Although everyone in Takezato had previously complained that the new car was too flashy, Oriyuki Iwasaki had been frowning the whole time. Coach Akai, upon seeing the car, immediately beamed with joy and kept praising Oriyuki Iwasaki.
" Iwasaki, this car is just perfect; it's totally worthy of our top four."
Oriyuki Iwasaki pouted and retorted, "I originally wanted a double-decker bus, my dad is so stingy!"
The Takezato were completely stunned. One of them muttered, "This is considered stingy?"
The Hinode West lineup for the match against Higurashi was exactly the same as the one against Shoyo: center Tomoya Imamura, power forward Yo Aoki, small forward Masanobu Mizuki, shooting guard Tatsu Shindo, and point guard Shunya Hojo.
The current Takezato is in even better form than when they played against Shoyo, especially Hojo, who has been training extra with Yo Aoki lately, and his timing and accuracy in passing have improved significantly.
The most surprising thing was the teamwork between Hojo and Imamura. They were both second-year students and practiced together every day. They were very close and knew each other's habits very well.
This play was much more reliable than the pick-and-roll between Aoki and Imamura before. During the game against Shoyo, when they did a pick-and-roll, Imamura didn't even realize that Aoki would pass the ball to him. When he received the ball, he just stood there stunned, clearly showing that they weren't familiar with each other.
Hojo and Imamura, however, had much better teamwork. Although Hojo didn't have Aoki's explosive power, their coordination was incredibly stable, and their success rate was ridiculously high.
This directly increased the flexibility of Takezato's tactics and reduced a lot of pressure on Yo Aoki's offensive end.
However, the team's biggest problem right now is still defense. Limited by the players' abilities, Takezato can only rely on zone defense to increase intensity. If they try to play man-to-man defense like Shohoku, they will definitely get riddled with holes.
Takezato's starting players entered the field, but instead of the expected thunderous cheers, only a few scattered claps drifted over.
Yo Aoki glanced at the sparsely populated audience and muttered to himself, "So everyone went to watch the Shohoku vs. Shoyo game?"
The quarterfinals of this year's Kanagawa preliminaries were played over two days. On the first day, Kainan and Ryonan played, and on the second day, Shoyo and Takezato played. It was obvious that Shoyo, the second-ranked team in the prefecture, was more interesting than Takezato, the fourth-ranked Takezato.
Just as Shirota said, the players on Hinode West are generally not tall. The center who jumped for the ball with Imamura is only over 180cm, which is normal. The average height is what it is, and even in the world of anime, there are still some objective laws to follow.
The referee tossed the ball into the air, and the game officially began.
Imamura leaped up and easily passed the racket to Hojo, Hinode West, didn't even jump.
After receiving the ball, Hojo immediately made a through pass to Yo Aoki, who was rushing forward.
Facing the defender, Yo Aoki slightly extended his left shoulder and shifted his weight to his right.
Hinode West, the defender instinctively moves to the left, trying to block the breakthrough route.
However, Yo Aoki used his waist and abdomen to adjust his center of gravity, pulled his left shoulder back after it had been extended, and suddenly turned his body to the left, transferring the ball to his left hand to dribble.
The defender reacted too late to move to the right; inertia caused him to shift slightly to the left.
With a "whoosh," Yo Aoki easily beat his opponent and scored a layup, earning his first point in an official match since joining Takezato.
"That Takezato player is amazing! He just dribbled past him with a shoulder shake!"
"That dribble was so cool!"
"I want to learn too!"
An audience member on stage was talking while shaking his shoulder.
The Takezato bench erupted in cheers upon seeing Yo Aoki's move, shouting at the top of their lungs, " Takezato! Takezato! Aoki! Aoki!"
Seeing that Oriyuki Iwasaki hadn't made a move after Aoki scored, Shirota quickly reminded her, "Hey, Iwasaki, Aoki just scored 2 points, you need to write that down."
