"It seems that once I break through, I'll be sandwiched between Akagi and Rukawa." Yo Aoki realized this instantly.
Sakuragi bounced left and right, trying to steal the ball but lacking any strategy. However, Yo Aoki seized the moment when Sakuragi shifted his weight to the right, pushed off with his left foot, turned and retreated, while his right foot slid across the floor as he charged towards the basket. With a push of his left shoulder, he shook off Sakuragi!
"Damn it!" Sakuragi cursed.
Yo Aoki had already rushed in, and Akagi and Rukawa immediately rushed up to double-team him, but Yo Aoki suddenly threw the ball down in mid-air and made a bounce pass to Imamura under the basket.
Imamura, unmarked, easily scored, making the score 63-58.
Coach Akai chuckled, " Aoki is known for his selflessness in Takezato."
Sakuragi threw a punch in frustration.
" Sakuragi, serve the ball!" Miyagi shouted a reminder.
Miyagi's dribbling speed noticeably decreased. Just past half-court, a commotion erupted in the stands. It turned out that Yo Aoki had moved next to Kaede Rukawa.
" Aoki versus Rukawa! We've finally waited for this!"
"Who is the strongest rookie between them?!"
Kaede Rukawa leaned against Yo Aoki and reached out to Miyagi for the ball; Miyagi could feel the fiery energy emanating from Rukawa.
Miyagi smiled and immediately passed the ball over.
This is the first time Yo Aoki has single-handedly defended against Kaede Rukawa.
Kaede Rukawa held the ball and adopted a triple threat stance. Yo Aoki immediately judged: he definitely wouldn't pass the ball; the probability of a shot was low, and the probability of a drive was high.
He immediately lowered his center of gravity. After all, he wasn't so sure about someone like Sendoh, but for someone as competitive as Rukawa, breaking through his defenses was the only option.
Kaede Rukawa suddenly activated his power; it was indeed a breakthrough!
He stepped to the left with his left foot, switched the ball to his left hand, Yo Aoki moved to block, and Rukawa quickly switched the ball back to his right hand, then pushed off with his left foot and changed direction to the right.
Sendoh stared at the ball and shook his head. This set of feints was no match for Yo Aoki. But Yo Aoki was not fooled by Rukawa's movements at all and instantly stuck to Rukawa.
Arriving at the basket, Rukawa disregarded Yo Aoki's defense and suddenly jumped to shoot. "That's too reckless!" Kiyota yelled.
Yo Aoki also leaped into the air, raising his arms to block all of Rukawa's shooting routes. But Rukawa didn't choose to shoot; instead, like Yo Aoki had done before, he gathered the ball and passed it down to Akagi.
"Wow!" Yo Aoki exclaimed as he landed, impressed by Rukawa's composure. Akagi took a step, used his shoulder to push Imamura aside, and then shot the ball into the net. The score became 63-60!
"That was a beautiful pass!" "It's exactly the same move Yo Aoki made before!" Shouts from the stands rose and fell.
No one noticed Sakuragi; he was staring blankly at Yo Aoki, as if he had remembered something. Akagi turned around and saw Sakuragi still standing there, immediately yelling, " Sakuragi, stop spacing out! Go back to defense!"
But Sakuragi didn't turn back; instead, he ran towards Yo Aoki. Akagi was about to explode when he saw Sakuragi stand next to Yo Aoki. " Sakuragi, are you planning to man-to-man guard Yo Aoki the whole time?"
It turns out that Sakuragi had just seen Rukawa imitate Yo Aoki's mid-air shot, which reminded him of Yo Aoki's drive-and-kick during the Takezato vs. Ryonan game, so he immediately wanted to try copying that move. " Sakuragi, you're really good at learning!" Yo Aoki said with a smile.
"Haha, because I am the heaven..." Sakuragi was about to continue when Yo Aoki suddenly turned around to try and create some distance. But he didn't expect that Sakuragi wouldn't be shaken off; instead, he followed him closely.
