Sakuragi Hanamichi's liveliness eased the slightly depressing atmosphere on the court.
When Maki Shinichi saw Sakuragi Hanamichi score goals one after another, a smile appeared on his face and he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
If Sakuragi Hanamichi's offense doesn't go smoothly, Maki Shinichi can already imagine what kind of conflict will arise in the team. At that time, I'm afraid Sakuragi Hanamichi and Mori Shigehiro will fight each other... .
After several rounds of attack and defense, the game entered the halftime break.
Jinguji Budo took the initiative to substitute himself during the halftime break and put Mike Okita on the field.
When Maki, who played point guard, saw that Jinguji Budou had left the court, he quickly suggested that he should also leave the court and let the substitute Miyagi Ryouta take the court.
Although Wudao wanted Maki Shinichi to continue playing basketball with Sakuragi Hanamichi and the others, seeing that Maki Shinichi was so insistent, he did not raise any objections and let Maki Shinichi make all the arrangements.
In this game, Jinguji Budou has put the team's victory or defeat behind him. What he wants to see more now is who has greater potential between Sakuragi Hanamichi and Mori Shigehiro.
The Cai team also made some personnel adjustments. Shimono felt that there was no point for him on the court. Takeshi Jinguji did not attack with the ball. Most of the time, he followed Takeshi Jinguji and made shuttle runs.
On the offensive end, Rukawa now relies heavily on inside attack. Shinomiya Tano has no objection to Rukawa's decision. Shinomiya Tano is also happy to see that Jun Uozumi has more opportunities to attack under the basket.
Because when Yuzumi was at Ryonan High School, he had very few opportunities to attack with the ball under the basket, and it was rare for anyone to look up to him. Shinomiya Tano also wanted to let Yuzumi have a good taste of what it was like to be a "core center."
The one who replaced Shinomiya Tano was Hanagata Toru, who had been standing on the sidelines watching the game.
Huaxing is not an inside player in the traditional sense. As a power forward, he is quite good at mid-range offense, and his shooting and footwork are quite good.
And with such height, it is not easy to suppress Hanagata given the personnel configuration of the White Team.
After a short break, under the instruction of Coach Tiangang, players from both sides returned to the court.
At the end of the first half, the score between the two teams was 44:41, with the white team leading by three points. This lead was also smoothly carried into the second half of the game.
As the players from both teams took their positions in the center circle, the temporary referee returned to the court with the ball. The coaches were all stunned to see that Jinguji Takeshi and Shinomiya Tano did not play in the game.
Before they could think about it, the whistle to start the game sounded again.
The opening ball of the second half was kicked back to his own half by Yuzumi Jun. Yuzumi had much more experience in the game than Mori Shigehiro, and his control of the timing of the jump ball was far better than Mori Shigehiro. The previous jump ball failure was only because Yuzumi Jun did not expect Mori Shigehiro's explosive power to be so strong.
Even if you lose the initiative, you can still touch the basketball before you can shoot it.
Therefore, this time, Yuzumi learned his lesson and did not use the shooting method, but also adopted the point method, which enabled him to successfully win the jump ball.
The basketball flew directly into the backcourt and was steadily held by Rukawa. After successfully getting the basketball, Rukawa began to dribble the ball towards the frontcourt. Shortly after he crossed the center line, Miyagi Ryouta, who was responsible for defense, quickly came up to him.
Miyagi Ryouta is not as tall or as heavy as Rukawa. If he waits until Rukawa gets close to the three-point line and enters the offensive range before stepping forward to defend, he will inevitably be shot in the face by Rukawa.
But if he goes up to intercept in advance, Rukawa Kaede can only break through the defense by dropping the ball, except passing the ball. As long as Rukawa Kaede breaks through by dropping the ball, Miyagi Ryouta is confident that he can affect Rukawa Kaede's rhythm through his own defense.
For players, whether a shot goes in or not does not only depend on whether the posture is correct when they stand up to shoot. Before shooting, the smoothness of the player's dribbling and moving rhythm is also crucial.
Often, beautiful shots are preceded by very smooth movements or breakthroughs.
Movements with chaotic rhythm will actually affect the accuracy of subsequent shots.
After shooting countless times in a row, Miyagi Ryouta realized this point. Therefore, when he is defending now, he will not blindly pursue steals or so-called "successful interceptions". He will try his best to prevent his opponents from shooting comfortably.
Being able to do this is enough!
As Miyagi Ryouta's defense approached, Rukawa quickly lowered his center of gravity and began to accelerate the breakthrough. However, as soon as he moved, Miyagi Ryouta came up to him without any hesitation. Although he was not as strong as Rukawa, Miyagi's tough defense made Rukawa unable to help but mess up his steps.
