As the referee's whistle sounded, the second half of the game between Xiangbei High School and Lingnan High School officially began.
Players from both teams began to walk towards the court, and when the audience noticed that the dazzling red-haired boy was missing from the Xiangbei team, they were all stunned.
"Huh? The red-haired boy from Shohoku High School is gone?"
"Is he out? Didn't that kid play pretty well? Was he replaced?"
"What a pity! I quite liked him."
In the stands, the chatter of the audience spread into the stadium, and Nango Koichiro heard it.
In the same first grade, Nanxiang suddenly became unhappy when he heard that idiots like Hanamichi Sakuragi actually had fans. After walking into the field, he raised his neck and shouted loudly:
"Listen to me!!!"
"I am a first-year student at Shohoku High School, Nango Koichiro!"
"I will lead Shohoku High School to win the national championship!!"
Nango Koichiro's voice was quite loud, and at this moment he actually suppressed the discussion in the stands. The audience who heard this were all stunned, lowering their heads and looking into the stadium.
"Hey, hey, is this new player from Xiangbei a fool? What nonsense are you talking about?"
"Lead Xianghoku to win the national championship? Although I am very optimistic about Xianghoku, but even if we win the national championship, it is the credit of Jinguji Martial Arts and the others, right? What does it have to do with this kid?"
"He's actually more arrogant than that red-haired boy?! Is this boy strong?"
The audience looked at Nango Koichiro in the field and started talking about it for a while. Seeing that the audience's attention had also been turned to him, Nanxiang nodded with satisfaction, turned his head and pointed at the people from Lingnan who had just entered the stadium not far away, and said loudly:
"Lingnan, do you still know me?"
"I will lead Xiangbei to defeat you."
However, not many people in Lingnan who walked into the arena turned to look at him. That is to say, Yuzhu had some impression of Nanxiang, so he turned his head and said:
"Oh! Come on then, Shohoku." Uozumi suddenly forgot Nango Koichiro's name and got stuck.
"You bastard!!" Nango Koichiro saw the thinking look on Uozumi Jun's face, and his chest was filled with anger. Just as he was about to get angry, Takenori Akagi walked past Nango, grabbed the back of Nango's neck, and walked away Entered the stadium.
"." When the spectators in the stands saw Nango Koichiro being carried into the stadium by Akagi like a chicken, the expressions on their faces became richer.
"Is it really okay to let such an idiot play? Shohoku."
"This guy has exactly the same personality as the redhead!"
Some Shohoku supporters couldn't help but worry about Shohoku High School. They couldn't help it. Nanxiang's behavior was really too stupid, which made everyone sweat for Shohoku.
Soon, the players from both sides began to take their positions in the center circle. Those who stood on the center line and prepared to jump the ball were still Takenori Akagi and Jun Uozumi.
The rest of the players on Shohoku's side began to take positions around the center circle. Rukawa Kaede was still playing the point guard position, standing in his own backcourt.
Coach Anzai established Rukawa Kaede as the team's main attacker during the halftime break, but did not switch Rukawa Kaede to the role of shooting guard, nor did he switch him to the role of small forward.
Kaede Rukawa is still responsible for playing point guard.
Although the Xiangbei players didn't know why Coach Anxi made such a decision, the players still followed Coach Anxi's instructions to prepare for the next game.
Hisashi Mitsui can probably guess the arrangement of coach Anzai. He most likely thinks that players like Rukawa Kaede who have strong ball control can fully display their personal strength by completely controlling the basketball.
Soon, the referee walked into the court with a basketball. After a whistle, the referee threw the ball into the air.
On the center line, Takenori Akagi and Jun Uozumi both let out loud shouts. They jumped into the air one after another and reached out to shoot the basketball.
This time for the jump ball, there was a clear gap between Uozumi and Akagi in controlling the timing of the jump ball.
I don’t know whether it was because of nervousness or distraction, but Akagi’s actual control was far less accurate than Uozumi’s. The basketball was directly touched by Uozumi first and moved towards Lingnan’s backcourt.
In the second half, Lingnan High School took the lead.
"Start returning to defense!"
Upon seeing this, Mitsui Hisashi immediately began to retreat, and at the same time he greeted his teammates loudly. After the intermission, the physical fitness of the Xianghoku High School and Lingnan players had recovered to a certain extent.
Therefore, the Xiangbei players' defensive movements were still quite swift, and in the blink of an eye, they had already retreated to their own half.
Jinguji Budo and Takenori Akagi sank directly to the inside after returning to the court. On the outside, Nango Koichiro, Rukawa Kaede and Mitsui Hisashi were responsible for the defense.
