Everything was too late. As he swung his hand out, he ultimately grasped nothing but empty air, not even touching the basketball's shadow.
The basketball had long since flown beyond his blocking range, carrying all of Ryonan's hopes toward the finish line.
Songwen Ren froze in midair, the determination on his face instantly turning to panic. He unwillingly looked back and watched helplessly as the basketball traced that life-or-death arc through the air.
Everyone from Sannoh and Ryonan stopped moving. Their eyes were glued to the basketball, their hearts seeming to stop beating at that moment as the numbers on the electronic timer appeared to freeze.
More than twenty thousand spectators held their breath, over twenty thousand pairs of eyes fixed on the basketball flying through the air.
Time seemed to stretch infinitely at that moment. Every 0.01 second felt as long as a century.
The basketball drew a flawless parabola through the air, an arc carrying the faith of the entire Ryonan team and Yueye Hongming's all-or-nothing gamble.
It pierced the tense air and finally descended, perfectly and precisely, toward Sannoh's basket.
A crisp, pleasant sound suddenly rang out in the deathly silent gymnasium, like heavenly music.
The net flared high as the basketball passed cleanly through the hoop, slammed heavily onto the floor, then bounced away. The three-pointer was good, and the score on the electronic scoreboard changed once more.
Ryonan 134, Sannoh Industrial High School 133, 0 seconds!
The whistle blew. The game was over.
At that moment, the entire No. 1 Basketball Gym fell into a strange, suffocating silence.
It was as though the breathing of more than twenty thousand people had stopped at once. Everyone stared blankly at the basketball that had just passed through the net and was still bouncing on the floor.
The