Breaking into the Final Four

"This year's final four round robin is going to be especially exciting."

In the press section, Yayoi Aida, a reporter for the basketball section of Sports Weekly, glanced at the numbers on the electronic scoreboard by the court and sighed.

"Yeah, I'm really looking forward to seeing dark horses like Miuradai and Shohoku face off against the established champion, Kainan."

Her assistant, Nakamura, chimed in beside her.

But the spectators in the stands were far less composed than the two of them...

"Th-They're so strong!"

"Miuradai is ridiculously strong!!"

"Takezato was one of last year's final four teams, and they're getting crushed like this..."

The spectators' reactions were easy enough to understand.

40:11. That was what the scoreboard displayed, with Miuradai ahead and Takezato behind.

That was right. Takezato High, one of last year's prefectural final four and the top seed in Group D, had been utterly dominated by Miuradai in every aspect over the past ten minutes.

Takezato had scored eleven points in the first five minutes on sheer momentum, then failed to score again until now.

"Damn it..."

The Takezato players were beginning to question their lives. Where the hell had all these terrifying Miuradai players come from?

Smack!!

Wu Yufei had no interest in explaining. After another successful steal, he charged down the court under the roaring cheers of the crowd and threw down a coast-to-coast dunk, widening the gap still further.

"Why can he steal even a pass like that?!"

At the sideline, Takezato's coach cried out in despair.

Just now, Takezato's point guard had lofted a high pass toward their own center in the paint. Before the ball could reach the interior, however, Wu Yufei leaped high into the air and intercepted it directly.

Such a completely unreasonable steal was only possible for someone like Wu Yufei, with his height and leaping ability.

The first half was not even over, yet Takezato's morale was already crumbling beneath Miuradai's increasingly ferocious waves of offense.

At 13:25, Takezato bricked a wild shot. Naito Tetsuya grabbed the rebound, and Wu Yufei and Murasame Kengo immediately launched a fast break, finishing it with a perfect alley-oop slam.

At 13:44, Wu Yufei made another steal. The entire Takezato team desperately rushed back on defense and finally managed to get back ahead of him. Yet Wu Yufei showed no fear of Takezato's interior defense. He drove straight into the paint, drew two defenders into a double-team, then dished the ball behind his back to Ishiyama Jun, who was set up beyond the three-point line. Without hesitation, Ishiyama pulled the trigger, adding another three points for Miuradai.

At 14:10, Takezato's shooting guard, whose mentality had already collapsed, threw up a wild three-pointer and was met by Wu Yufei, who arrived just in time and swatted it away like he was swinging a flyswatter.

At 14:26, Wu Yufei unleashed the Butterfly Step, dancing circles around three Takezato defenders before scoring on an open layup. That also marked his thirtieth point of the game.

Good. One target has already been met.

Against a team at Takezato's level, no matter how absurd the system's requirements were, it was only a matter of time before Wu Yufei completed the mission.

Under Wu Yufei's orchestration, Miuradai's offense surged in ever-stronger waves. Takezato had no time to catch its breath. For five straight minutes later on, they could not even dribble the ball across half court, and the game completely devolved into Wu Yufei's personal stat-padding showcase.

Finally, on the last possession of the first half, Wu Yufei successfully recorded his twentieth assist of the game.

At the same time, the score was temporarily frozen at 72:20. The game had completely lost all suspense. By Miuradai's usual practice, they would use their second-string or even third-string lineup in the second half to grind through garbage time with their opponents.

The spectators in the stands, along with the players and coaches from every team, were deeply impressed by Miuradai's explosive performance.

"Honestly, I'm starting to regret not insisting harder on recruiting him back then."

Coach Takato spoke up, but judging from the expression on his face, there was not the slightest trace of regret there.

Over more than a decade of coaching Kainan University Affiliated High School, countless outstanding young players had turned down Coach Takato's recruitment. Yet none of them had ultimately managed to stop Kainan from becoming Kanagawa's dominant force.

So, failing to recruit Wu Yufei only made Coach Takato feel that it was a pity. Regret was absolutely out of the question.

"Hmph! He's only looking a little impressive because he's playing a weak team like Takezato. If it were Kainan out there, we'd have scored at least ninety points already!"

Kiyota Nobunaga looked at the number 72 beside Miuradai's name on the scoreboard and spoke with a face full of disdain.

"Kiyota, it's a good thing to have your own pride as a member of Kainan. But I hope you don't bring that pride onto the court, or you'll suffer for it."

Coach Takato lectured Kiyota Nobunaga for a moment, then stood and led his players out of the gymnasium.

Leaving at around the same time as Kainan were the members of Shohoku.

"Ryota, you have to do your best in the final four!"

Ayako's face was full of gravity. After all, she had just watched a full twenty minutes of Wu Yufei's one-man show.

Once the final four began, Miyagi Ryota would be facing Wu Yufei head-on.

From the first round of the group stage all the way through Shohoku's group final victory over Shoyo, one major reason Miyagi Ryota had never fallen behind opposing point guards despite standing only 168 centimeters tall was his speed advantage. His nickname, Lightning Flash, said it all.

But after watching Miuradai's first half today, Ayako realized that Miuradai's point guard was not the slightest bit slower than Miyagi!

And that opponent was a big guy nearly 190 centimeters tall!

He had a height and wingspan advantage over Miyagi, yet his speed did not lose out at all. Wasn't that just absurd?!

Miyagi Ryota seemed to notice Ayako's concern and flashed a confident smile.

"Don't worry, Miss Ayako! As long as I'm here, Shohoku can't possibly lose to Miuradai!"

While Miyagi Ryota and Ayako chatted, Akagi the Gorilla and Sakuragi Hanamichi were also having a conversation.

"Sakuragi, did you see how Miuradai's power forward boxed out and grabbed rebounds just now?"

"Mm... I basically got it."

"Good. Then from today until the day we play Miuradai, your daily assignment will be figuring out how to grab every rebound when you face Miuradai's number thirteen. Understand?"

"I got it. Grab the rebounds! Whoever dominates under the basket dominates the court!!"

Meanwhile, Mitsui Hisashi kept replaying in his mind the four three-pointers Ishiyama Jun of Miuradai had made in the first half.

Every shooting motion had been beautiful, textbook-perfect.

Even first-year high schoolers are this outstanding now... Damn it! Why did I waste two precious years? If I had eighty percent of my former ability now... no, even sixty percent, an opponent like that wouldn't be worth getting nervous over!

As for Rukawa Kaede, his thoughts were even simpler.

When we play Miuradai, I have to score more! Otherwise, we won't be able to win!

Against Miuradai, I have to be the one who steps up!

At almost the exact same moment, all five of Shohoku's starting players had the same thought rise in their minds.

That was quite a valuable kind of tacit understanding.