Toyotama High School is indeed a very good team, with a tacit understanding between the team members, and under the leadership of Nan Lie, this team has been twisted into a rope.
Compared to Toyotama, who has a lot of games and sharp offense, these first-year students from Shohoku High School are a bit immature.
However, this does not mean that Shohoku High School led by Sakuragi Hanamichi, Rukawa Kaede and others will lose to Toyotama.
Toyotama's players are indeed much more mature and their offense is very sharp, but these first-year players from Shohoku High School are able to make up for their lack of experience with "talent".
As the game progressed, the situation was not as coach Jinping imagined at the beginning, with Toyotama controlling the rhythm of the entire game.
On the contrary, as the game progressed, Xiangbei High School relied on its excellent inside strength to completely take the initiative.
The Shohoku insiders of Sakuragi Hanamichi and Nango Koichiro completely destroyed Toyotama High School's insiders.
Thirteen minutes into the first half, Xiangbei High School already led its opponent by 6 points, 36:30.
The most dazzling performance of Shohoku High School was not Rukawa Kaede, who repeatedly broke through Nanlie to complete the score. Even though Rukawa Kaede had scored 14 points in just 13 minutes, it was still not the focus of the audience's attention.
The most eye-catching person here in Xiangbei is the red-haired boy who is active under the basket.
"Dang~"
There was a soft sound in the stadium.
Rukawa Kaede once again successfully broke through Nanlie's defense, invaded the three-point line, and then shot directly from the high post before Toyotama's replacement came up. The hasty shot was inaccurate and the basketball crashed out of the basket.
Rukawa Kaede, who made this shot, had no change in his expression and had no intention of returning to defense. Instead, he looked towards the basket.
"ohhh!"
"Another rebound!"
"Well done, you bastard fox, I knew you couldn't make the shot!"
Under the basket, Sakuragi Hanamichi saw Rukawa Kaede miss. Instead of showing disappointment because his teammates missed the shot, he screamed in excitement. At the same time, he moved his position and tried to seize the best rebounding position.
On the defensive side, Minori Kishimoto already had a position advantage, so he put a heavy center of gravity and trapped Sakuragi behind him.
The moment the basketball started to fall, Miri Kishimoto felt that his back was empty, and the force that was originally holding his back suddenly disappeared.
"Um?!"
Just when Kishimoto Minori was surprised, Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was still stuck behind him, actually turned sideways to release part of his strength, turned around against Kishimoto's back, and then inserted himself in front of Kishimoto's eyes from the side.
"Peng!" Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was stuck in the position, sat down on his butt and pushed Mari Kishimoto away. At the same time, the basketball also fell a certain distance.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
"Succeeded!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi jumped up excitedly and grabbed the basketball directly in his hand. Behind him, Miri Kishimoto also tried to grab the rebound, but the position was poor and his jumping burst was not as good as Sakuragi Hanamichi. Even though he took off with all his strength, The hand is still more than 20 centimeters away from catching the basketball.
It’s simply out of reach!
Sakuragi Hanamichi, who grabbed the rebound, raised the ball and feinted on the spot. Kishimoto, who landed on the ground, covered Sakuragi's eyes with one hand and did not take advantage of his feint.
The next moment, Hanamichi Sakuragi straightened up, seemingly preparing to shoot. But this time, Mari Kishimoto did not hesitate anymore, jumped up directly, and blocked the basketball from behind Sakuragi.
However, the moment he jumped up, Sakuragi once again collected the ball. After a short period of energy accumulation, when the jumping Kishimoto Mari began to fall, Sakuragi Hanamichi jumped up slightly and shot.
The basketball hit the board and hit the net with a crisp sound.
As Sakuragi Hanamichi successfully scored under the basket, the audience in the stands let out a burst of cheers.
“ohhhh!
! The guy with the back hair got the rebound again! And he scored again! Have you scored more than ten points? "
"This guy has already grabbed 7 rebounds. His opponent is not good enough!"
"The first graders from Shohoku are so strong, they completely suppressed Toyotama!"
"Without the senior members of Jinguji Martial Arts, Toyotama would be unstoppable! I didn't expect that Toyotama would be so weak and couldn't beat Shohoku's substitute lineup!"
The chatter from the audience in the stands spread into the stadium. These words made Kishimoto Minori's face turn pale and green for a while, and the deep anger was held in her chest, with nowhere to vent it.
There is no way, although the audience's words may sound ugly, but the truth is the most hurtful, isn't it?
At this point in the game, Miri Kishimoto can count the rebounds he has received with one slap. She can even count the rebounds he got without bending the fingers of each slap.
3.
The game lasted 13 minutes, and he, a power forward, only got 3 rebounds. His opponent, Hanamichi Sakuragi, had twice as many rebounds.
