Overwhelming Momentum

Under Wu Yufei's organization, Miuradai's offensive firepower was fully unleashed, each wave fiercer than the last.

As Martial Garden's fragile defense was pierced again and again by Wu Yufei's sharp drives and precise passes, the mentality of everyone on the Martial Garden team gradually began to collapse as well.

Beep—!

When the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, the score had already reached 49:15.

In just one half, Wu Yufei had already posted a perfect stat line of 15 points, 10 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. He had also completed the task's required targets ahead of schedule. The game had long since lost any suspense.

"Everyone played very well. I'm extremely satisfied with every one of you! Take it a little easier in the second half. I'm going to start rotating players and make sure everyone gets a chance to play!"

In the locker room, Coach Harada was positively glowing.

Miuradai and Martial Garden had both been quarterfinal teams last year. Yet only a year later, things had become like this.

In truth, that was precisely the charm of high school basketball. Compared to professional leagues, player turnover among high school teams was incredibly fast.

Within the limited span of three years, a team could leap from bottom-feeders to a powerhouse simply because it had one or two outstanding players. At the same time, a powerhouse could become bottom-feeders overnight after its star player graduated.

Teams like Kainan, which had dominated their prefecture for more than a decade, were ultimately rare. Across Japan's dozens of prefectures, perennial powerhouses like Sanno and Kainan could be counted on one hand.

"Junko, how many times did I drive in and score during the first half? Don't count assists."

Wu Yufei went to find the team's current manager, Naito Junko. She was now responsible for tracking the entire team's statistics.

One of the task's two targets had already been temporarily achieved. Now it all depended on the second.

"Um... let me see."

Hearing Wu Yufei's question, Naito Junko immediately flipped through her stat book.

"If I remember correctly, Yufei, you successfully drove in and scored by yourself seven times in the first half."

Mm, it really was seven times.

Wu Yufei's system actually had the most accurate statistics. The only reason he had come to ask Junko was that he simply wanted an excuse to chat with her.

Since he only needed three more to complete the task's requirement, Wu Yufei really could take it a little easier in the second half.

After all, this was still someone else's home court. Better not go too far.

Coach Harada understood that as well, so he decisively substituted out all five starters who had performed well in the first half. In their place came the second string led by Kawasaki Akio, Takatsu Hiroshi, and the others.

They were a genuine quarterfinal-level squad. Putting them in should at least let Martial Garden regain a bit of a sense that the two sides were evenly matched in the second half.

Wu Yufei found Coach Harada and said that he wanted to return to the court for a while when the final five minutes of the second half came around.

When the coach questioned him, Wu Yufei forcibly explained it away with the excuse that "his stats still weren't perfect enough."

Coach Harada truly did not want Wu Yufei to keep playing and increase his risk of injury. This was only a friendly match where the result did not matter, and the situation was already clear.

But Wu Yufei had insisted so strongly that Coach Harada could not bring himself to go against his wishes. He could only agree to Wu Yufei's request.

After announcing the substitutions, Coach Harada briefly laid out the second-half tactics before letting the players rest for a bit.

Beep—!

With the referee's whistle, the second half officially began.

Only then did Miuradai's players realize that more than half the spectators in the stands had already left!

It seemed they could not bear to watch the players they liked get so thoroughly crushed by the other side, so they chose to run away. Perhaps that was a kind of release too.

Just as Wu Yufei had expected, Miuradai's second string possessed standard prefectural quarterfinal strength. Whether inside or outside, they lacked the absolute dominance of the first half.

Thus, over the first ten minutes of the second half, two teams with standard quarterfinal strength put on an evenly matched contest.

Miuradai's players wanted to use strong performances to fight their way back into the coach's starting lineup, while Martial Garden wanted to reclaim its dignity. Even if they lost, they wanted to cut the deficit as much as possible!

Both evenly matched sides had reason to give it everything, making the game especially entertaining.

When the second half reached its thirteenth minute, Oda hit a hook shot off the glass beneath the basket, and Martial Garden finally cut the gap to under thirty points. The score was now 69:44.

Though they were still at a huge disadvantage, at least for Martial Garden's players, the score looked far better than it had at the end of the first half, right?

The performance of Martial Garden's players also awakened the last sliver of hope in the spectators who had been despairing in the stands. They once again raised their voices to support their school's team, trying to turn their cheers into strength for Oda and the others.

Three more minutes passed. As Dai Ming's three-pointer swished cleanly through the net, Martial Garden finally narrowed the gap to 79:60. Miuradai's lead was down to only nineteen points!

"Yufei! You're up!!"

Coach Harada was afraid that if they kept letting things slide, the other side might cut the lead to single digits. That would be far too humiliating.

In Harada's mind now, winning this game by fewer than twenty points would count as a loss!

"Got it!"

Having waited impatiently for this moment, Wu Yufei shook out his arms and walked to the sideline.

Now let me see just how strong you are with your morale soaring!

Beep—!

Miuradai called a timeout, and Wu Yufei and Naito Tetsuya stepped back onto the court.

Wu Yufei was doing it to pad his stats and, incidentally, fulfill the condition he had promised Naito: getting his average points per game above thirty. This concerned something very important between himself and Junko, so Wu Yufei did not dare be careless in the slightest.

The instant Wu Yufei stepped onto the court, a chorus of wails rose from the girls in the stands.

"Why is it him again? We were just about to win!"

"Exactly! Oda is about to get thirty points!"

Clearly, while the girls of Miuradai saw Wu Yufei as their dream guy and a basketball superstar, the girls of Martial Garden viewed him as nothing less than a harbinger of disaster.

"Hehe, what an interesting sight."

Looking at the despairing expressions on the faces of the Martial Garden girls throughout the arena, Takei Yumi smiled and lifted her camera, capturing the moment.

"Go for it, Yufei!"

At the sideline, Naito Junko gathered her courage and called out to Wu Yufei.

"Don't worry!"

Wu Yufei turned toward Junko, gave her a thumbs-up, and replied with a smile.

Taking the inbound pass from the sideline, Wu Yufei immediately used a crossover to shake off Dai Ming, who was tightly hounding him, then floored it straight toward Martial Garden's half.

After playing against Miuradai's second string for most of the second half, Martial Garden had almost forgotten just how fast Wu Yufei was.

Facing Miura's help defense, Wu Yufei cleanly beat him with a back-dribble into a change of direction, then charged into the paint without slowing down.

Having been cruising through the second half until now, Oda—whose confidence had only just recovered—once again recalled the terror of being dominated by Wu Yufei in the first half.

No! I have to stop him!! I have to stop him! Because I'm Oda, Martial Garden's ace! Yoko is still watching me from the stands!

When he saw Wu Yufei leap up in front of him, he jumped as well, raising both hands high in an attempt to block him.

"Hah!!"

The two clashed fiercely in midair. Wu Yufei unleashed a tomahawk dunk and sent Oda crashing to the floor.

Still... not enough...? Damn it...

The instant he fell, Oda thought in unbearable sorrow.