Chapter 34 - Tokiwadai vs. Teiko, Part 2 (2/2)

The ball was in Teiko's possession. Akashi calmly dribbled the ball past the half-court, ready for the first attack of the quarter.

Akashi: 'Let's start the second quarter with a bang.'

Akashi didn't try to pull a fancy pass and just passed the ball to Nijimura.

Nijimura just needed the ball, and he could take the ball to the basket on his own, and if he wasn't able to pass, he could pass the ball to another player at the most suitable timing.

This time Nijimura wasn't going to pass, he was going to put the ball into the basket himself.

Nijimura: 'I can't just let the first-years win so easily. Let's score some points.'

Nijimura dribbled hard to the inside he passed Ishida with a spin move, he pulled an in-and-out dribble to fake out Aone passing him skilfully, and finally, he pulled a floater above Otsubo and scored the basket with skills and speed.

[A/N: A video link about in-and-out will be in the comment section.]

Viewer: ”Three guys, he passed three guys! What in the world was that?!”

The play by Nijimura was a show of power and dominance over the court.

Ishida passed the ball to Mibuchi, he dribbled the ball to an open space and was prepared to shoot, when he was interrupted by Midorima.

Mibuchi looked at the court, and saw Shun leaving his mark, Mibuchi passed the ball to Shun. Midorima, who saw that turned his body backward, but the moment he did, Shun passed the ball back to Mibuchi.

Midorima: 'A pass back. I won't be able to reach in time.'

And, Midorima was right he didn't reach in time. Mibuchi was already off the ground by the time Midorima turned back. The ball traveled an elegant arc and landed in the basket with a swish.

Shun who saw that spoke up,

Shun: ”Nothing but net.”

The game continued with both teams scoring against each other.

Currently, the ball was with Nijimura, and in front of him was Shun. Shun was in the standard defense position with his arms spread wide, and Nijimura was leaning forward with the ball in front of him.

Nijimura: 'How should I pass him, a spin move won't work with his arms spread like that. Let's go with a pullback jump shot.'

Nijimura dribbled forward two steps, Shun reacted to that, and intercepted him, according to plan Nijimura pulled back and jumped to make a shot.

But, Shun was not off balance because of his stable defensive form, so he jumped to contest the shoot. His hand made good contact with the ball.

Nijiumra: 'Damn, he blocked the shot.'

Shun: ”Yes!”

Nijimura clicked his tongue as he saw the shot turn into an airball. He turned to look at Shun to find Shun running towards Teiko's basket, with his hand up signaling for a pass.

Nijimura pursued him while turning his head to confirm the situation. He looked just in time to see Aone throw a long quarterback pass to Shun.

Shun saw the ball coming his way and caught it.

Shun: ”Nice pass!”

Shun also confirmed Nijimura's position, he threw the ball up, avoiding Nijimura's block attempt, and the ball bounced off the backboard into the basket.

Teiko didn't waste any time with the counter, Nijimura passed the ball to Akashi, he passed his mark and relayed the ball to Murasakibara who was beneath the net.

Murasakibara caught the ball and jumped for a dunk.

Otsubo was late for the block, so he wasn't able to get his high enough, and the ball got pushed right through them into the basket.

The crowd went wild at Murasakibara's dunk.

Viewer: ”That purple-haired guy is a first-year, and he can already dunk, and did you look at that pass the opposite team's center wasn't able to reach in time because of the pass' timing.”

Viewer: ”Look at the speed of the game; they are switching sides so quickly.”

The crowd was heated with cheers echoing from all over the stands at scores from both the teams.

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Otsubo caught a rebound of a missed three-pointer from Akashi, he dribbled the ball himself to the half-court and passed the ball to Aone. Aone skillfully dribbled through the way opened by his teammate's screens and scored with an easy overhead layup.

Shun looked at the scoreboard and saw that Tokiwadai was leading by four points, with the score 40-44.

Shun: 'The point gap is not large enough, the time is only enough for one play, and the ball is in Teiko's possession.'

Shun looked at his team and announced.

Shun: ”Guys, there is only time enough for one play we need to defend with all our might.”

Aomine got the ball from Akashi, and Shun was marking Aomine, so they were isolated from the rest of the players.

Aomine: ”I will get past you.”

Shun: ”Let's see you try.”

Aomine went full speed to the right trying to flash past Shun, but Shun reacted quickly and blocked him.

Aomine followed by a crossover by switching the ball between hands, he followed it by a fake to the left and tried to go to the right again. With all that, Aomine tried to pass the ball between Shun's leg.

Shun smiled internally and moved his hand behind him, caught the ball, and threw the ball towards Teiko's basket.

The time ran out before just before the ball went out of bounds.

Shun looked at Aomine and sighed.

Shun: ”It's fine to be flashy at the moments when the risk is not high, but at the end of a quarter where you could have reduced the minuscule point gap to nothing, you don't pull flashy moves, you can be tricky but not flashy.”

Shun passed Aomine, who was looking at the ceiling with his hands on his waist.

Shun looked back at Aomine and thought,

Shun: 'His lack of any traditional basketball training, and his streetball style combined with the lack of experience with a risky situation, allowed me to stop him. If he didn't pull that between the leg move, I would have a 70% chance in stopping him, but he screwed up and that raised the percentage to a 100%.'

The first half of the game ended with the score 40-44, with Tokiwadai in the lead.