Putting aside scoring, when it comes to rebounding, the two are completely players of two levels.
The biggest reason why Toyotama High School was suppressed by Shohoku was not how sharp Rukawa Kaede's attacks were, but because Sakuragi Hanamichi's rebounds gave Shohoku High School repeated opportunities to attack.
In fact, in terms of shooting percentage, overall there is not much difference between the two teams, and this also makes rebounding the key to determining victory or defeat!
Coach Anzai actually saw through the nature of this game early. When Sakuragi Hanamichi began to show his talents, he knew that Shohoku High School would not lose this game even if they did not let Jinguji Budo and others play. Contest.
At 38:30, as Sakuragi Hanamichi succeeded in his second attack, the point difference between the two teams had reached 8 points. In the Xiangbei rest area, the substitute players cheered loudly. They already felt that victory was close at hand, and each one of them showed great enthusiasm.
On the contrary, Toyotama's bench was completely silent at this time. Coach Jinping looked at the court solemnly, and for a while he couldn't think of any good way to help the team recover from the disadvantage.
The rebound is completely outplayed by your opponent, how should you beat it?
This kind of problem, even if it is solved by a better coach, I am afraid it cannot be solved.
For any team, if it cannot control rebounds, it will be very difficult to win.
Unless...the opponent has no offensive ability, but it is obvious that these people from Xiangbei High School have good offensive power.
Another situation is that the team has an absolutely overwhelming advantage on the offensive end, and the team's overall shooting rate is much higher than that of the opponent.
But judging from the current situation, the efficiency of an offense between the two teams is actually not much different.
Faced with this gap in the team's hard power, coach Jin Ping really doesn't know how to adjust to help his teammates win.
And just when coach Jin Ping was thinking about countermeasures, something strange happened in the stadium.
With the help of Kishimoto's high pick-and-roll, Nan Lie easily passed through Rukawa Kaede's defense and quickly reached the basket with the ball. When he was about to put the ball together for a layup, Nan Lie encountered Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense.
Facing Sakuragi, Nan Lie was not afraid. After combining the ball, he took off in two steps. In order to avoid Sakuragi's defense, Nan Lie changed hands for a layup.
But his hand-changing movements in the air were all caught by Sakuragi Hanamichi.
"snort!"
"How could a layup of this level break through this genius' defense!"
"More innocent than a stinky fox!"
Sakuragi shouted violently, and his body actually made slight adjustments in the air. Sakuragi, who was originally blocking the ball on the left, moved his hands and firmly pressed them on the basketball sent by Nanlie.
"Snapped!"
After a muffled sound, the basketball flew out quickly towards the three-point line. Miyagi Ryota, who had quick eyes and quick hands, held the basketball in his arms, then accelerated directly and launched a counterattack.
Sakuragi, who successfully blocked Nan Lie, didn't stop for a moment after landing. The figure flashed out in front of Nan Lie's eyes, followed the fast break teammates, and rushed towards Toyotama's half.
Defensive counterattack.
Shohoku High School's counterattack speed was too fast. The only one from Toyotama High School who could defend in time was Itakura on the outside, but there were three attacking Shohoku players.
Rukawa Kaede, Kiyota Nobunaga, and Miyagi Ryota formed an "arrow" shape and quickly attacked Toyotama. They were three on one in the frontcourt. After two simple passes, Shohoku directly crossed Itakura's defense line. Nobunaga Kiyota dunked the ball into the basket.
The point difference between Shohoku High School and Toyotama High School became double digits.
40:30.
Shohoku's bench burst into cheers, and Hisashi Mitsui stood up and clapped with a smile on his face.
"This kid Sakuragi actually blocked the opponent's trump card!"
"That's Osaka's top scorer! He's so solid!"
Mitsui Shou applauded and praised. Shohoku was able to suppress Toyotama so easily. Sakuragi Hanamichi's contribution was really great. Not only did he contribute a lot of rebounds, he also put a lot of pressure on Toyotama on the defensive end.
Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense is no longer at the level of a rookie. The opponents he usually faces are not only insiders like Akagi. Sakuragi, who is at the power forward position, actually often faces Jingu who attacks the basket during practice matches. Teramudō et al.
Compared to players of the caliber of Jinguji Budo, Hisashi Mitsui, and Kaede Rukawa, Nanretsu's ability to attack the basket cannot 100% overcome Sakuragi's defense.
Although Nan Lie has excellent shooting skills and is not slow at all, his bounce and burst are far from comparable to those talented monsters like Jinguji Martial Arts.
"Beep--" Feng Yu was beaten back, and coach Jin Ping on the sidelines couldn't sit still. Although he didn't have a countermeasure in mind, he hurriedly called a timeout, intending to let the players calm down.
During the timeout, Coach Anxi did not arrange any new tactics. He simply encouraged the players and told them to play well, concentrate on the game, prevent injuries, etc.