Reinan High School's point guard is still Fujima Kenji. When he noticed Shohoku's defensive position, he glanced at Nango Koichiro who was standing in front of Shinomiya No. 1 strangely, and then dribbled the ball into the frontcourt. Passed the ball directly to Shinomiya Nono.
Fujima was quite curious about the defensive formation set up by Shohoku High School at this time.
He wanted to see how Xiangbei High School used a first-year student to defend their trump card.
Starting with the basketball, Shinomiya swept the ball and moved to the right with a tentative step towards the frame. With a slight tap, Shinomiya immediately retracted his foot, then dropped the ball to the left, directly starting the breakthrough.
The extremely fast movement did not allow Nanxiang to react in time. By the time he came to his senses and turned around to pursue, Shinomiya had already crossed the three-point line and entered the mid-range.
Looking at Jinguji Budo who was promoted under the basket, Shinomiya showed a smile on his lips and said to himself:
"Actually, my shooting skills are not bad either!"
"Is this kind of defense very different for me from leaving it empty?"
Shinomiya made an emergency stop in the middle distance, and then shot directly. The basketball flew directly towards the basket, and then plunged into the net.
Shinomiya's shooting level has never been weak, and his mid-range shooting percentage is even higher than Sendō.
But Shinomiya is so accustomed to using violence that it makes people think that his shooting level is average.
But in fact, in addition to Shinomiya's low hit rate on difficult shooting moves such as fadeaway shots, his hit rate on "open" shots like today's is ridiculously high.
Unless the defensive player puts a lot of defensive pressure on him, his shooting percentage will be affected, but if the defensive player is as easy to pass as Nango Koichiro, let Shinomiya mid-range shot and layup There is no essential difference.
Just 7 seconds into the second half, Lingnan High School took the lead in scoring, and the score between the two teams was tied at 53:53.
The score difference was evened out, and the Lingnan players on the sidelines suddenly burst into cheers. The anger that had been pent up throughout the first half was finally completely vented at this moment.
Deafening cheers spread into the stadium, making the morale of Lingnan High School unprecedentedly high.
"Bang!" The cheers for Lingnan affected the mentality of the Shohoku players to some extent. Nango Koichiro, who watched Shinomiya's field goal, curled his lips in displeasure and spat softly.
"It's our turn to attack, don't let their morale get overwhelmed!"
"Come on, everyone, run!"
Mitsui Hisashi clapped his hands, shouted loudly, and then quickly ran to the frontcourt. In the backcourt, Jinguji Budo served from the baseline, gave the ball to Rukawa Kaede, and then quickly passed Rukawa Kaede and entered the frontcourt.
Rukawa Kaede took the ball from the backcourt and quickly crossed the center line and advanced towards the frontcourt.
But before he could approach the three-point line, Kenji Fujima had already arrived in front of Rukawa Kaede early and blocked Rukawa Kaede's path. At this time, Rukawa Kaede was still nearly two meters away from the three-point line.
"First grade, I won't let you play ball freely again!"
Fujima stood in front of Rukawa Kaede, with his arms spread out and a faint smile on his handsome face.
Hearing this, Rukawa Kaede didn't waste any more words. He started dragging, accelerated, and came directly in front of Fujima, pressing his body directly against Fujima's body.
The huge force pushed Fujima back, but at this moment, the defender Kenji Fujima actually moved around to the side of Rukawa Kaede, completely letting go of the road ahead, and stretched out his hand to directly intercept Rukawa Kaede. Basketball in hand.
The sudden stealing action was really beyond Rukawa Kaede's expectation. He did not expect that Fujima would directly let go of the road ahead, and directly risked his life to steal without stopping.
Fujima's all-or-nothing defensive method was something Rukawa Kaede didn't expect at first.
"Bang!" In the blink of an eye, the basketball has been knocked to the ground by Fujima. Fujima, who successfully stole the ball, did not give Rukawa Kaede a chance to make up for his mistake. He directly passed the ball to Rukawa Kaede, who was already sprinting towards the frontcourt. Shinomiya Fields.
"Ahhhh! Stinky fox! What are you doing?!"
On the sidelines, Sakuragi Hanamichi jumped up from his seat when he saw Rukawa Kaede being intercepted, hugging his head and crying.
"Eh?! That's not right"
"Rukawa Kaede's poor performance doesn't mean he will be substituted?!"
"Does this genius have a chance to appear?!"
