Shirota excitedly shouted, " Aoki and Sendoh are going head-to-head!" Oriyuki Iwasaki immediately retorted, " Aoki's smug expression is really annoying." Shirota immediately bristled, "Whose side are you on?" Oriyuki Iwasaki snorted and turned her head away.
Ryonan switched to Sendoh to orchestrate the offense. He held the ball at a 45-degree angle on the left side of the three-point line, looking at Koshino and signaling him to prepare to receive the ball. Shindo and Hojo immediately tried to double- Koshino, but unexpectedly, Sendoh, while still eyeing Koshino, passed the ball to Ikegami, who suddenly cut to the inside. Ikegami was open and easily scored a layup! The score became 41-42, just one point apart!
The entire bench at Takezato was chanting; everyone knew this was a crucial moment. But just then, Takezato made a mistake. During the attack, Shindo tried to pass the ball to Aoki, but just as the ball left his hand, Ikegami suddenly rushed out and stole the basketball.
Ikegami receiving the ball, Ikegami immediately passed it sideways to Sendoh. Sendoh advanced, and everyone thought he was going to drive to the basket, but when he reached the three-point line, he didn't hesitate and jumped to shoot! A three-pointer! The whole arena was focused on this shot! "Swish!" The ball went in!
"Wow!!" Ryonan's substitutes all jumped up, and the cheers from the audience brought the atmosphere to a fever pitch. The score was 44-42, Ryonan had taken a two-point lead! "Whistle!" The referee blew the whistle. " Takezato requests a timeout." Coach Akai called a timeout.
Yayoi Aida's eyes lit up. " Sendoh is so cool!!" Her colleague Nakamura looked surprised. " Ryonan in the second half is completely different from the first half, they're really strong." Yayoi Aida smiled and said, "There were quite a few unexpected events in the first half, which disrupted Ryonan's rhythm, but now they're finally back on track."
Nakamura muttered, "I wonder how Takezato will handle this. I'm kind of looking forward to it." Aoki was a little undecided, whether to continue guarding against Fukuda or keep an eye on Sendoh. " Aoki." Aoki turned around; it was Mizuki.
Mizuki said, " Aoki, you go defend against Sendoh, I'll handle Fukuda." Aoki replied, " Mizuki- senpai, Fukuda's offensive capabilities are very strong." Aoki could defend against Fukuda, but that didn't mean others could. He was afraid Mizuki had underestimated Fukuda.
Mizuki nodded, "I know Fukuda is powerful; I can tell from his movements." "With my strength, I can't truly defend against Sendoh, but as long as I can restrain Fukuda, you can free up your hands to deal with Sendoh, Takezato will have a chance to win." Aoki looked at Mizuki seriously and said, "Then Fukuda is yours."
During the timeout, Coach Akai told his players to stay calm, as they were only up by two points. However, his sweat-drenched appearance showed no sign of composure. The timeout ended, and both teams returned to the court.
"Oh?" Sendoh noticed Aoki standing beside him and a thought struck him, " Takezato has changed his tactics." Coach Taoka also noticed and immediately signaled to make Fukuda the offensive core. Taoka had high expectations for Fukuda and was afraid that this game would hurt Fukuda's pride again.
"As long as it's not Aoki guarding Fukuda, the other players on Takezato are easy to deal with." Takezato goes on offense. Hojo dribbles and immediately aims for Aoki's position, but Fukuda and Ikegami are double-teaming Aoki, so he can't pass.
With Ikegami double-teaming Aoki, and Shindo left unmarked, he immediately waved to Hojo for the ball. Shindo caught the ball and shot, but Uozumi suddenly appeared in front of him. With a "thud," Shindo's shot was blocked by Uozumi.
" Uozumi has finally recovered." Akagi nodded to himself. Koshino got the ball before Mizuki could. He wanted to pass it to Sendoh, but Sendoh was being closely marked by Aoki, so he had to dribble the ball himself. "That guy was just tangled up with Fukuda and Ikegami, how did he get into position so quickly?"
Mizuki was fixated on the Fukuda Yo Aoki given him, determined to force Fukuda out of the safe zone under the basket.
Simply pushing Fukuda further away won't help. Koshino watched Mizuki being crammed in like a bulldozer and muttered to himself.
Fukuda suddenly turned and lunged towards the basket, causing Mizuki, who was Mizuki, to slip and nearly fall.
Seeing that Fukuda Koshino created an opening, Yueye immediately passed the ball to him.