"Hey, I knew you'd pull this!" Sakuragi said, hands on his hips, looking smug. Yo Aoki scratched the back of his head and chuckled sheepishly, "I can't fool you, so I have to go for real."
Yo Aoki suddenly sprinted towards the baseline, made a sudden stop, and immediately turned back. At this point in the game, only Sakuragi's stamina could keep up with Yo Aoki's speed. But this move didn't shake off Yo Aoki. Yo Aoki pretended to move to the right, then suddenly changed direction, creating a sliver of space.
But Imamura, standing at the baseline, dared not pass the ball, fearing he might mess it up at this crucial moment. With time running out, Imamura had no choice but to pass the ball to Hojo. Hojo then passed the ball to Shindo.
As soon as Shindo received the ball, Miyagi came right up to him for close possession. Shindo was exhausted and his composure was thrown off balance by Miyagi's defense. "Thud!" Miyagi intercepted the ball.
With his last ounce of strength, Miyagi threw the ball. " Mitsui!"
Mitsui, his eyes glazed over, heard the shout and barely managed to catch the ball. As he raised the ball to shoot, Mitsui Mizuki face pale, lunged at Mitsui. Yo Aoki shouted, "Watch out, don't foul!" But it was too late.
Mizuki accidentally bumped into Mitsui, knocking Mitsui to the ground. "Beep! White player number 4 commits a pushing and charging foul, red team gets three free throws!"
Kogure rushed over to help Mitsui. "It's okay, Kogure," Mitsui said, struggling to his feet.
Mitsui stood at the free-throw line, thinking, "I don't even have the strength to walk anymore. These three free throws are the last thing I can do!" The Shohoku fans were all praying silently.
After catching his breath, Mitsui raised his hand and shot. Yo Aoki watched Mitsui's movements and thought to himself: Even when he's this tired, Mitsui's shooting form is still like a javelin, not deformed at all. He should be able to make all three shots.
As expected, all three goals went in! The score became 63-63 tied! "Beep! The red team requests a substitution, number 14 goes out, number 5 comes in!" Shohoku substituted the exhausted Mitsui, at which point there were 2 minutes left in the game.
This time, Takezato switched to Mizuki to inbound the ball from the baseline. Facing Sakuragi's close defense, he successfully broke free with two crossover runs, and immediately charged towards the Shohoku basket after receiving the pass. Sakuragi closely followed Yo Aoki.
"Who is that red-haired guy? How can he keep up with Yo Aoki?" Sanada shouted in disbelief. Yo Aoki sped to the three-point line, then suddenly stopped and jumped.
"Watch out!" Ayako shouted at the top of her lungs. Sakuragi and Yo Aoki jumped at the same time, but Yo Aoki shot first before reaching the highest point, which caught Sakuragi off guard.
Yo Aoki landed and immediately ran towards the basket without hesitation; his shot was too risky. Sakuragi landed and paused for a moment before realizing what was happening and also rushed towards the basket.
"Bang!" The basketball hit the rim and bounced out, missing the basket as expected. But Yo Aoki was already under the basket, leaped up, grabbed the bounced basketball with both hands, and slammed it into the hoop. "Bang!" Dunk successful! The score became 68-66, Takezato took the lead again.
Akagi then capitalized on his inside advantage, allowing Shohoku to tie the score at 68-68. For the next minute or so, neither side scored, and the game entered its final 20 seconds.
Shohoku is on offense! Kaede Rukawa has the ball, Yo Aoki is defending him. Kaede Rukawa is starting to pant heavily; he's almost at his limit too.
Yo Aoki noticed Rukawa's condition and began to defend him accordingly. This change finally worked. As Rukawa was preparing to dribble and change direction, he suddenly stumbled and lost his balance. Yo Aoki immediately flew to steal the ball, but "smack!" the ball was knocked away.
Yo Aoki leaned in to steal the ball, but the alert Miyagi caught it. After getting the ball, Miyagi passed it to Akagi in the paint.
At that moment, Yo Aoki immediately straightened his posture, pushed off with his legs, and sprinted to the basket with maximum force!
