In the last second, the miracle didn't happen.
A whole game of hand-to-hand combat left the Washington High School players without any offensive touch.
Their last shot was interfered by Gan Guoyang's giant palm, and they threw a three-shot ball.
Wu Zhixiong under the basket got the ball and threw it into the air. The players from Beiqiao Middle School hugged each other tightly and celebrated that they had taken another step towards the ultimate goal.
In an arduous battle, Gan Guoyang scored 19 points, 28 rebounds, and 11 blocks.
It can be said that he squeezed his defensive ability to the extreme, and the players at Washington High School also tried their best - except Quentin Stephenson.
However, Stephenson also played a huge role tonight, rarely causing mental harm to Gan Guoyang.
If it weren't for Gan Guoyang's strong willpower, the final attack might not have been scored, and the two sides would have entered a fierce battle in overtime.
Winning the Northern California championship, the atmosphere was not as enthusiastic as the San Francisco League championship.
The fans at the San Jose Civic Auditorium stood up and applauded Beiqiao Middle School, but no one entered the venue and no one went crazy.
Therefore, the award ceremony was successfully held in the center of the field. The entire Beiqiao Middle School team took a group photo in the center of the field holding the trophy symbolizing the North District championship.
By the time the ceremony ended, the Civic Auditorium had become empty, and it was still raining heavily outside. There was no enthusiasm for the championship at all.
"I feel like winning the Northern California championship is not as satisfying as the San Francisco League championship." Gan Guohui complained in the locker room after receiving the trophy.
"Of course, San Francisco is all our people, there are many Chinese... San Jose has the most Japanese people." Chen Xing explained.
There are many Japanese people living in San Jose, but they were imprisoned and forced into labor camps during World War II. After the war, they tried every means to break away from Japanese influence and become thoroughly Americans.
In comparison, many Chinese in the Bay Area have retained more connections with their mother country and are proud of it. The teaching content at Beiqiao Middle School is full of Chinese culture.
"Hey, no one is celebrating our championship today. Let's celebrate by ourselves. How about everyone sing a song." Gan Guoyang suggested, and everyone agreed unanimously.
But what song to sing, everyone had a hard time.
Many pop songs are not suitable for chorus and have nothing to do with winning.
You can sing some songs, but he can't sing them, so he can't sing them together.
After discussing for a while, Gan Guohui said: "We can't sing 'The Star-Spangled Banner'. That song is too difficult and I can't sing it yet."
Huang Zhenfan suddenly said: "Why don't we sing 'My Motherland'? We all learned it in elementary school, right?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. Although they were overseas, the influence of the song "My Motherland" spread all over the world. It was the enlightenment song for many people when they were young.
Except for Bellman, Franklin and Xu Xun who couldn't sing, the rest started to sing "A big river with wide waves, the wind blows the rice flowers, and the fragrance is fragrant on both sides..."
After the song was sung, there were a few tears in everyone's eyes. Although Behrman didn't understand it, he was a little moved and decided that it was a very good song.
Gan Guoyang said to Xu Xun: "Axun, you can also sing a song of your Koreans."
Xu Xun scratched his head, thought for a while and said: "I...then I will sing a 'patriotic song'."
"How rich are the gold and silver treasures of this country, the three thousand miles of beautiful rivers and mountains..."
Xu Xun usually doesn't talk much, but he sings pretty well, but his face gets a little red when he sings.
Finally, it was Franklin's turn to sing a song. Everyone thought Franklin would sing a jazz or pop song, but unexpectedly he sang a black song "Old Man's River" in a deep voice:
"There is an old man named Mississippi. I don't want to imitate that old man because he doesn't care about the suffering in the world..."
This song reflects the tragic life of black Americans on the Mississippi River in the South, and for a time the atmosphere in the locker room was a little heavy.
Bellman interrupted Franklin and said: "Okay, okay, everyone, stop singing. Are we still a fucking basketball team? Are we still celebrating the victory? You are all singers, and you are singing about the motherland, singing Great artist of the misery of black life. God, what a group of players I brought with me... Pack up, go back to the hotel, go back to San Francisco tomorrow, and remember to practice the day after tomorrow!"
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Although the Northern California champions were given a cold reception in San Jose, back in San Francisco the next day, the Northern California Water Bells were a hit.
This is the first true Northern California championship in the history of CIF. On March 1, they will represent the entire Northern California and compete for the California championship.
The campus of Beiqiao Middle School in Chinatown has never been so lively. Groups of reporters, Chinese groups, and well-known political and business figures came to Beiqiao Middle School to interview, express condolences, encourage, and offer sponsorship to the Water Bell Team.
Some commercial brands also came to discuss cooperation. Their main target was Gan Guoyang, hoping that he could endorse the brand.
However, Gan Guoyang refused these high-priced endorsement ads, saying that if he wanted to endorse, the entire Water Bell team would need to work together, and the profits would be shared equally among everyone.
They ended up shooting print ads for a sportswear seller and a basketball brand.
A mid-length report about their team appeared in the February 1982 issue of the well-known sports magazine "Sports Illustrated."