Fukuda caught the ball and immediately shot it off the backboard, the ball clattering into the pocket. The scoreboard jumped to 46-42, Ryonan widening the gap to four points.
" Fukuda, that was a beautiful shot! Keep it up!" Coach Taoka shouted at the top of his lungs.
Sendoh leaned closer to Yo Aoki, pursing his lips. "Looks like your teammate can't stop Fuku."
Yo Aoki scratched his head. "I'm the same as you, we both trust our teammates."
Yo Aoki then got entangled with Fukuda and Ikegami, who clung to him like their lives depended on it, refusing to let him touch the ball.
Hojo raised his hand again, intending to run a pick-and-roll with Imamura. But this time, Imamura didn't shoot from the outside; instead, he took advantage of the gap when Uozumi to defend Hojo and cut to the basket.
Hojo watched Imamura run towards the basket, and with a bouncing pass, he bypassed Uozumi to him. Imamura caught the ball and immediately jumped to shoot, but Sendoh wasn't about to let him succeed, swatting the ball away with a single blow.
Imamura's first reaction was to reach for the ball, but Sendoh was a step ahead. Just as he was about to grab the ball, Imamura, in a moment of desperation, instinctively pushed Sendoh.
"White team number 6, pushing foul!" The referee blew the whistle.
"Our tactics have been figured out..." Shirota said, his voice hoarse.
Actually, completely preventing a pick-and-roll is not that easy. Shirota said this because he doesn't know how to play the pick-and-roll game.
Pick and roll is supposed to be a tactic to exploit mismatches, but this time, after Sendoh set the screen, he was guarding Imamura, so the mismatch effect was completely negated. On the other side, Hojo and Uozumi were indeed mismatched, but Hojo's penetration was already weak, and he was also afraid of Uozumi's intimidation, so he couldn't take advantage of the mismatch at all. That's why Takezato's pick and roll kept failing.
Ryonan took the inbound pass, and Koshino passed the ball to Fukuda again. This time, Mizuki was very focused and poked the ball with his hand.
The ball was about to go out of bounds, Mizuki didn't give up. She leaped forward and scooped the ball back from the edge of the boundary, but fell hard to the ground herself.
Unfortunately, the ball was still won by Koshino, who immediately passed it to Fukuda. Fukuda dribbled one step towards the basket, raised his hand and shot, scoring two more points. The score jumped to 48-42.
Shindo ran over and pulled Mizuki up from the ground. "What a pity," Shindo comforted her.
" Shindo, this is our last match. No matter what difficulties we face, we have to fight to the end!" Mizuki shouted, clenching her fist.
Takezato then became less likely to use pick-and-rolls indiscriminately on offense.
Hojo passed the ball to Shindo, Shindo missed the shot this time. Afraid of being blocked Uozumi, he ran to the outside to shoot a three-pointer, but missed.
Uozumi pushed Imamura to the outside under the basket, leaving only Yo Aoki in the paint.
He used his body to block the position, getting tangled up with Uozumi, Ikegami, and Fukuda. The four of them jostled each other under the basket, each putting all their strength into pushing against the other.
As the ball bounced out, Yo Aoki seized the opportunity, mustered his strength, and with a sudden burst of energy, broke free of the three people and jumped up. He reached for the ball with one hand, his contact point extremely high, and after gripping the ball tightly, he pulled it towards his chest, managing to snatch the rebound.
But as soon Yo Aoki landed, he was tightly gripped by Uozumi, Ikegami, Fukuda.
"It's impressive that one person managed to grab a rebound in Ryonan's encirclement, but facing a triple team and without teammates to help, a turnover was inevitable." Akagi looked at Yo Aoki's posture and felt a mix of emotions. He remembered how he used to be often beaten like that.
Coach Taoka yelled at the top of his lungs, "Defend like this! Defend him to death!"
Just when everyone thought Yo Aoki was about to make a mistake, Yo Aoki shouted loudly and, relying on his incredible lower body strength, jumped up despite being surrounded by three people, and slammed the ball into the basket Uozumi! The score jumped to 48-44.
Coach Taoka's excited expression froze instantly.
"What... what's going on?" The audience was dumbfounded. "Is this a basketball game?"
The crowd in the stadium erupted again, and cheers surged like waves.
On the sidelines, Soichiro Jin asked in surprise, "Look, Yo Aoki made such a powerful shot, but the Ryonan guys' faces didn't change at all?"
Coach Takato nodded. "Because they already knew everything about Takezato."