Akagi caught the ball and jumped up, gripping it with both hands as he slammed it down.
The Shohoku bench erupted in cheers, nearly lifting the ceiling!
But just as Akagi was about to smash the ball into the basket, Yo Aoki yelled "No way!" and jumped up, swinging his arm to block the ball from Akagi's hand with a "smack."
"Wow!!" Almost the entire audience jumped up, the screams were loud enough to lift the roof off the stadium.
As Yo Aoki was about to dive for the ball after landing, a red figure darted past first—red hair and a red team uniform, it was Hanamichi Sakuragi!
After getting the ball, Sakuragi jumped up immediately. Just as Yo Aoki was about to jump and block, his calves suddenly cramped and went weak. The continuous high-intensity running and jumping had exhausted his stamina.
"Bang!" Sakuragi slammed the ball into the basket, making the score 68-70!
Haruko jumped up on the spot, screaming so loudly it almost cracked!
The Shohoku team had learned their lesson from Sendoh's buzzer-beating game-winner, so they knew very well that they couldn't let their guard down for even a second until the final whistle!
Rukawa had retreated to the backcourt, and Sakuragi was sticking tightly to Yo Aoki. There were only 5 seconds left.
The Takezato team panicked and didn't know what to do with their hands. Hojo stood on the baseline, clutching the ball, his mind blank.
At that moment, Yo Aoki shouted, "Pass it to me!", using Imamura's body under the basket to block Sakuragi who was sticking to him, and darted to Hojo.
Hojo realized what was happening and quickly passed the ball over.
Yo Aoki gripped the ball and strode towards the Shohoku basket, causing the entire arena to rise again.
Mitsui yelled at the top of his lungs, " Sakuragi, we absolutely can't let him shoot!"
Sakuragi's spirit was as taut as a drawn bow, and his physical talent managed to keep up with Yo Aoki's pace!
Yo Aoki also noticed that Sakuragi was acting differently, and he thought to himself, "I can't shoot three-pointers, he's definitely going to interfere."
The two advanced side by side, with Kaede Rukawa, who had returned to defend earlier, already positioned inside the paint.
Only 2 seconds left!
Yo Aoki rushed into the restricted area, planted his left foot on the ground, pushed his leg to its maximum, and leaped into the air, reaching out to dunk.
But Rukawa and Sakuragi jumped up too! They both jumped really high, and with a "thud," both hands landed on the basketball at the same time.
Three hands working together!
Yo Aoki strained his waist and abdomen to the limit, then suddenly thrust his arms forward, pushing aside Sakuragi and Rukawa's hands, and slammed the ball into the basket!
"Bang!" Yo Aoki lost his balance in mid-air due to excessive force and crashed heavily to the ground.
"Beep!" The referee's whistle blew, and the entire stadium fell silent.
The referee then crossed his arms in front of him and announced, "Time's up! Goal by the white team is disallowed!"
The match is over, Shohoku has won!
"What?!" Coach Akai jumped up and down in anger, rushing to the scorer's table and yelling, "Why is it invalid? It was clearly scored before time ran out! Are you blind?"
The technical staff said, "Coach, please calm down. We have verified the decision, and it is correct."
"Damn it!" Coach Akai cursed angrily. At that moment, Coach Anzai walked over and extended his hand.
Coach Anzai was a senior figure, Akai didn't dare to be disrespectful. Suppressing his anger, he grasped the coach's hand and said, "Coach Anzai, we lost."
Coach Anzai smiled and said, " Akai, you guys played really well. It's a blessing for Shohoku to have an opponent like you."
When Sakuragi heard that the goal was disallowed, he didn't celebrate with the Shohoku team. Instead, he walked over to Yo Aoki, helped him up, and solemnly said, " Aoki! Next time, I'll definitely beat you!"
Yo Aoki solemnly declared, "Next time, we'll definitely beat Shohoku!"
The two shook hands firmly.
On the court, Mizuki took a deep breath. If they lost this match, his dream of leading the team to the national tournament would be shattered. However, he had also grown a lot since the last match.