Chapter 33 - Tokiwadai vs. Teiko, Part 1 (1/2)
Basketball was not a sport for everyone, it requires height to play, and the people who don't have height require overwhelming skill to succeed.
Shun had played basketball since he was four years old. His love for the game was indescribable.
And, today was the day that he had reached another milestone in his new life.
Shun: 'Today is the day I finally get to play against the generation of miracles.'
Shun took deep breaths as he took his position on the court, the tip-off was going to start shortly. He looked at the players on the court.
Otsubo was standing at the center with his eyes closed, concentrating on the tip-off and the game. Opposite to him was Murasakibara staring into space.
Both of them were of equal height. When Murasakibara's talent bloomed, the thing he got was overwhelming physical growth. Murasakibara's growth in Middle School was twenty-two centimeters. It was not just height, Murasakibara also gained power with that height, and Murasakibara's body proportion's (long arms and legs) made him the most suitable for playing basketball.
Aomine was stretching his body and jumping up and down, Aone had his eyes on the hoop in front of him looking ready to score.
Midorima stood still looking at his hands and fingers, while Mibuchi was humming a tune while also looking at his fingers.
Akashi had his eyes closed with his arms folded, and Ishida looked serious yet relaxed like he looked before every match.
Nijimura was looking at the ground near his feet, concentrating his mind for the match.
Shun turned his eyes to the positions of the players on the court.
Teiko's positioning for the tip-off was Murasakibara in the center of the court for the tip-off, behind him was Midorima standing just ahead of the three-point line, in front of Murasakibara was Nijimura ready the ball if Teiko won the tip-off.
Near the half-court line on either side were Aomine and Akashi ready to be fed the ball by Nijimura for a two-pronged attack.
[A/N: Teiko's positioning for the tip-off (Double Tap) will be in the comment section. Like the comment, so it stays on the top.]
On Tokiwadai's side, Otsubo was at the center for the tip-off, behind him were Ishida and Mibuchi ready for rushing forward to attack, while in front of were Aone and Shun ready for both a direct attack or a pass play.
[A/N: Tokiwadai's positioning for the tip-off (Post Split [Box Allignment]) will be in the comment section. Like the comment, so it stays on the top.]
Announcement: **The game for Finals of the Nationals for Middle school division, between Tokyo Representative, Tokiwadai Middle School and Tokyo Representative, Teiko Middle School, will start shortly.**
The referee came with the match ball and looked at all of the players, and then he looked at Otsubo and Murasakibara, and signal them to be ready.
Murasakibara was still looking in the space and Nijimura, who saw that screamed at him.
Nijimura: ”Murasakibara, you big loon pay attention dammit.”
Murasakibara snapped out of his stupor and became focused.
The referee narrowed his at Murasakibara but sighed the next moment.
The referee then tossed the ball up, and the centers from both teams sprang into the air for the ball.
Otsubo touched the ball first and tipped it towards Aone.
Aone was guarded by Aomine, and Ishida covered by Akashi.
Aone looked at the court and saw Murasakibara falling back towards Teiko's basket and Nijimura choosing to block Mibuchi, leaving Otsubo and Shun open.
Otsubo moved forward to the low post to be in the position for a pass or a rebound. Shun also moved forward to a position for a pass.
Aone looked at Akashi and pulled a crossover dribble on him, but wasn't able to pass, form the corner of his he saw Shun, so he passed the ball to him.
Shun caught the ball in transition, and the one who came to block him was Midorima.
Shun got low and started dribbling he faked Midorima by leaning towards the right and pulled back this caused Midorima to lean towards the right. Shun again faked in the right direction, this time stepping one step in the direction, causing Midorima to fully committing to that direction.
Finally, Shun turned on his pivot foot spinning to the left, passing right by Midorima.
Viewer: ”A double fake into a roll to the opposite side, that guy is good.”
Midorima, who was past behind, also thought the same thing.
Midorima: 'He made me commit to the right side, and then crossed me from the another, he had enough speed to make sure that I couldn't catch up.'
Otsubo screened Murasakibara from going in for defense, leaving a clear path for Shun to score. Shun jumped up and scored with an easy finger-roll layup.
Shun returned to Tokiwadai's side of the court, but not before winking and smiling at Aomine.
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The ball was in Teiko's position, Akashi dribbled the ball past the half-court, passed the ball to Nijimura, immediately passed the ball to Aomine, who scored with a reverse layup, with Aone trying to contest for a block.
Viewer: ”Wow, Teiko immediately got back the points scored on them.”
Viewer: ”Did you see that speed, the was ball relayed to the scorer so quickly.”
Ishida: 'That truly was a high-speed play, the ball was already in the low-post before I knew it.'
Shun's eyes met with Aomine and saw him mouth the words.
Aomine: 'Got you back.'
Shun couldn't help but laugh at that.
Shun: 'Hoho, this is good. Winning wouldn't be fun otherwise.'
Ishida dribbled the ball to the half-court and passed it Shun. Shun dribbled forward and entered the area inside the three-point line, from the corner of his eye he saw Mibuchi ran past behind him.
So he passed the ball to him and stepped back at the same time to act as a screen to stop Akashi, who was following him.
Mibuchi caught the ball, stopped just before the three-point line, and shot the ball.
The ball grazed the rim and spun around a few times, and finally falling inside the net, scoring three-point for Tokiwadai.
Teiko's head coach, Shirogane Kozo, couldn't help but admire the play.
Shirogane: 'That was some excellent court awareness displayed by Kageyama, he not only passed the ball to the shooter but also stopped Akashi-kun from following.'
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Nijimura picked the ball to pass it from the outside he passed it to Akashi and said.
Nijimura: ”Akashi, give me the ball.”
Mibuchi tried to block him but was faked out by a pass attempt, and Nijiumra scored with a mid-range shot.
The crowd went wild at Nijimura's speed and skills.