Coach Pan Hongtao called a timeout, then sent all their starters onto the court.
Before they went in, he said to them, "Now's the time to fight back. Show them the grit you always show in practice and take them out in one fell swoop!"
"Yes!"
The five players were fired up.
But Huali also sent out their Five Locksmiths lineup.
Huali got the ball after taking the court.
Their Five Locksmiths lineup had limited offensive ability to begin with, and the five players from Mingde Middle School were now playing hard on defense, so Huali's lineup couldn't score.
But after they missed, the Mingde players grabbed the rebound, and all five Huali players immediately swarmed them to steal the ball back.
In just one second, they snatched the ball right back from their opponents and passed it to Wang Liang.
Wang Liang dribbled, changed direction to get past his defender, and took a mid-range shot.
Perhaps he'd been sitting too long, because the shot missed too.
Chen Dayong, Mingde's center, grabbed the rebound, but before he could lower the ball, Huali's center, Yang Haitao, slapped it away.
The ball hit the floor, and four players from both teams threw themselves down to fight for the rebound.
In the end, the ball slipped between Chen Dayong's legs and was grabbed by Huali's small forward, Niu Hu.
With both teams' centers and power forwards sprawled on the floor and no one under the basket, he easily laid it in.
The gap shrank to three points.
Those two consecutive steals, followed by a score, fired up the spectators, who cheered wildly.
Xiao Bao Li Yueru exclaimed, "A lot of people say Huali's roster isn't strong this year, but they often overlook one thing: the defensive ability of Huali's Five Locksmiths lineup."
Guo