The first to touch the ball in Episode 492 wasn't him!
Uozumi Jun's arm seemed to lengthen out of thin air, his fingertips firmly pressing against the surface of the basketball before him.
The downward force, carrying the weight of a thousand soldiers, made Masashi Kawata's heart sink.
What?
Masashi Kawata's pupils abruptly contracted. His entire body was still suspended in midair, but his gaze was glued to Yu Zhu's lips—more precisely, to the hand that had reached the basketball first.
That palm was broad and powerful, its knuckles distinct. At that moment, it gripped the basketball's trajectory with unquestionable dominance.
The crisp sound of contact had barely faded when Yu Zhu sharply flicked his wrist, hooking the ball with his fingertips in one clean, decisive motion.
As though drawn by a magnet, the basketball fell straight toward Ryonan's half under his force.
Masashi Kawata reacted with incredible speed, his palm nearly sliding after the ball at once. Yet his fingertips touched nothing but the basketball's blurred afterimage and empty air.
His body slowly descended with its momentum. When he landed, he staggered slightly, his face full of stunned disbelief.
He had actually lost the jump ball?
The Sannoh players on the sideline were all frozen, staring in shock.
On Sannoh Industrial High School's bench, someone even unconsciously leaned forward, as though unable to believe his eyes.
Their Masashi Kawata—the ace center who stood like an immovable pillar in the paint and had never lost out in a jump ball—had actually been beaten in the crucial opening tip.
Everyone knew there was no absolute winner or loser in a jump ball, but this sudden outcome still caught them completely off guard. Their previously relaxed mindset instantly tightened, and in that brief moment of distraction, a figure swiftly cut in to