Chapter 89 - Fushimi vs. Tokiwadai (2/2)
Shun: ”Oh, it will go in. It just won't be me scoring.”
Fushimi's power forward's eyes bulged as he saw the tallest player on the court take flight as he caught the ball mid-jump and bought it down into the basket.
Fushimi's PF: ”No way...”
Shun smiled as he declared.
Shun: ”Yes, way. Our center played quite a lot offense last year. There is no way he is not going to score from time-to-time.”
The crowd bonkers when they saw the alley-oop from Shun to Aone, a lot of them exclaimed.
Person A: ”Oh my god, an alley-oop!”
Person B: ”Did you look at that ankle-breaker before the alley-oop.”
Person C: ”How did he place the ball from over that distance?!”
The bench also got up and chanted.
Bench: ”Aone! Aone! Aone! Aone! Aone!”
The second-quarter ended with 48-29 in Tokiwadai's favor.
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On Tokiwadai's bench, the coach explained the second-half.
Coach: ”We have a solid lead. In the second half, we will be pulling out Aone and Kaitani for Hyakuzawa and Kurumatani.
If we are above by a good margin at the start of the fourth quarter, then I will pull out Mibuchi for Kaitani.”
He looked at Hyakuzawa and Sora and said.
Coach: ”Hyakuzawa and Sora will work as a unit if Sora shoots and misses, then I want Hyakuzawa to rebound the ball.”
The coach looked at Hyakuzawa and ordered.
Coach: ”Hyakuzawa don't go on offense, support the team defensively, I want you to focus on rebounding and guarding Fushimi's center and keep him from scoring.
Fushimi's center is the main scorer, so if you keep him from scoring, it would be a worthy performance.”
He rubbed his chin, looked at Sora, and then turned to Shun.
Coach: ”Shun, feed the ball to Sora when he is free. Sora, keep on moving on the court, remember the training you did with Kaitani.”
He looked at all of them and said one last thing.
Coach: ”Remain near your mark, and don't go out of the pack-line. Now go out and keep up the lead.”
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The match continued with the ball in Tokiwadai's possession as Shun let his teammates go-ahead to get into positions.
Shun, who usually jogged to the half-court line, ran at full speed this time.
Fushimi's players got tense when they saw Shun closing in, his defender, Fushimi's power forward once again came to stop Shun.
Fushimi's PF: 'Focus, keep focus. Maintain balance.”
Shun stopped right on the three-point line and got into a shooting position.
Fushimi's PF was shocked when he saw no action from Shun to pass him. He felt insulted and yelled as he jumped to block Shun's shot.
Fushimi's PF: ”Don't underestimate me!”
Shun, who had his arms above to shoot, lowered his arms in a pump fake and then jumped in an 'Earth' shot form to draw a foul.
Fushimi's PF: ”Wha-!”
The referee blew his whistle to call a foul.
Shun savagely grinned as he released the ball, and everybody's eyes followed the ball.
The ball made contact on the inside-back of the rim and went inside, and then the bench went boom.
Bench: ”Four-point play!”
All the players' eyes were drawn to Shun as he leisurely walked to the free-throw line to claim his free-throw.
Shun received the ball from the referee and shot the ball within three seconds of receiving the ball.
Fushimi's shooting guard's eyes widened at the quickness of the shot.
Fushimi's SG: ”What a reckless shot, doesn't he worry about missing?!”
But nothing was important as the ball went in the net without any problems.
Shun passed Fushimi's shooting guard as he returned to defend and said.
Shun: ”Four points.”
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The match continued as Shun passed the ball to the others, Shun's single score had tilted the defense towards him, this gave Shun to work through other players.
Sora followed his lessons and ran around the court, trying to keep his defender away.
Shun signaled Yuki, and Yuki got to work. He too ran, and set up a screen an off-ball screen for Sora.
Sora took advantage of the screen and yelled.
Sora: ”Free!”
Shun smiled and yelled as he passed the ball.
Shun: ”I see you!”
Sora received the pass and shot a long-range two-pointer.
The ball found the edge of the rim and the shot missed.
Yuki, who was a little away from the basket, yelled.
Yuki: ”Hyakuzawa!”
Hyakuzawa was ready. He got in front of Fushimi's center and boxed him out, and harrumph he jumped.
The tall Hyakzuawa got to the ball before Fushimi's center could even jump.
Fushimi's Center: ”This dude is huge!”
Hyakuzawa got to the ground and threw the ball to Sora.
Hyakuzawa: ”Shoot!”
Sora caught the ball and once again got into position. With all of his concentration, he shot the ball.
Shun, who looked at the shot, smiled.
Shun: ”Perfect.”
And, as Shun had said, the ball went into the basket, setting in stone Hyakuzawa's first official rebound and Sora's first points.
On the bench, Coach Koaetsuji smiled as he said.
Coach: ”This team will be just fine.”
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The game ended with Tokiwadai maintaining the lead. Their scoring did fall in the second half, with Aone out in the second half, they slowed down further when Mibuchi was substituted in the fourth-quarter.
But Shun made sure that they maintained their comfortable lead by making all of his teammates work on the court.
Hyakuzawa played well by contributing to blocking and rebounding.
Kaitani showed his offensive skills in the fourth-quarter, and Yuki showed that he could be a pain in the b.u.t.t when defending.
Sora also showed that he could help move the ball around in an efficient manner. He contributed by acting as the pass bridge between Shun and the others.
Shun coordinated his teammates, but didn't score a single point and didn't use active pass stealing to increase the lead.
He played post defense and made assists.
The point guard in him was humming a happy tune as he played the game.
The game ended with the score 73-48 in Tokiwadai's favor.
Tokiwadai had successfully moved to Round-3 of the Tokyo preliminaries.
Day-2 of the Tokyo preliminaries ended.