In Game 552, Mitsui Hisashi and Jin Soichiro continued sinking three-pointers, while Rukawa began taking over on offense. His successive drives and scores completely shattered Aichi's defense. Though Akagi was so exhausted he was nearly collapsing, he still held his ground beneath the basket and used the last of his strength to complete a block.
Not until the final buzzer sounded did Aichi's miracle ultimately fail to appear.
In the end, the score on the electronic scoreboard was frozen at 104:88.
Kanagawa Prefecture VS Aichi Prefecture—Kanagawa won!
The Kanagawa Representative Team's second game at the Autumn National Sports Festival had come to a successful conclusion. This victory was not only immensely valuable, but also announced Kanagawa's dominance to every participating team.
It could be said that with these two crushing victories, Kanagawa had already secured its position as the ruler of Group A. On the Group A standings, Kanagawa sat firmly in first place, with the outlook looking exceptionally bright.
At present, Kanagawa had only one final opponent remaining in the group stage: Okayama Prefecture.
For the currently high-spirited Kanagawa, Okayama's strength was simply nothing to fear.
A look through Okayama's roster revealed almost entirely unknown minor players. They had no top-tier ace like Morishige Hiroshi or Zhu Xingda anchoring the team.
Whether in terms of individual player ability or overall tactical discipline, they were not even as strong as the formidable teams Kanagawa had faced before, much less the increasingly well-coordinated Kanagawa squad now.
Therefore, Kanagawa's third game could practically be called a sure thing. They would not need to expend any effort at all.
Quite a few media outlets and spectators had even begun discussing potential knockout-stage matchups in advance. First place in Group A had already been secured and would undoubtedly belong to Kanagawa.
Coach Takato Riki