Bellman told everyone that if they can win the California championship on March 1, it is not impossible to become the cover of "Sports Illustrated" in March.
There are more and more reports and articles about Gan Guoyang, and his influence gradually extends from the San Francisco Bay Area to the entire Northern California.
The basketball world began to talk more and more about this Chinese basketball genius, but people at the time could not predict how much impact he would have on the basketball world.
Compared with his rise to fame in San Francisco and Northern California, Gan Guoyang has not attracted much attention in Southern California, where he is extremely talented.
In Los Angeles, in San Diego, in Long Beach, the most indispensable thing there is basketball talent.
Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich, Greg Ballard, and a host of future talented players.
UCLA, University of Southern California, University of California at Berkeley, and the Los Angeles Lakers are all famous basketball teams in the United States.
On February 28, the Water Bells arrived in Los Angeles by plane, and were taken by the airport bus to a hotel relatively close to the Great Western Forum, the so-called "Los Angeles International Airport-Hollywood Hotel", the name sounds very bluffing. .
But when we arrived, we discovered that it was a two-story motel, Motel.
The decoration of the room is very ordinary, the sanitary conditions are poor, and the carpet is full of holes made by cigarette butts.
The sheets in some rooms were stained with blood and had not been cleaned. I don't know what happened here before.
The worst thing is that the hotel does not have extra long beds, which is a big trouble for two tall men, Gan Guoyang and Franklin.
Bellman and the team leader, Mr. Liu, called the CIF Tournament Organizing Committee, hoping to change hotels, but they said they could no longer book rooms nearby.
"Shet, is this how these guys in Southern California organize the most important game of the year?" Bellman spat and cursed after hanging up the phone.
“Southern California is determined to win this championship, so it’s definitely going to cause us problems.”
Last year's first CIF California Championship, the last two Oakland teams competed for the championship.
This year it is divided into Northern and Southern California, and Southern California wants to keep the championship in Los Angeles no matter what.
Finally, Bellman found a way to use cabinets and pillows to put together two extra-long beds for Gan Guoyang and Franklin, so they could sleep for one night.
On the second day, they ran into trouble again, that is, there was no place to conduct warm-up training.
The game is played at night, and the Great Western Forum Arena is used for other purposes during the day, so it is impossible to go in for adaptive training.
The tournament organizing committee in Southern California did not arrange a training venue for the Water Bell team and said they could just go in early in the evening to warm up.
Anyway, neither team has a place to train, which is fair.
Bellman gritted his teeth angrily and cursed: "Fuck you sons of bitches. Riverside Polytechnic High School is only an hour's drive from the Great Western Forum. What the hell do they want a training venue for!"
But the protest was still ineffective. If there was no arrangement, there would be no arrangement. Behrman and Teacher Liu could only find a way on their own.
Teacher Liu contacted the Los Angeles branch of the Chinese Endeavor Association, and they found a middle school near the Great Western Forum Arena.
The China Endeavor Association once made a donation to this middle school. After learning about the situation, the principal agreed to use the school basketball gym for the Water Bell Team for two hours.
So, after lunch, the Water Bell team went to the middle school gymnasium to warm up and prepare for the evening game.
Just over half an hour into the training, another group of people entered the gymnasium. They were the women's basketball team of this school.
The coach of the women's basketball team said they had a game in the afternoon and had to warm up. Bellman said they had applied with the principal.
Both of them had stubborn tempers and couldn't stop arguing, so they went to the principal's office to ask for explanation.
The Water Bell players had to stop practicing while the girls changed and started warming up on the court.
The players of the Water Bell team were watching very carefully from the sidelines. Watching the girls play was no worse than running and shooting on the court.
They were also surprised to find that there was a girl with yellow skin and black hair among the group of girls.
"Hey, hey, that girl is very beautiful. She has a great figure. Do you think she is Chinese, Japanese, or Korean?"
"With this height and this face, do you need to tell me? He must be Chinese."
"Someone go find her and ask for her contact information before the coach comes back."
"It's useless. We left after the game. Do you think you can stay in Los Angeles?"
A few guys were having a lively discussion, but Gan Guoyang was holding the ball and practicing dribbling on the sidelines.
He deliberately closed his eyes to improve his sense of ball. There was noisy talk in his ears, but it couldn't affect him.
Suddenly the discussion stopped, and he heard a crisp voice, "Hello, are you Forrest Gump?"
He opened his eyes and saw a girl wearing white clothes and black pants standing in front of him, holding a basketball in her hand.
It should be the girl they were talking about just now, with black hair, really beautiful, a bit like...
Gan Guoyang always thought that she looked like a certain movie star, but he couldn't remember it for a while.
"Hello? I didn't disturb you, did I?" the girl asked again, pursed her lips.
"Oh, no. Yes, my surname is Gan, and my name is Gan Guoyang."
"It's true! I've seen you in the newspaper. You're a very good player. You have to work hard tonight!" After saying that, the girl smiled and ran back to warm up with the ball.
The female basketball players were also in a commotion. They didn't know what they said to the girl, which made her blush.
Seeing her smile, Gan Guoyang remembered that this girl looked like Wang Zuxian.
