Recaps

Sendoh orchestrated Kanagawa’s offense as the team built a huge lead, while Mikoshiba lost confidence under Sendoh’s defense. After Akagi reminded him to fight for his teammates, Mikoshiba recovered and sparked Shizuoka’s centerless offense, which began exploiting Akagi’s weakness against perimeter shots.

• Sendoh shook off Shizuoka’s defender, assisted his teammates repeatedly, and helped Kanagawa surge ahead 29-6.
• Sendoh blocked Mikoshiba’s shot, and Shizuoka called a timeout as Mikoshiba feared his basketball career was over.
• Akagi encouraged Mikoshiba to keep playing for his teammates, and Mikoshiba returned to the court with renewed resolve.
• Mikoshiba passed to Shizuoka’s number five for a three-pointer, then rallied his teammates and helped tighten their defense.
• Mikoshiba secured a rebound and hit a three-pointer, bringing Shizuoka’s centerless tactic to life and revealing Akagi’s difficulty defending perimeter shots.

Kanagawa’s new second-half lineup overwhelmed Shizuoka as Yo Aoki disrupted the offense and created scoring chances for his teammates. Shizuoka switched ball handlers after Aoki repeatedly stole or disrupted the ball, while Kanagawa continued to build its lead.

• Coach Takato started Uozumi, Kaede Rukawa, Kiyota, Sakuragi, and Yo Aoki, assigning Aoki to pass and defend without scoring.
• Rukawa and Kiyota opened the second half with dunks, then Aoki stole Shizuoka’s pass and set up Kiyota for another basket.
• Aoki stole the ball from Shizuoka’s number 6 and passed high to Sakuragi, who caught it one-handed and completed an alley-oop dunk.
• Aoki disrupted number 6’s dribbling and intercepted his pass, then fed Uozumi for a basket under the hoop.
• Aoki stole the ball again and launched a long pass to Kaede Rukawa, who caught it in front of the paint and dunked.
• Shizuoka changed its offense, keeping number 6 off the ball and letting number 8 run the play.

Kanagawa defeated Shizuoka 101-54, and Yo Aoki drew attention with 14 steals before the team’s next opponents studied the game footage. Coach Miura forced the Toyotama players to join Daiei’s preparations, where Atsushi Tsuchiya analyzed Kanagawa’s threats and Kishimoto dismissed Aoki’s performance.

• Aoki and Kiyota disrupted Shizuoka’s guards, while Sakuragi grabbed five consecutive rebounds and helped Kanagawa secure a 101-54 victory.
• Mikoshiba accepted the loss without regret, and Aoki told Osaka reporters that Osaka would beat Kanagawa in their next game.
• Coach Miura confronted Kishimoto and the Toyotama players when they tried to skip Daiei’s film session, threatening their basketball careers until they agreed to watch.
• Daiei and Toyotama watched Kanagawa’s game footage, and Atsushi Tsuchiya identified Sendoh and Aoki as the team’s point forwards with contrasting playmaking styles.
• Masaharu Nitta volunteered to guard Sendoh, while Takashi Akimoto praised Aoki’s 14 steals and Kishimoto blamed Shizuoka’s guards for allowing them.

Coach Miura discovered from game footage that Yo Aoki was far more dangerous than his statistics suggested, while Aoki and the Kanagawa team studied Daiei’s tactics against Toyotama. The chapter ended with Kanagawa realizing Daiei had thoroughly countered Toyotama’s run-and-gun offense.

• Coach Miura named Itakura to Toyotama’s starting lineup and assigned him to guard Shinichi Maki, while secretly encouraging conflict within Toyotama.
• Miura revealed to Yamakura that he had proposed combining Daiei and Toyotama so Daiei could assess Toyotama’s players and sow discord before the Winter Selection Tournament.
• Kashiwaba brought Miura recordings of Kainan’s qualifiers, and footage showed Yo Aoki stealing, dunking, blocking, shooting threes, and finally winning the game against Takezato with a left-handed three-pointer.
• Miura realized his team had underestimated Aoki and decided to wait until morning to tell the players about him.
• Yo Aoki and the Kanagawa team watched Daiei shut down Toyotama by denying Kishimoto access to the paint and preventing Tsuyoshi Minami from scoring on the perimeter.

The Shohoku players studied Osaka’s strengths and discussed how to handle Atsushi Tsuchiya, Nitta, and Tsuyoshi Minami. Taoka helped Coach Takato recognize that fear from an earlier loss had made him overly cautious, and Takato decided to start his strongest lineup against Osaka.

• Miyagi, Yo Aoki, and the others praised Atsushi Tsuchiya’s all-around play, while Sakuragi declared he would beat him and was mostly ignored.
• Yo Aoki reassured Sakuragi that his defense could match Tsuchiya, and Sakuragi asked to guard him.
• Coach Takato identified Nitta as Daiei’s defensive ace, while Yo Aoki volunteered to take on Tsuyoshi Minami.
• Yo Aoki declined to suggest a special strategy for the Osaka game, and Coach Takato sent the players to rest.
• Taoka told Coach Takato that his fear of opponents exploiting his weaknesses had kept Aoki on the bench, prompting Takato to recognize the influence of his loss to Takezato.
• Coach Takato agreed to send out his strongest lineup against Osaka and show what Kanagawa could do.