An Opportunity to Exploit

The moment Miyagi picked up the basketball, Ishiyama Jun, who was closest to him, immediately applied full-court pressure.

But Ishiyama's height and wingspan were naturally far inferior to Wu Yufei's, so he could not keep Miyagi contained for long.

Miyagi Ryota seized the opportunity and smoothly passed the ball to Mitsui Hisashi, who stood wide open beyond the three-point line.

Whew...

Mitsui secured the pass, made a slight adjustment, and quickly took the shot.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the basketball traced an arc through the air...

Clang!!

It slammed hard into the front of the rim!

"Rebound!!"

Wu Yufei, who still had not left the paint, roared before frantically battling Sakuragi Hanamichi beside him for position.

On the other side, Naito and Akagi were also locked in a physical battle.

Mm...

In the middle of that struggle, Akagi suddenly felt something strange coming from his ankle.

Could it be from last week's... Damn it, has it still not fully healed after an entire week?

It was not sharp pain, merely a slight discomfort, but it was enough to distract Akagi.

And that half-second delay caused by his distraction determined who would claim the rebound.

Naito Tetsuya, having seized the best position first, leaped into the air and securely pulled down the rebound.

Shohoku's second offensive possession ended in failure once again.

"Get back on defense!!"

The Shohoku players immediately sprinted back toward their own half at full speed, refusing to give Miuradai an opportunity to launch a fast break.

Seeing this, Miuradai did not force the fast break. Naito passed the ball to Wu Yufei, and the Miuradai players steadily advanced up the court.

Rukawa Kaede remained in front of Wu Yufei.

"Want to continue our matchup from before?"

Wu Yufei asked with a smile, then raised one finger and signaled his teammates to clear out for an isolation, just as he had on the first possession.

"..."

Rukawa Kaede did not say a single word. His eyes stayed locked on the basketball in Wu Yufei's hands, but he waved his hands to either side, signaling his teammates to spread out and let him face Wu Yufei one-on-one.

"Seriously, don't mess up this time!"

Though Mitsui Hisashi spoke harshly, he still gave them room, moving aside and leaving the middle open for the two players preparing to go one-on-one.

"Ooh! Another one-on-one? They really love doing this."

Kiyota Nobunaga said eagerly.

"Basketball is a five-man sport. If they love one-on-ones that much, they might as well play streetball."

Koto Riki, standing nearby, seemed less than approving of what was happening on the court.

But regardless, most of the other spectators enjoyed this kind of scene. A one-on-one showdown between the aces of two teams was the most likely thing to draw cheers from the crowd.

Once he saw that both teams had fully cleared out, Wu Yufei officially made his move.

It was the same move from the previous possession. Since Rukawa Kaede had failed to stop it just now, Wu Yufei could keep using it.

The only slight difference was that Wu Yufei had gone left then right on the previous possession. This time, he switched directions, going right first and then left.

With one long stride, Rukawa Kaede immediately shifted toward Wu Yufei's driving lane. Wu Yufei instantly stopped, crossed the ball through his legs, changed direction, and drove toward Rukawa Kaede's left.

"!!"

But in the next instant, Rukawa Kaede took a sharp hop step and cut Wu Yufei off again.

"Oh?"

Even Wu Yufei was surprised this time. He had not expected Rukawa Kaede to come up with a way to counter his change-of-direction drive after only one possession.

But Wu Yufei still had another move in reserve.

Since Rukawa Kaede had cut off the left side, then he would simply change back to the right!

In the next instant, Wu Yufei performed another Crossover, switching his driving direction back to Rukawa Kaede's right side.

"Mm..."

This time, even Rukawa Kaede was finally too late to react. Or rather, his eyes had reacted, but his body could not keep up.

Thump...

In the next instant, Rukawa Kaede fell backward onto the floor, watching helplessly as Wu Yufei swept past him like a gust of wind and drove straight into Shohoku's paint.

This time, even Sakuragi Hanamichi could not get back in time, because Ohno Kazuki had learned from the previous possession and boxed him out tightly.

In the end, beneath the gaze of everyone in the arena, Wu Yufei took off from inside Shohoku's paint, gripped the basketball with both hands, gathered all his strength, and viciously smashed it into the basket in front of him.