Forced to slow down his pace, Rukawa made a slight adjustment and then accelerated again. At the moment when Miyagi was chasing him, Rukawa quickly dribbled the ball behind his back and broke through. Miyagi Ryouta did not stop for a moment in the face of Rukawa's change of direction, with one hand raised high, although it seemed that he was chased by Rukawa and crossed the three-point line.
But only Rukawa himself knew that he was very uncomfortable being guarded by Miyagi Ryouta.
With an emergency stop, Rukawa Kaede quickly stopped and then made a fadeaway jump shot.
Facing Rukawa's jump shot, Miyagi Ryouta really had no way out. All he could do was jump with all his might.
The basketball quickly drew an arc in the air, and halfway through its journey, Sakuragi Hanamichi under the basket excitedly roared, "The rebound is mine!" and then trapped Akagi behind him.
Nowadays, Sakuragi Hanamichi is only 5cm shorter than Akagi. In terms of strength, Sakuragi Hanamichi has also grown up thoroughly. Although his arm strength is not as good as Akagi, who has been doing weight training for a few more years than Sakuragi, his waist, abdomen and leg strength are stronger than Akagi.
Faced with Sakuragi's blocking position, Akagi Takenori was unable to push the opponent away with brute force.
After a tentative squeeze, Akagi Takenori turned around quickly and wanted to bypass Sakuragi, but unexpectedly, Sakuragi Hanamichi predicted Akagi's movements based solely on the feeling from his back, adjusted his position, and trapped Akagi behind him again.
The excellent positioning skills made Akagi's eyes light up.
"This kid!" With a sigh in his heart, the basketball had already hit the basket and fell outward.
Sakuragi Hanamichi in front of Akagi jumped up, grabbed the ball in his arms, and fell back to the ground at high speed. Akagi saw Sakuragi holding the ball with both hands, and quickly came to Sakuragi's side and poked the basketball from bottom to top.
"Bang!"
However, something unexpected happened to Akagi. Sakuragi's arms were very strong when he grabbed the ball. Apart from causing the basketball to deflect slightly, he was unable to poke the ball out of Sakuragi's hands.
In addition to his strong talent, Sakuragi Hanamichi also has a solid foundation!
"Gorilla, you actually sneak attacked this genius?"
"If I could be so easily ambushed by you, would I still be a genius?!"
Sakuragi sneered, laughed and rolled his eyes at Akagi Takenori beside him, then quickly passed the ball to Miyagi Ryouta, who quickly dribbled forward with the ball.
But before he crossed the center line, Sendoh, Rukawa and others had already returned to their own half. Seeing this, Miyagi simply slowed down his pace and prepared to fight.
However... positional warfare is actually exactly what Team Cai wants.
In the flower-shaped single-ring four-palace field, the colorful team's positional warfare had limited weakening on the defensive end.
Because the current outside line of the White Team consists of Miyagi Ryouta, Mike Okita and Fujima Kenji. Miyagi and Fujima are not very tall, and the opponents they have to face are Rukawa Kaede and Sendoh, so it is impossible for them to have an advantage in a one-on-one match.
The only outside ball handler the White Team can rely on is Mike Okita.
It is not easy for Mike to attack the basket guarded by Takenori Akagi and Jun Uozumi.
Soon, Sendoh, Rukawa and others finished their positions. Miyagi Ryouta slowly approached the three-point line with the ball. He glanced at Sakuragi Hanamichi and Mori Shigehiro who were asking for the ball. Miyagi Ryouta's mouth twitched slightly. At the moment of quickly changing direction, he threw the ball to the side and gave it directly to Mike Okita.
Xiangbei High School and Midorima High School had played practice matches before, and Miyagi Ryouta had some understanding of Mike Okita's personal abilities. He also had great trust in this blond, blue-eyed mixed-race player.
Therefore, after passing the ball, he gave Mike a thumbs up and at the same time winked at Mike to attack the basket.
After getting the basketball, Mike Okita also received the quick response from Miyagi Ryouta. He looked up at Hanagata Toru who was standing in front of him, and a faint smile appeared on Mike's face.
A power forward... running to the three-point line to defend him
This is... underestimating Mike Okita!
The ball fell and the dragging step shifted the opponent's center of gravity. Mike Okita "pulled" his body and then accelerated and rushed forward directly from his right side. With just one step, Hanagata Toru was left behind by him. Just when Hanagata adjusted his posture to chase, Mike Okita pulled back with his crotch and his body paused again.
After the suspended dribble, he quickly changed direction in front of his body, deceiving Hua Xing's center of gravity, and at the same time, he passed by Hua Xing again and headed for the inside.
