Chapter 21
The game was a big success.
"Great, great!" Bai Ze stretched out his right hand with excitement and clapped his hands with Midorima.
"Good pass!" Midorima's mouth slightly raised, revealing a barely perceptible smile, obviously very satisfied with the successful attack just now.
At this moment, the referee blew a sharp whistle - "Beep!"
With the whistle, Midorima Shintaro successfully made a beautiful three-pointer.
However, the coach of the Fukuyama team on the sidelines suddenly changed his face, secretly saying that it was not good, and immediately called a timeout without hesitation.
Coach Fukuyama held the tactical board tightly, walked quickly to the players, and his eyes fell on Kotaro Yeyama. He said in a serious tone: "Yeyama, you will ask other teammates to help you with pick-and-roll later, and you must find a way to avoid the opponent's small forward."
"But coach, I think I can handle it..." Yeyama tried to explain, but was interrupted by Coach Fukuyama before he finished speaking.
Coach Fukuyama looked particularly solemn. He stared at Yeyama's eyes and said firmly: "Yeyama, of course I trust your ability, but if you can avoid that small forward, you can save more energy to defeat the opponent. We urgently need you to win this game, you should understand this."
Yeyama sighed helplessly. Although he was a little reluctant in his heart, after some struggle, he finally nodded slowly, indicating that he was willing to follow the coach's arrangements.
"Very good! Then next, we still have to use Ye Shan as the core of the attack. He will take on the responsibility of tearing open the tight defense of Teiko Middle School. And you need to actively run, find the best position, and effectively open up space. Do you understand?" The coach glanced at the players with sharp eyes and emphasized in a serious tone.
"Understood!" The players responded in unison, loud and firm.
......
"Aze, Aze, you are great!" May was so excited that her face flushed. She happily handed the water and towel to Bai Ze.
Bai Ze smiled and stretched out his hand to take the items handed by May, with a slight smile on his face, but did not speak.
"Everyone performed very well today! Next, as long as we lock down Kotaro Hayama, other opponents will not be a problem. So, Bai Ze should keep up the good form and keep up the good work!" Coach Bai Jin said expressionlessly, with a hint of imperceptible appreciation in his eyes. "Next, we need to use more tactical coordination to ensure that every player can get their hands hot."
"Got it." Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Beep!" With a sharp whistle, the timeout ended.
The game continued.
The point guard of the Fukuyama team controlled the basketball steadily. He quickly moved to the top of the arc and immediately signaled Kotaro Hayama to come forward for support.
Kotaro Hayama rushed up without hesitation, quickly stood in position and moved to the right, ready to block the opponent for the point guard. Then, the point guard cleverly bypassed Hayama and successfully let Bai Ze and Akashi exchange their defensive targets.
Akashi's face instantly turned serious, and he thought to himself, "They are going to attack my weakness again!"
Indeed, Akashi is relatively short at the moment, and has not yet awakened the legendary Eye of the Emperor.
He can still cope with defending players of the same level, but once faced with a switch defense, he will easily become the opponent's key target.
At the moment when the point guard bypassed Hayama Kotaro, he quickly made a precise ground pass.
Seeing this, Akashi immediately stretched out his hands to try to interfere with the opponent and intercept the basketball. However, due to his limited arm span, he failed in the end.
Hayama Kotaro, who was slightly disturbed, looked at Akashi in front of him alertly, and couldn't help but be surprised in his heart, "It seems that these five freshmen who came to Teiko Junior High School are not to be underestimated."
But the next moment, Hayama Kotaro used his unique skill without hesitation - thunderous dribbling, and only heard a "three fingers!" sound.
Even though Akashi was prepared, he was completely and cleanly beaten in an instant.
Hayama Kotaro, who successfully broke through Akashi's defense, rushed to the inside like lightning.
"Hurry up and make up for the defense!" Akashi, who finally came to his senses, turned around and shouted to other teammates.
Seeing Hayama running towards the basket, Murasakibara stepped forward without hesitation, opened his arms and blocked Hayama's way like a giant
.
However, all this was actually in the plan of Hayama Kotaro. His real purpose was to divert Murasakibara Atsushi who was guarding the inside line, so as to create opportunities for his center.
As expected, when Murasakibara left the inside line to defend Hayama, Hayama Kotaro quickly passed the ball to the center.
After getting the ball, the center held the basketball tightly, ready to perform a wonderful dunk.
But how could Murasakibara let the opponent succeed easily? He jumped up with amazing reaction speed.
In the blink of an eye, a huge body lay in front of the center like a mountain, but the latter did not show any panic, but calmly threw the basketball in his hand back.
Behind the center was Hayama Kotaro, who appeared quietly like a ghost. After he caught the basketball steadily, he jumped up without hesitation and shot the ball in one go.
At this moment, Akashi rushed over like a gust of wind, trying to interfere with Ye Shan with his petite body, but all these efforts seemed to be useless.
With a crisp sound of "swish", the basketball accurately drilled into the basket like a cannonball!
The score instantly became 10:4, and the Fukuyama team finally succeeded in breaking the scoring drought.
"Sorry, it's all my mistake!" Akashi immediately stood up and apologized to his teammates.
"It's okay, it's normal for the opponent to score. If you encounter a pick-and-roll tactic later, you can just go around it and don't give them the opportunity to switch defense easily." Bai Ze comforted softly.
"Okay!" Akashi nodded in response, indicating that he understood.
In the remaining time of the first quarter, the teamwork of Teikou Junior High School became more and more tacit, and the cooperation between them was as smooth as flowing water; although Fukuyama Junior High School was at a disadvantage, they did not lose heart and could still make some wonderful responses from time to time.
Next, it was time for the substitutes to appear on the court. However, Teikou Junior High School has the strongest power forward in junior high school - Nijimura Shuzo!
This talented player showed amazing strength as soon as he came on the court. He was like a ferocious beast, rushing around on the court and no one could stop him.
During this period of substitute play, Fukuyama Junior High School was completely unable to withstand Nijimura Shuzo's fierce offensive and could only be suppressed by the opponent.
When the game entered the second quarter with 6 minutes left, the main players of both sides returned to the court.
At this time, the scoreboard on the sidelines showed a surprising number: 41:27! Teikou Junior High School was already far ahead of its opponent by as many as 14 points.
"A Zheng, let me play the basketball in the next quarter. I will crush them with my strength and let them see how powerful I am! After this quarter, I will take a short break, and then let Qingfeng go to compete with Hayama Kotaro. Do you think this arrangement is okay?"
Bai Ze looked at his teammates around him with a firm look and said confidently.
"Of course, no problem!" Qingfeng was the first to stand up and agree, with excitement flashing in his eyes. The peak showdown with Hayama Kotaro that he had been looking forward to for a long time was finally coming.
"Okay, we have no objection." The other players also responded and expressed their support for Bai Ze's decision.
As the team's point guard, Akashi himself did not have too much strong desire for offense; and Murasakibara was always lazy by nature, and would never stand if he could sit, let alone actively participate in the offense; as for Midorima, he knew very well that Bai Ze had successfully passed the ball to him many times in the previous quarter, and with Bai Ze's super personal ability, it was absolutely no problem for him to fight alone.