Just like Takato said, Ryonan had already figured it out: only Yo Aoki was capable of fighting in the Takezato Team; the rest were all noobs.
Coach Taoka breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness, these guys weren't intimidated by that goal. Even if Yo Aoki scores a lot more goals, they still won't win the game."
Yo Aoki's dunk didn't put as much pressure on Ryonan as it did in the first half. Instead, Ryonan's defense became smoother and smoother, with the whole team on edge, putting increasingly intense pressure on Takezato.
Wu Takezato's two offensive strategies have completely reached a dead end. Hojo and Imamura's pick-and-roll was tightly marked by Sendoh and Uozumi, and Yo Aoki was constantly sandwiched between Ikegami and Fukuda, so he couldn't get the ball at all.
Takezato Team can only rely on constant movement to create scoring opportunities, but Uozumi's defense inside is impenetrable, giving them no chance at all. On the perimeter, Koshino and Sendoh are also closely guarding them, and even if they do get an opening, their stamina causes them to lose their accuracy.
On the Ryonan hand, although Sendoh was restricted by Yo Aoki, the other members of Ryonan played smoothly, and Takezato simply couldn't keep up. The advantage of victory completely shifted to Ryonan.
In just twelve minutes, Ryonan extended their lead to sixteen points. Takezato Team immediately called a timeout.
Coach Taoka chuckled and slapped the tactics board, "We have the situation firmly in our grasp." After a two-second pause, he added, "As long as we stay calm, victory is ours."
" Sendoh, can you hold on?" Taoka asked, turning his head.
Sendoh sat on the bench, twirling a towel in his fingers. "No problem."
Taoka laughed again, "That kid Aoki is a first-year student, his stamina is almost depleted."
Sendoh neither nodded nor shook his head, but he thought to himself, that guy is known for his confidence in his physical abilities, it's not that simple.
On the Takezato side, Coach Akai patted his players on the shoulder, his tone encouraging. "Hang in there, we still have a chance."
Yo Aoki leaned against the tactics board and smiled, "We still have a chance."
Yo Aoki picked up the tactical board from the ground and tapped it. " Ryonan is double-teaming me now. Shindo- senpai had a chance, but Uozumi stuck inside, unable to cut inside, and there was no space for a mid-range shot." He then pointed to the three-point line. "Even if we try the outside, firstly, the shooting percentage is uncertain, and secondly, Koshino and Sendoh will interfere."
The team members all nodded, Yo Aoki turned to Shirota and asked, "How many fouls have we accumulated in the second half?"
Shirota paused for a moment, then turned to look at Oriyuki Iwasaki.
Oriyuki Iwasaki under his gaze, quickly flipping through her notebook and counting on her fingers. "It seems like... six times? No, it's seven times."
Yo Aoki sighed, somewhat helplessly. "If we want to win, we have to get the fish out of the game."
He chuckled twice at this point, "Looks like I'll have to resort to some extreme measures, which are a bit shameless, to say the least."
Shindo leaned closer, his eyes shining. "Shameless tactics? Tell me about them!" The other team members also craned their necks and crowded around.
Seeing their curious expressions, Yo Aoki couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Are you here just to join in the fun?" "The technique is called the Hack-a-Uozumi Strategy '."
Oriyuki Iwasaki's eyes widened suddenly, and she shouted, "You're going to mess with Uozumi?"
Yo Aoki ignored her and turned to his teammate, who looked puzzled. "The so-called 'Hack-a-Uozumi ' means that when Ryonan is on offense, we foul Uozumi. In high school basketball, if he accumulates eight fouls in a half, he has to go to the free throw line."
Coach Akai frowned and asked, " Aoki, do you want Uo to take the free throws and waste our time on offense?"
Yo Aoki nodded. "Yes, whether this tactic will work depends on two conditions: first, the fish's free throw percentage is low, and second, we can grab good rebounds."
Shirota realized what was happening and shouted, "If he goes to the free throw line, he won't be able to get the rebound. We've got this second point covered!"
Coach Akai was still worried. "Then the first point... is the fish's free throws reliable?"
"Don't worry, teacher. Shirota and I checked beforehand, and Uo's free throw percentage is particularly low," Yo Aoki said seriously. "Moreover, this tactic can not only disrupt Ryonan's rhythm, but also force the substitutes to foul, allowing the starters to rest more."
Coach Akai finally made up his mind. "Okay, we'll do it your way!" He turned and shouted, " Akiyama, you'll replace Imamura. Three fouls and you're out of the game."