There are no changes in the technical and tactical arrangements.
As the timeout ended, the players from both teams returned to the court.
Coach Jin Ping's purpose of calling this timeout was simply to interrupt Xiangbei's offensive momentum. There was nothing he could do about the current situation on the court.
He could only instruct the players to fight attack with attack. Apart from asking them to slow down their pace to improve their success rate, he had no other constructive suggestions.
After returning from the timeout, Toyotama's offensive speed indeed slowed down a bit, focusing on the two shorter players, Miyagi and Kiyota. As the physical energy of Shohoku was consumed, the offensive efficiency declined, so Miyagi Ryota also slowed down the rhythm. After returning from the timeout, the offensive and defensive rhythms of both teams slowed down.
Toyotama High School was frightened by Sakuragi's threat at the basket, and after the timeout, they still mainly scored from outside.
Fortunately, Nanlie's touch seemed to have improved, and the point difference between the two teams did not widen further. Instead, it remained at a point difference of about 10 points, fluctuating back and forth.
At the end of the first half, Xiangbei High School led the opponent by 11 points 55:44.
During the halftime break, coach Anzai also made some personnel adjustments, replacing Nobunaga Kiyota and sending in Ichiro Katsumi.
At the beginning of the second half of the game, Shohoku's outside offense was strengthened with Katsumi Ichiro's appearance, and Rukawa Kaede had more options when attacking.
At the same time, Katsumi Ichiro, who is 185cm tall, also made up for one of Shohoku's defensive loopholes, and the overall defense was strengthened.
The situation that could have maintained a balance completely collapsed with the appearance of Katsumi Ichiro.
Five minutes into the second half, Toyotama High School completely collapsed.
Although Fengyu's players were all hard-core, they did not give up the game, and Nanlie also attacked frantically in an attempt to restore the decline, but the gap in physical strength could not be made up by fighting spirit.
The inside advantage created by Sakuragi Hanamichi and Nango, like a snowball, grew bigger and bigger as the game progressed.
The balance of victory was completely tilted towards Xiangbei High School.
Midway through the second half, the score difference between the two teams reached 15 points.
"The difference in internal strength is too big, Fengyu, we will lose."
In the stands, the Sanno Industrial players who had a bye on the first day of the game saw that the game was finalized, and they all stood up from their seats and prepared to leave the stadium.
On the first day of the competition, most of the outstanding seeded teams had a bye. They, Sanno, would come to watch the competition today, mainly to watch the competition at Shohoku High School and see the performance of Jinguji Budo and others.
But unexpectedly, Shohoku just sent a group of first and second graders to pin down Fyotama to death. The sufficient reserve force surprised Goro Domoto.
But Domoto was just surprised. For Toyotama, these first-year students in Shohoku may be very strong, but for Sanno Industries, these first- and second-year students are far from enough.
The pillars of Xiangbei are still the second and third grade players.
If Shohoku sends Jinguji Budo and others to play in this game, the outcome may have been decided in the first half.
Unable to see the depth of Shohoku, Domoto could only lead the team back first and let the team members prepare well to meet the challenge of Shohoku High School!
But before leaving, Domoto Goro couldn't help but take a few more glances at Sakuragi Hanamichi. Sakuragi's rebounding ability was something he ignored at first. This game gave Domoto a new understanding of Sakuragi Hanamichi. He knew that he had a vague feeling that this red-haired player from Xiangbei might be one of the biggest threats to their Sanwang against Xiangbei.
At the end of the game, Toyotama High School still didn't make any waves. As the game progressed, Sakuragi Hanamichi got more into the state and showed terrifying dominance under the basket.
Just looking at the game, Sakuragi Hanamichi's ability is probably one level higher than Kishimoto Minori.
This is not the audience's illusion. Budo clearly knows that Sakuragi Hanamichi's strength is far more than that. Even if he meets a stronger power forward, Sakuragi Hanamichi will not necessarily lose!
Sakuragi has fully grown up. There is no doubt that with his talent and his existing skills, Sakuragi is already the top power forward in the country!
93:79.
As the final whistle sounded, Shohoku High School defeated Toyotama with an absolute advantage and won the first game.
In this game, Rukawa Kaede scored 36 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, which attracted the attention of the audience.
As for Sakuragi Hanamichi, he scored 21 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 blocks in a single game, which was his first shot in the national competition.
The players from Xiangbei rushed into the court with cheers and embraced the heroes of this game.
Jinguji Budo stood on his seat, looking at the jubilant teammates applauding, smiling happily, and inadvertently saw the Toyotama team member who left the field lonely, and murmured to himself:
"Just feel lucky if you lose to these boys, Toyotama."
"At least you can still have dreams about basketball!"
"If it were me, I might bring you more than just loss..."
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