Oriyuki Iwasaki pouted impatiently, "Fine!"
Then, reluctantly, he wrote down two points next to Yo Aoki's name.
At this moment, Hinode West quickly served the ball, a long pass found player number 4, who was only about 160cm tall. He received the ball and immediately started a fast break.
Hojo was about to move up to defend when this kid overtook him with his speed.
Wow, that's fast!
This is the tactic of the Hinode West, specifically targeting Takezato when the city is not yet firmly established and launching a rapid attack.
Takezato's backfield is empty right now, this ball is definitely going to go in.
From the Hinode West bench, the substitutes shouted at the top of their lungs for the player, " Tsugawa! Tsugawa!"
Tsugawa rushed to the basket and jumped to shoot.
As the ball was about to reach the basket, Tsugawa grinned and shouted, "It's in!"
But the next second he couldn't see the basket anymore—it was... dark?!
The reason was that someone flew over his head and blocked his view.
Tsugawa heard a loud "bang," and the entire stadium erupted in gasps of surprise.
In fact, Yo Aoki had just seen that Hinode West was about to launch a fast break. Although he had just scored and was still at the opponent's baseline, about ten meters behind Tsugawa, most people wouldn't have been able to catch up, but Yo Aoki was no ordinary person.
He sped off instantly, charging towards player number 4!
He caught up with Tsugawa in just a few seconds, leaped into the air, and swung his arm to deliver a powerful block, sending the ball flying into the stands – a chase-down block!
Yo Aoki's terrifying explosive power was completely unleashed in that instant!
This incredible block ignited the passion of the fans in the arena.
The entire stadium was filled with cheers, shouts, and screams that nearly lifted the ceiling.
On the bench of Takezato, Tsugawa pointed at Shigeru Akiyama, a player from Hinode West was still standing there in a daze, and shouted at the top of his lungs, " Takezato's hoops aren't for just anyone to score on!"
Someone in the audience shouted, " Takezato's number 10 is jumping way too far!"
"That's a really harsh compliment. Is that kid, Hinode West, alright?"
"I saw him catch up in just a few steps?"
"I counted, ten steps!"
"Nonsense, Eight Steps!"
"You're all blind, Nine Steps!"
Oriyuki Iwasaki stared wide-eyed at Yo Aoki, completely dumbfounded.
Shirota noticed she wasn't taking notes and quickly nudged her arm. "Hey, are you spacing out again?"
This time, Iwasaki didn't argue and obediently marked "1 block" in Yo Aoki's column.
Nakako nudged Masato Matsumoto's arm. " Matsumoto, when you watch Aoki play, don't you get goosebumps all over?"
Masato Matsumoto sighed, " Aoki's strength seems endless!"
Iwasaki's eyes were glued to Aoki, and he thought to himself: This guy is actually this strong?
The Hinode West and the ball is thrown from the sideline, and both sides enter a positional battle.
Hinode West's average height is far inferior to Takezato's, so they can't break through Takezato defense at all and can only throw up three-pointers from the outside.
But everyone could see what they were thinking. Just as they raised their hands to throw, Hojo swatted the ball away.
Possession changed hands, Takezato began to organize an attack.
After intercepting the ball, Hojo didn't rush to launch a fast break, but waited for his teammates to get into position before starting a positional attack.
Coach Akai stared at Hojo, a smile spreading across his face, " Hojo has improved a lot lately; his ball handling is getting more and more stable."
Hojo was guarding Tsugawa, and he used his speed to constantly disrupt Hojo's dribbling rhythm.
Imamura set a screen for Hojo, who Imamura Hojo.
Seeing that Hojo was unmarked, number 5, who was supposed to be guarding Imamura, quickly moved over to cover him. Now, Tsugawa was the one guarding Imamura, and the mismatch defense became effective.
Imamura didn't crouch at the bottom; instead, he ran towards the basket.