5–0. Although Miuradai had scored only five points so far, every spectator in the arena could vaguely sense that Miuradai had found its momentum.

Shohoku regrouped and continued its attack.

"Boss!!"

Facing Wu Yufei's sticky, relentless pressure defense, Miyagi Ryota found a fleeting opening and passed the ball to Akagi in the post. Shohoku needed a basket to recover its morale, and the safest way to score was under the hoop!

Akagi did not disappoint his teammates. After muscling into the paint, he shook off Naito behind him with a few quick moves, slipped beneath the basket, and made a hook shot, finally getting Shohoku on the board.

However, Wu Yufei, not far away, sharply noticed that something was off about Gorilla.

There had clearly been no defender around him just now. Given Gorilla's personality, he definitely would have chosen a Gorilla Dunk in that situation.

Though both were worth two points, a powerful dunk was obviously far more capable of boosting his teammates' morale than a hook shot.

Could it be that Gorilla injured his foot against Kainan in the last game, just like in the original story?

At the time, Wu Yufei had been too focused on listening to Junko report the game's result, and he had forgotten to ask about it.

I'll test it...

Having made up his mind, Wu Yufei advanced toward the frontcourt.

To test whether Akagi truly had a foot injury, Wu Yufei did not signal his teammates to clear out this time. Instead, he prepared to play a half-court set against Shohoku.

Facing Rukawa Kaede's defense, Wu Yufei once again used the Crossover to break through.

Wu Yufei did not dare claim he had completely mastered this move, but against the still-unpolished Rukawa Kaede, he was more than confident enough to show off with it.

After shaking off Rukawa Kaede with consecutive changes of direction, Wu Yufei charged into Shohoku's interior and went straight at Gorilla, who was guarding the basket.

"Hyaaah!!"

After taking two steps into the paint, Wu Yufei jumped directly toward the hoop, gliding through the air.

"Mm!"

Just as Akagi was about to jump as well and serve Wu Yufei one of his signature blocks, that strange sensation came from his ankle again, causing Gorilla's thoughts to stall briefly once more.

By the time he came back to his senses, Wu Yufei was already right in front of him.

Boom—!!

As he slammed home the dunk, Wu Yufei also confirmed that Gorilla had indeed injured his foot in the previous game and had yet to fully recover.

In the original story, Shohoku had faced the weak Takezato in this game, so Gorilla could casually fool around, work up a sweat, and leave the court to rest, treating it as nothing more than a warm-up. Feeble Takezato simply could not make Gorilla feel anything was wrong.

But this time was different. Facing Miuradai led by Wu Yufei, Gorilla, dragging along an injured foot, would never be able to withstand Wu Yufei's assault on the paint.

Hehe, this game is at least half secured now!

With his suspicions confirmed, Wu Yufei's estimate of their chances of winning rose from sixty percent to eighty percent in an instant.

Wu Yufei had no childish notions about winning by taking advantage of someone's weakness being dishonorable.

A game was a game. Since Gorilla had chosen to take the court while injured, that meant he had mentally prepared himself to be targeted by his opponents because of it.

As one of Wu Yufei's childhood idols from his previous life, he truly liked and respected Gorilla, but liking someone was one thing, and a game was another.

Bang!!

On Shohoku's possession, Miyagi received the ball and immediately launched a fast break. Together with Rukawa Kaede and Sakuragi, he formed the first wave and charged fiercely toward Miuradai's half.

Though the Miuradai players desperately retreated on defense, Miyagi still found an opening and bounced the ball to Rukawa Kaede cutting into the paint. Rukawa Kaede stopped abruptly and calmly hit a two-point jumper.

Back on Miuradai's possession, after Wu Yufei beat Rukawa Kaede again, he continued targeting Akagi and scored another 2+1 over his head, further extending the lead.

In just two minutes, Wu Yufei had forcefully driven into the paint four times and scored over Gorilla, making the spectators wonder whether the two of them had some private grudge.

And under Wu Yufei's relentless targeting, Akagi's performance was a complete mess. He had none of the momentum or form he had shown in the previous rounds, when he had served as Shohoku's pillar and led his teammates to victory after victory.