quickly passed the ball straight to the inside. The basketball actually passed in front of Sakuragi Hanamichi and went towards Hanagata under the basket.
“Oh no!”
"Sakuragi, what are you looking at, bastard!"
The Xiangbei players on the sidelines saw that Hanagata Toru actually caught the basketball under the basket, and Sakuragi Hanamichi was still about two meters away from the opponent, and they all roared in anger.
However, the moment the basketball was in his hand, Sakuragi Hanamichi had already moved. When Hanagata raised the ball, there was not much distance between Sakuragi and Hanagata.
Just as Sakuragi bent his knees and prepared to jump, and just as Hanagata raised the ball to prepare to shoot, Shinomiya Tano's roar rang out from the court.
"Hanagata! Pass the ball!"
In Hanagata's eyes, he didn't notice Sakuragi's movements at all. He felt that his shot was safe. But the moment he heard Shinomiya Tano's voice, Hanagata Toru didn't hesitate at all and passed the ball directly in the direction where the sound came from.
Shimoya Tano cut into the inside, took the ball with both hands, jumped directly, grabbed the ball with both hands and dunked it into the basket.
"Tsk!" Just as Hanagata raised his head and looked at Shimonoseki who scored a slam dunk, a slightly regretful spit suddenly sounded behind him.
Looking back, Hanagata saw the first-year from Shohoku standing behind him, looking at Shinomiya Tano with an unhappy look on his face.
It was not until the other party spoke that Hanagata Toru suddenly realized that Sakuragi Hanamichi had actually come behind him.
"This guy... When did he come behind me?!"
Hanagata was surprised, and after looking at Sakuragi Hanamichi deeply, he quickly ran towards the backcourt with the hair on his back standing on end.
If he hadn't just passed the ball to Shigong Tianye, it would have been blocked by the opponent right now, right? !
Fujima was secretly shocked after seeing Sakuragi Hanamichi's athletic ability.
He even felt that the "flaw" of Xiangbei just now might have been deliberately revealed by the red-haired boy!
And this is indeed the fact. After seeing Sendoh block Rukawa Kaede's shot just now, Sakuragi Hanamichi instantly realized what else he could do when defending besides grabbing rebounds.
The flaw was deliberately revealed so that Ryonan could pass the ball to Hanagata. Only in this way could the talented Sakuragi use a gorgeous block to help the team secure victory!
However, his "genius plan" was destroyed by Shinomiya Tano.
With Shimoya Tano's dunk, the gap between the two teams was once again narrowed to one point.
Between offense and defense, Rukawa quickly entered the frontcourt with the ball.
Different from Kenji Fujima's playing style, Rukawa Kaede did not intend to suppress the offensive time deliberately. He just tried his best to find loopholes in Ryonan High School.
However, after dribbling the ball on the outside for a while, Rukawa failed to find any loopholes in Ryonan's defense. At this time, Jinguji Budou, after trying to cut into the inside without success, returned to the corner position and reached out to Rukawa for the ball.
Without hesitation, Rukawa passed the ball directly.
The moment the basketball entered his hands, Jinguji Budou immediately turned around and shot the ball towards the basket.
He slightly stepped his feet, raised the ball and shot it, and at the moment when Shinomiya Tano raised his center of gravity, the ball quickly fell from the left side. After one step, Jinguji Budou grabbed the ball with one hand, took a step back and then tilted his body slightly.
Just when Shinomiya Tano thought that Jinguji Takeshi was going to step back and then follow up with a three-pointer and then jump to block, Jinguji Takeshi lowered his body again, easily passed Shinomiya Tano's defense line, dribbled the ball into the mid-range, and then made a quick stop and jump shot in the sight of everyone in Ryonan.
“Swish!”
The basketball was shot and flew directly and steadily into the basket with a crisp sound.
The light attack directly added two points to the Xiangbei scoreboard, 100:97, and there was only 1 minute left in the game.
The score difference has reached three points, and there is not much time left for Lingnan High School...
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .