Chapter 96 - Semi-Finals Begins (1/2)

By the time all the players of both teams were ready, the stands were a little more than half full, which was a high number for prefecture semi-finals or even a final.

Yuki, Kaitani, Hyakuzawa, and Sora looked around, feeling nervous about the number of people in the stands.

They looked at Aone, Mibuchi, and Shun, who were talking amongst each other without showing any signs of nervousness.

When they stopped talking and turned towards them, Sora asked.

Sora: ”Senpai, aren't you nervous?”

Shun looked at his junior and chuckled.

Shun: ”The crowd at the first round of Nationals was larger than the current one.”

Mibuchi smiled and comforted them.

Mibuchi: ”Don't worry about the crowd. Ignore them if you can, if not then don't worry, we will make sure that we don't fall to a situation where the crowd will boo us.”

Shun: ”Kaitani, weren't you born ready.”

Kaitani huffed and replied.

Kaitani: ”I was born ready, then I was not for a while. Now, I am back to born ready.”

Then he flexed to prove his point.

The coach called Shun, so he excused himself from the group.

Mibuchi looked at the crowd and said while staring at the stands.

Mibuchi: ”Think of it this way. Most of them are not here to watch you.”

He turned his eye to Shun, who was talking to the coach.

Mibuchi: ”Most of them are here to look at our point guard and ace, and from the looks of it, they will be getting what they came here for.”

Mibuchi: ”The starting five will be Me, Aone-chan, Kageyama-chan, Yuki-chan, and Kaitani-chan.”

He looked at Hyakuzawa and added.

Mibuchi: ”Sometime during the second half, we will switch out Kaitani for Hyakuzawa, to get some defensive support to pressurize

Yukigaoka, amid Kageyama-chan's steals.”

He looked at Sora and instructed.

Mibuchi: ”Sora-chan, you will come in if we need Shun to be on an offensive position, which I doubt will happen, but still be ready.”

He clapped his hands and asked.

Mibuchi: ”Are there any doubts?”

Everybody shook their heads. Mibuchi nodded and instructed.

Mibuchi: ”Let's move out.”

With that, Tokiwadai moved out to the court.

The semi-final game between Tokiwadai and Yukigaoka was about to begin.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

On Yukigaoka's bench, their coach addressed his players for one last time before the game.

Yukigaoka's Coach: ”We are facing Tokiwadai as our semi-finals opponent.”

He looked at his players and said.

Yukigaoka's Coach: ”I am confident about our ability to gather points. What I am worried about is our ability to defend against Tokiwadai's onslaught.

Do you remember the Tokiwadai's last year tapes?”

Yukigaoka's players nodded their heads. The coach continued.

Yukigaoka's Coach: ”From the videos, we can conclude that Tokiwadai hasn't been playing at their full strength.

Kageyama Shun hasn't scored earnestly even for a single minute this tournament. He has only been moving the ball around and hasn't been on active offense. If he does score actively today, then we will be in trouble.

Then there is the captain, Mibuchi Reo. From what we heard about their last game, he only played one quarter seriously, the offense will once again pile up if he plays seriously for the whole game.

Next is our biggest problem, Aone Takanobu. He is a post player, we won't be able to stop him if we don't put two players on him, but that would give others on the team chances to score.