Even though Oyama North's players were still giving everything they had to catch up, their efforts were futile. The enormous gap in strength left them unable to threaten Shohoku's lead.
Soon, the numbers on the electronic timer hit zero, and a sharp whistle rang through the Basketball Gym. The game between Shohoku High School and Oyama North High School officially ended.
The final score stood at Shohoku 100, Oyama North 70.
With a commanding thirty-point margin, Shohoku won without any suspense and successfully advanced to the tournament's quarterfinals.
With Shohoku's victory, all eight quarterfinalists in this year's tournament were finally decided.
The teams advancing to the quarterfinals were Sannoh Industrial High School and Jinbao University Affiliated High School from Group A, Kainan University Affiliated High School and Puan Commercial High School from Group B, Lin Nan High School and Meipeng Industrial High School from Group C, and Hakata Shogyo University-affiliated High School and Shohoku High School from Group D. When the complete list of quarterfinalists for this year's National Tournament was announced, the entire high school basketball world fell briefly silent, followed by a flood of discussion and amazement.
The list made it clear that this year's quarterfinal lineup had undergone a staggering upheaval. Compared with last year's lineup, fully half the teams had been eliminated.
At the heart of this shake-up were two newcomers making their first appearances at the National Tournament.
Those two teams were Lin Nan High School and Shohoku High School from Kanagawa Prefecture.
In terms of the difficulty of their path to the quarterfinals, Shohoku had enjoyed a relatively smooth journey.
Since the National Tournament began, they had charged ahead without encountering many formidable teams, facing only one of last year's quarterfinalists.
The team that truly stunned everyone was Lingnan High School. Eliminated in the