Get the Rhythm Going

Tokyo, Yoyogi Gymnasium, Court One—the Winter Cup final between Miuradai and Shohoku.

The game had officially begun, and the first possession was underway.

Off the opening tip, Hasegawa Alonso easily beat Uehara Jun, winning Shohoku the first possession and launching the first attack of the game.

However, against Miuradai's determined and tenacious defense, Shohoku hit a wall on their very first possession.

"Ugh..."

Damn it, this guy is really hard to deal with!

Facing Kimura Tetsuya's extremely tight defense, Matsuoka Teruji had tried several times to shake him off, only to fail each time, and he could not help cursing inwardly.

When he had seen Wu Yufei voluntarily take on Rukawa Kaede instead of guarding him, he had even felt a little pleased.

But now, it seemed he had celebrated too soon.

On the first possession, Shohoku had indeed carried out their pregame plan of "slowing the pace as much as possible and dragging out the clock," but they had done so in a way Miuradai could readily accept.

A full twenty seconds passed. The basketball had been passed back and forth several times among Shohoku's perimeter players, yet they still could not break through Miuradai's defense.

Faced with this situation, Matsuoka Teruji inevitably began to feel anxious.

So, in the next instant, Matsuoka Teruji took a risky gamble and forced his way past Kimura Tetsuya.

Bang, bang, bang!!

"Ugh..."

Although Kimura Tetsuya was eventually shaken off after stubbornly holding on for several seconds against Matsuoka Teruji's drive, he had bought enough time.

And by the time Matsuoka Teruji had successfully gotten past Kimura Tetsuya, only around five seconds remained in the possession.

Naturally, Matsuoka Teruji wanted to get the shot off as quickly as possible. Because of that, he overlooked the danger lurking beside him.

Slap!!

The next moment,