Mike Okita, who was attacking the basket, instantly attracted the backup defense of Takenori Akagi. After jumping high and luring Akagi to come up, Mike Okita quickly caught the ball in mid-air and then passed it to Sakuragi Hanamichi who was in an open space not far away.
A beautiful pass gave Sakuragi an opportunity for an open shot.
The basketball was in hand and Sakuragi Hanamichi made a jump shot near the basket. As the basketball went into the net with a slight sound, the eyes of the coaches on the sidelines were all focused on Mike Okita.
Excellent. Very excellent.
This mixed-race player is extremely outstanding. Judging from the offensive ability he demonstrated in this round alone, he is as strong as Mu Shenyi.
Mike Okita is definitely one of the players in Kanagawa Prefecture's T1 team.
In the previous bullfighting assessment, Mike Okita also showed good singles ability, but on the court, Mike Okita also showed his vision and basketball IQ.
This made all the coaches look up to Mike Okita.
Between offense and defense, Rukawa had already entered the frontcourt with the ball.
Under the defensive pressure of Miyagi Ryouta, Rukawa Kaede did not have the idea of proving his offensive ability in his mind, but chose the most efficient way of playing.
The ball was given to Sendoh who was facing Fujima.
The latter took the ball, took a simple tentative step, and then directly dropped the ball and changed direction to break through. After quickly passing Fujima, Sendoh dribbled the ball with one hand, used his auxiliary hand to block Fujima who was chasing him from behind, and quickly entered the basket.
And Sendoh's breakthrough also attracted the attention of Sakuragi Hanamichi.
Facing double-teaming from front and back, Sendoh directly replicated Mike Okita's previous action, with a pull-up shot in the air, passing the ball to Akagi Takenori in the open space.
After getting the basketball, Takenori Akagi dribbled the ball once, went straight to the basket, and dunked the ball into the basket with both hands.
As soon as the White Team scored, Sendoh returned the favor.
The second half of the game had just begun, and the stadium was already filled with tension.
"This Mike Okita is quite capable!"
"This kid Xiandao is now motivated."
At this time, under the stadium, Shimoya Tano, who was not playing any game, did not sit in his team's rest area, but came to the rest area on Wudao's side and sat with Wudao.
It's just a practice match anyway, so this kind of thing doesn't matter. Shinomiya Tianye also has someone to chat with, so he won't be bored.
"Well, Mike Okita has a background in the United States, so his personal abilities are beyond doubt."
"In terms of physical talent, he is better than the average yellow player, but he can't be called extremely talented."
"Compared to Sendo... it's really hard to say who is stronger and who is weaker."
Wu Dao nodded upon hearing this and was also very concerned about the development of the situation on the field.
He didn't have to play, and there was no pressure to win or lose. It felt good to watch other players perform. And he could feel that Mike Okita's mentality had obviously changed since Sendoh returned the ball.
The desire to win has begun to arise.
On the court, Miyagi Ryouta also felt the change in Mike Okita's mentality, so after dribbling into the frontcourt, he quickly passed the ball to Mike Okita.
There is no doubt that at this time, Mike Okita definitely wants to take the ball and attack.
Sure enough, after getting the basketball, Mike Okita didn't hesitate at all and directly dropped the ball and accelerated. However, this time the ball did not fall on his strong hand on the right side, but on the left side.
The direction of the breakthrough is also towards the left side.
Hanagata Toru's pace could not keep up with Mike Okita's charge. Although his height was not as good as Takeshi's, Hanagata's physical talent determined that his step frequency could not be compared with Takeshi's.
Mike Okita broke through and was left behind. Mike Okita passed the flower shape and approached the free throw line, then paused and threw the ball out.
Before Akagi Takenori and Uozumi could make any defensive moves, the basketball had already flown over their heads and landed steadily in the net.
After Mike Okita scored, the White Team began to retreat quickly.
I thought the Cai team would still attack in position this time, but unexpectedly, Rukawa Kaede, who got the ball in the backcourt, directly chased after him. The basketball crossed half of the court and was given to Sendo who entered the frontcourt early.
Sendoh, who had the ball, relied on his body to chase Fujima to the free throw line, then he paused, quickly gathered the ball, and made a small lob shot into the basket.
“Swish!”
Sendoh perfectly replicated Mike Okita's movements and successfully sent the ball into the net.
As Sendoh scored the ball, Mike Okita's goal also focused on Sendoh.
Sendoh also looked at Mike with a smile on his face. The players around him all felt the strong fighting spirit emanating from these two people.
Similar height, similar build, similar skills.
Sendoh and Mike Okita are more like competitors in the same position!
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