Sakuragi rolled his eyes, changed his tone, and shouted directly to the field: "Rukawa Kaede, good job! Keep it up!"
At this moment, Rukawa Kaede in the stadium had no time to pay attention to Sakuragi Hanamichi. At this moment, he was struggling to catch up with Shinomiya Tōno and Jinguji Budō in the front court.
Shinomiya's speed was so fast that the only one in Shohoku who could react and catch up with him was Jinguji Budo.
"Hey! Martial Arts, one on one!"
After running the ball quickly across the center line, Shinomiya looked back at Jinguji Budo who was following him, and suddenly said. After hearing this, Budo's expression condensed, he accelerated directly, and quickly rushed past Shinomiya.
Shinomiya Tano also slowed down slightly. The moment Jinguji Budo passed him, he turned around and directly changed the direction of travel.
As soon as Martial Arts faced Shinomiya Fields, the opponent had already changed direction and passed through Martial Arts' defense line.
Then he quickly got to the basket, got up and dunked the ball into the basket.
"1:0!"
After scoring the goal, Shinomiya said with a smile to Jinguji Budo, and then trotted towards his backcourt.
Budao glanced at Shinomiya Tano speechlessly, and said when he passed by him:
"The co-writing of the first half doesn't count anymore, right?"
Shinomiya turned his head, pointed towards the scoreboard, and said: "The first half doesn't count, does it still have any meaning?"
The score reached 55:53, with Lingnan High School leading by two points.
As Shinomiya Tano said, the first half is meaningless.
Between the alternation of offense and defense, Shohoku High School once again organized an attack. Rukawa Kaede once again entered the frontcourt with the ball. But this time, Fujima Kenji still took the position early and got into position to defend before Rukawa Kaede approached the three-point line.
Moreover, Fujima's defense is very tough. He doesn't even consider whether his defense will be broken by Rukawa Kaede. He directly sticks to it without giving Rukawa Kaede too many gaps.
"Aren't you considering physical strength? Fujima!"
Jinguji Budo noticed Fujima's defensive strength, and his heart sank slightly. Then he quickly rushed towards Rukawa Kaede, trying to set up a pick-and-roll for Rukawa Kaede.
However, Rukawa Kaede, who was guarded by Fujima, forced his start, broke through Fujima's defense, and rushed towards the three-point line. And at that moment, a blue figure quickly bypassed Martial Arts and directly intercepted Rukawa Kaede.
"Shinomiya Tōno!"
"Rukawa Kaede, pass the ball!"
When Budao noticed Shinomiya's figure, he immediately reminded Rukawa Kaede.
But his reminder was still a little late after all, and Shinomiya Tano was still blocking Rukawa Kaede at this moment.
At the same time, Rukawa Kaede, who was walking, also heard Budo's reminder, and wanted to pass the ball to Jinguji Budo, but the next second after he shot the basketball, Fujima's figure suddenly jumped out, directly Cut the ball off with a slap.
"Your actions were completely within our expectations!"
"Rukawa Kaede!"
Fujima intercepted the ball and threw it towards the frontcourt with his backhand. But this time, the person who started the fast break on Lingnan's side became Xiandao.
Just when Budo was about to pursue him, Fujima got stuck in front of Budo, stopping Budo from speeding up. When Budao successfully passed Fujima, Shinomiya Tano appeared in front of Budo in time, and Fujima It really delayed Wu Dao's pursuit.
At this time, Xiandao had already crossed the center line with the ball and was heading rapidly towards the Shohoku half.
On the Shobei side, Mitsui Hisashi followed Sendao closely, and when Sendō was about to cross the three-point line, he passed Sendō early and blocked him.
Facing Hisashi Mitsui's defense, Sendō just made a high-position pull-up jumper, which easily broke through Hisashi Mitsui's defense.
"A pull-up jump shot on a fast break?" Mitsui Hisashi turned his head in surprise, and happened to see the basketball falling steadily into the net with a soft sound.
As the basketball hit the net, the stands erupted in cheers.
After two consecutive balls were intercepted, Rukawa Kaede, who hurriedly returned to the court, was also looking at the basketball falling from the net, feeling a little lost.
He never thought that the situation would develop like this in his hands.
Lingnan High School seems to have thoroughly studied his passing habits, and every move he makes is expected by the Lingnan players.
On the sidelines of the court, Coach Taoka looked at Rukawa Kaede who was a little distracted, with a smile on his face and whispered:
"If you have to wait until there is nothing you can do before you know how to pass the ball."
"Even a fool can guard against it!"
(End of chapter)