Hojo jumped up and delivered a precise handoff to Imamura!
Imamura took off and dunked!
The entire stadium erupted instantly, with shouts of " Takezato! Takezato! Takezato!" shaking the arena.
The Hinode West team has pretty strong mental fortitude; they stuck to their old tactics and launched another fast break with a long pass.
But just as the ball was halfway through its flight, Yo Aoki suddenly jumped up, grabbed the ball, and immediately broke possession!
The Hinode West player serving the ball widened his eyes. "You can intercept such a high ball?"
After intercepting the ball, Aoki didn't attack immediately; instead, he dribbled in place and waited for his teammates to get into position.
Hojo ran over to ask for the ball, Aoki handed it to him with one hand.
After Hojo received the ball, Imamura immediately ran over to set a screen, and the two didn't even need to make eye contact.
Tsugawa was completely blocked by Imamura, and angrily cursed, "Damn it!" as he watched helplessly as Hojo cut in.
After Hojo cut inside, Hinode West's number 5 learned his lesson and didn't immediately cover Hojo. Instead, he stood next to Imamura to defend against Hojo's pass.
As expected, after Hojo cut inside, he passed the ball to Imamura with both hands. The defender immediately abandoned Hojo and, together with Tsugawa, double-teamed Imamura.
But he miscalculated; Hojo didn't pass the ball at all, it was still in his hands! It was a feint!
Hojo immediately retrieved the ball and took a step for a layup! Goal! 6-0!
The audience gasped, " Takezato's teamwork is just too smooth!"
"Exactly! With the addition of number 10, Takezato is practically guaranteed a spot this year!"
In the first half, thanks to Aoki's strong start and the pick-and-roll plays between Hojo and Imamura, Takezato Hinode West.
On the defensive end, Takezato kept Hojo, Shindo, Mizuki on the perimeter, immediately returning to defense as soon as the attack ended, never giving Hinode West a chance for a fast break.
The first half ended with a score of 42-11.
In the players' locker room, Coach Akai said with a smile, "Keep this form in the second half and take the game in one fell swoop."
" Aoki, you've just recovered from your injury, so don't play in the second half," Coach Akai began adjusting the rotation.
"Okay!" Aoki replied.
He barely broke a sweat in the first half; the intensity was too low, so playing the whole game wouldn't have made a difference.
Akai meant well, Aoki also felt that the substitutes should gain more experience.
" Sanada, replace Aoki in the second half."
"Yes!"
The second half began, Takezato substituted Aoki, but the situation on the field remained unchanged.
"Whistle—" The final whistle blows!
Takezato Hinode West 99-36 to advance to the semifinals.
Imamura led the team with 31 points and 12 rebounds, Hojo 20 points and 15 assists, making him the second-best scorer.
Aoki scored 8 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, his stats were unremarkable, but everyone in Takezato knew he was holding back.
In that game just now, Yo Aoki probably only used about 50-60% of his strength, maybe 30% at most?
On the bus back to school, Shirota, who was holding an old-fashioned radio, suddenly yelled and woke up all the sleepy people in the carriage.
" Shohoku eliminated Shoyo and advanced to the semifinals!"
"What?" Apart from Yo Aoki and Shirota, no one else believed that Shohoku could beat Shoyo.
" The Shoyo team was actually eliminated?" Coach Akai was a little stunned, but after a moment he became excited. Takezato's chance had come.
He completely forgot about the analysis of Shohoku's fighting strength that Yo Aoki and Shirota had compiled before.
If Yo Aoki knew that Akai was in this state, he might be so angry that he'd spit blood and faint.
The Kanagawa semifinals are now set: Kainan, Ryonan, Takezato, and Shohoku, who eliminated Shoyo. These four teams will compete for two spots in the national tournament, and the matches that follow will be fierce and intense.
The basketball court at Takezato High School was unusually quiet that day, with only Coach Akai's voice echoing across the empty court.