Aiwa Academy was on offense, but repeated passes failed to break through Shohoku's tight defense, and little time remained on the shot clock.
The ball returned to Dai Moroboshi. Faced with Kaede Rukawa's airtight defense, Moroboshi failed to force his way through. With the 24-second clock about to expire, he attempted a difficult fadeaway jumper.
Clang!
The ball struck the front of the rim and bounced high into the air.
"Rebound!" The inside players on both teams roared at once!
The area beneath the basket instantly became an arena of colliding muscles. Takenori Akagi, Hanamichi Sakuragi, Jun Koizumi, and Tsuguhito Nakajima-the four burly players frantically boxed out, shoved, and jumped!
With his overwhelming strength and boxing-out technique, Akagi secured the best position.
He roared and leaped like a giant bear, reaching his huge hand toward the orange-red basketball in the air.
Just as Akagi's fingertips were about to touch the ball, below him, Aiwa's center Jun Koizumi shifted his foot slightly outward as he landed while fighting for position.
Takenori Akagi's massive body descended, and his left foot came down hard-
Crack!
A dull, teeth-grating sound of bones shifting out of place rang out.
"Aah!" Takenori Akagi let out a muffled cry of pain. As though every bone had been pulled from his body, he instantly lost his balance and crashed onto the floor.
He clutched his left ankle tightly with both hands. His face turned as white as paper in an instant, and beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.
The entire gym fell deathly silent! Everyone was stunned by the sudden turn of events.
"Akagi!" Ryota Kudo, Kaede Rukawa, Hisashi Mitsui, Hanamichi Sakuragi... every Shohoku player rushed over in alarm.
"Gorilla!" Hanamichi Sakuragi was the first to reach Akagi, his voice choked with tears.
"C-Captain!" Ryota Miyagi