After Wang Liang stripped the ball, he turned and passed it to the Small Forward, Niu Hu, who easily laid it in.
They played for another three minutes. Although Huali had a low shooting percentage in half-court offense and could only keep shooting from the perimeter against the opposing zone defense, their outside shooting percentage was low too.
But Huali's defense was giving the other team plenty of trouble as well.
They were pressing full court almost nonstop.
Mingde Middle School had never faced an opponent like this before. The relentless full-court press right from the start left them a little flustered when handling the ball.
In the first five minutes, they committed as many as four turnovers.
Huali's players seized their chances to counterattack off those turnovers and scored six points in total.
So when five minutes had passed, Huali hadn't just avoided being overtaken—they still held a three-point lead.
Seeing this, Mingde Middle School's coach, Pan Hongtao, called a timeout.
He told the players, "You need to stay calm and composed. Don't let their full-court press scare you. Zhang Lei, if you can't dribble past their guards within eight seconds, pass it to Zhang Miao. The two of you should work together to dribble across half court."
"Once you cross half court, the center should come out and set a screen for the guards on the perimeter. Run a Pick and Roll. Pick and Roll is one of our strengths on offense. Remember, when you face their full-court press, don't panic. Keep your own rhythm and don't let them force you to play at theirs."
The players all nodded.
Meanwhile, Wang Yi had already anticipated that the other team's coach might make adjustments to counter their full-court press.
So Wang Yi turned to all the substitutes and said,