Ryota Miyagi understood immediately. He leaped near midcourt to catch Sakuragi's pass, his eyes already sweeping the frontcourt like radar while he was still in the air.
He saw that Kudo had pulled two body lengths ahead of his defender, Minami Shoyo, who had been caught off guard at first, and was sprinting toward Hakata Commercial's unguarded basket.
"Go!" Without any hesitation, Miyagi whipped the ball toward the frontcourt with one hand while still airborne!
He put all his strength into the pass, intending to send the ball into Kudo's path as quickly as possible.
The ball shot forward like a shell fired from a cannon!
But perhaps he had used too much force, or perhaps Kudo had taken off too quickly; the ball's trajectory was a little too far ahead.
It was not headed anywhere Kudo could reach, but was flying straight toward the baseline!
Damn! I overthrew it! Miyagi's heart sank as he landed.
Minami Shoyo, who had been chasing back with all his might, saw that the ball was clearly headed out of bounds, and his taut nerves immediately relaxed.
He instinctively slowed down, even turning his body to head toward the baseline for the inbound pass.
As far as he was concerned, he himself and that wildly inaccurate pass had combined to snuff out the fast break.
"It's going out!"
"What a shame. Such a good fast-break opportunity..." A chorus of regret rose from the stands.
But Ryota Kudo showed no sign of slowing down!
His eyes locked onto the basketball about to fly over the baseline. Clenching his teeth, he unleashed even more terrifying power through his legs, somehow accelerating again!
He became a streak of golden lightning, lunging toward the baseline!
"He's still not giving up?!"
Under everyone's astonished gaze, Ryota Kudo launched himself