Everything about that shot had been made possible by his lightning-fast release.
No one knew whether he was completely confident that the shot would go in, or whether he simply felt that a miss would not matter. In any case, he did not hesitate in the slightest. With a light flick of his wrist, he sent the basketball toward Ryonan's hoop.
The ball traced a steady arc through the air, crashing hard into the backboard before bouncing toward the rim.
The orange ball spun and rattled wildly around the edge of the rim. Every rotation seemed to pound against the hearts of Ryonan's players, and the entire arena held its breath.
The Ryonan players stared fixedly at the ball, their eyes filled with prayer, praying that it would not go in.
But fate seemed especially fond of Sannoh. Just when everyone thought the ball would most likely bounce out, it circled the rim several times before slowly dropping through the hoop.
The crisp swish of the net now sounded like a piercing curse to the Ryonan players. The electronic scoreboard rapidly changed: Ryonan 122, Sannoh Industrial High School 130. The gap had instantly widened back to eight points, with less than thirty-seven seconds remaining in the game.
An eight-point gap, with thirty-seven seconds left!
At the sight of this, the Ryonan players lowered the heads they had just raised. Their morale, which had only just begun to gather again, completely collapsed, and their hearts sank to rock bottom once more.
At that moment, Chi Tong's expression underwent a drastic change. The composure and calm that had always remained on his face, no matter how desperate the situation, had vanished without a trace. In its place was a nearly savage chill.
His brows were tightly furrowed, the corners of his lips