Chapter 57 - Tokiwadai vs. Aiwa, Part 2 (1/2)

Both teams were ready for the tip-off. Aone and Aiwa's center were in the middle waiting for the referee to throw up the game ball.

The referee walked on the court with the ball in his hand, looked at both the teams, and signaled them to be ready.

Both centers bent their knees and got ready for the jump. The players around them got ready to catch the ball.

The referee threw the ball up, and the centers took to the air. Aone had it all taller height, greater jump, and better timing.

Aone swatted the ball straight to Yuki, who moved forward to the basket, the shooting guard of Aiwa was positioned near the basket for defense stopped Yuki.

Yuki waited till all the players in position and then started Tokiwadai's first attack.

He passed the ball to Kaitani, who moved forward but passed the ball behind to Shun.

Shun smiled as he got the ball and thought.

Shun: 'Let's start with a bang.'

Shun threw the ball to the basket, but everybody could see that it was going to miss.

Aiwa's center, who was guarding Aone, was looking at the ball ready for the rebound after it bounced off the rim or the backboard. He felt Aone move and looked at Aone to see him jump.

Aiwa's center: 'Why is he jumping this early?'

Outside the three-point arc, Hanamiya narrowed his eyes as he saw Aone jump.

Aone caught the ball mid-air and directly dunked it into the basket.

Hanamiya: ”An alley-oop.”

Shun grinned at the successful alley-oop. It should have been extremely difficult for Aone to do an alley-oop even with his height, but because of Shun's pass placement, they were able to pull it off.

The ball was with Hanamiya, he passed the ball to the shooting guard, and he took a shot from the three-point line.

The shot missed, below the rim, four players were ready for the rebound. Aone got ready for the jump, but as he got ready, he felt pressure on his foot.

He looked down to see that his guard, Aiwa's power forward, was stepping on his feet. Aone missed the timing to jump, and between Yuki and Aiwa's center, Aiwa's center won the rebound battle.

The ball was passed to Aiwa's small forward, who took a shot from mid-range. Kaitani contested the shot, but came up short and Aiwa scored their first points.

Mibuchi: 'Shun was right. The Aiwa team is playing dirty.'

Mibuchi relayed the message to all the other members about the dirty play.

The game went on with Aiwa resorting to dirty tactics.

They weren't directly hurting the members but moves like illegal screens, stepping on feet, grabbing clothes just enough to restrict movements, faking hits by barely stopping inches away from the face were used continuously.

Aiwa members had clearly trained to hide their dirty plays from the referee as he didn't call a foul even once.

The play was rough, but it wasn't enough to completely stop Tokiwadai, all Aiwa was able to do was slow them down.

This went until the first half of the first quarter. This was when the incident happened.

Yuki, who was under the rim for a rebound, got hit. Just as Yuki was about to jump for the rebound, Aiwa's power forward elbowed Yuki in the c.h.e.s.t.

Aiwa's center grabbed the ball and put it in the basket.

Shun, who looked at that immediately called for a timeout and ran towards Yuki, to see if he was alright.

Shun: ”Yuki, are you alright?!”

The coach and the rest of the team caught up to Shun.

Yuki stopped coughing and nodded slightly.

Yuki: ”I am alright, don't worry. It doesn't hurt. I was just surprised.”

But, Kaitani wasn't having any of it and moved towards Aiwa's power forward.

Kaitani: ”Bullshit, they are playing dirty. I will go and get in one or two punches of my own.”

Aone had to stop Katani physically from assaulting Aiwa's power forward.

The coach had missed the foul play, but he trusted his players wholeheartedly, so he went to discuss this with the referee.

The result was as Shun predicted. Aiwa's power forward denied all accusations. With no visual witness from the referee, Aiwa was not penalized with a foul.

Shun knew this was the time to put in some measures.

Shun called the team for a huddle and gave out some instructions. He looked at all of the team and said.

Shun: ”They will be hitting, so maintain some distance. They only attack when we make contact.

Keep the ball moving around, and keep a lookout for screens. This way, they won't get time to move in close for a hit.”

Shun looked at Kaitani and Mibuchi.