Chapter 161 - Ryuo vs. Tokiwadai, Part-One (1/2)
The time for the game was upon them, and both teams changed into their jerseys.
Tokiwadai in their black base with purple accents and Ryuo suited up in their navy blue with yellow accents.
Shun beamed as he relaced his shoes.
Hyakuzawa questioned, seeing his smiling captain.
Hyakuzawa: ”What's with you? You were so grumpy before, and now you are grinning.”
Shun pointed at his jersey and said.
Shun: ”How many times we get to wear the jersey, of course, I am excited.”
Unlike high school, where the tournaments were longer and more in number, and the players could wear the jersey a lot, the middle school students had less opportunity to wear the jersey.
A practice game was the perfect opportunity for players to wear the jersey.
Hyakuzawa: ”Just put the jersey on during practice. I don't think anyone would mind.”
Shun waved his finger sideways and responded.
Shun: ”We wear a practice top during the mini-game, and that would hide the jersey, no use of wearing it there.”
Both of them looked at the coach, who called out.
Coach: ”Huddle.”
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
The coach looked at his team, sitting in front of him and started.
Coach: ”We have two full-length games against Ryuo Middle School.
One before lunch and one after lunch.”
Ryuo had come from another prefecture, so a single game wouldn't be worth their effort of traveling to another prefecture. [1]
Coach crossed his arms and announced.
Coach: ”Kageyama, Yuki, Kaitani, and Hyakuzawa would play in both games, full time.
And, for the fifth member.”
He looked at the two first-year and addressed them.
Coach: ”Narumiya would play the first-half in both games, and Sora would play the second-half in both games.
Understood?”
The team replied in unison.
Team: ”Yes, Sir!”
The coach gestured for Shun to take over and walked over to sit on the side.
He looked at Hyakuzawa and said.
Shun: ”Hyakuzawa would take on Ryuo's center.”
He turned to Yuki and spoke.
Shun: ”Yuki, cover the power forward. Choke him out.”
He looked at Kaitani and told.
Shun: ”You are on the shooting guard. Stick to him, follow him, doesn't matter where he goes, make sure Ryuo is conscious of the fact that their shooting guard has a constant guard on him.”
Finally, he arrived at the two first-year and assigned them their assignment.
Shun: ”You both cover the point guard. Don't be pressured and make the decisions that you feel are right.”
He looked at Yuki and instructed.
Shun: ”If the point guard somehow gets inside, kill his momentum.”
Shun put an open hand on his c.h.e.s.t and declared.
Shun: ”I will take care of Hayama Kotaro.”
He smiled and spoke.
Shun: ”Let's see what is the level of one of the best teams of heading to the Nationals.”
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
The game started and both teams assembled on the court.
The players from both teams bowed to each other and shook hands.
Players: ”Let's have a good game.”
An external referee was going to judge the game. He called out.
Referee: ”Jumpers to the center.”
Both teams' centers made their way to their tip-off positions and got ready to get their team the first possession.
The referee looked at the two jumpers and threw the ball up for them to fight over it.
Hyakuzawa jumped at got to the ball first and tipped it Kaitani.
Kaitani jogged and looked around to see the players and saw Shun moving towards the opposite side of the court.
Kaitani: 'Offense on the first play?'
He decided to move the ball along and passed it to Yuki.
Yuki was moving in the middle of the court caught the ball. He saw Shun increasing his speed and running towards the baseline, so he bounce-passed the ball to Shun just before Shun entered the paint area.
Shun caught the ball and ran parallel to the baseline.
In his path, Ryuo's Power Forward came in like a wall, but Shun passed that wall with a simple spin-move and laid the ball quick and fluidly.
Shun: ”Good play.”
Leaving behind a confused Ryuo, lost after seeing Tokiwadai's play.
The play had started slowly with Kaitani and Yuki in no hurry to get the ball to the basket, but then there was a long bounce-pass to the baseline, and Shun nimbly laid the ball into the basket.
-*-*-*-
Coach Koetsuji smiled as he judged the first play of his team.
Coach: ”Ah, a shift in pace.”
He looked at Shun and thought.
Coach: 'He made turned the slow start into a speedy quick score.'
Shun saw that the pace of the play was slow, so he decided to gain an element of surprise by switching the pace up and grasped the first points.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Hayama recovered quickly and clapped his hands to snap his team out of their confusion and loudly said.
Hayama: ”That was surprising, but let's move past that and focus on the next play.”
After saying that, he moved forward to get into an attack position.
Ryuo's point guard got the ball and ran the offense for his team, he thought about the play he should run and looking at the all ready Tokiwadai defense, he decided to let his ace handle it.
So, he passed it to his shooting guard, who moved it along the line to Hayama.
-*-*-*-
Hayama caught the ball and turned his body towards, and immediately saw Shun in front of him.
He beamed and addressed his purple-eyed defender.
Hayama: ”Let's do it, one-on-one!”
Shun softly smiled and got into a defensive stance.
Shun: ”Yes, show me what the lightning beast can do.”
Hayama dribbled the ball normally, and they slowly inched towards the basket. He tried to pull little fakes, but Shun didn't fake for them and deployed a solid defense that didn't give a lot of space to Hayama, and restricted his progress.
As he defended, Shun thought.
Shun: ”Hmm? He is not using his dribble skill.
Well, it is just the start of the game.”
Seeing that Hayama wasn't using his lightning dribble, he decided to corner him to the side of the court and restrict his moment.
Shun opened a little opening to the right and led Hayama to the side of the court, and in a moment, Hayama had his back to the sideline, with not a lot of space to work.