books44 Chapter 174: End of the Knockout Round
Chapter 174: End of the Knockout Round
"Is it a foul?!" After hearing the whistle, Mu Mu's heart tightened, and he couldn't help but think of the scene in the original book when Sakuragi dunked against Hanagata and Nagano was called for a foul. At this time, the court became silent because of the referee's whistle. Everyone was silent and waited for the referee's decision.
"Black 4. Blocking foul, goal counts, one penalty kick" the referee announced the penalty while making gestures
"So it's not a foul." Hearing this, Murasakibara breathed a sigh of relief.
Sakuragi walked to the free throw line, and his free throw bounced out of the basket. However, his slam dunk had already brought the morale of the Miuratai team down to the bottom. They were still immersed in Sakuragi's amazing slam dunk, and no one paid attention to grabbing the rebound. As a result, Sakuragi shot and grabbed the rebound himself. At this time, the Miuratai players woke up from their dreams and quickly built a defense under the basket to prevent Sakuragi from attacking again.
"Sakuragi, outside." Sakuragi heard the voice and immediately passed the ball to the outside line without hesitation. Miuradai did not arrange any defensive players on the outside line. After receiving the ball, Katsumi shot calmly. Such an opportunity would naturally not be wasted. Three-pointer hit!
"Damn it!" Kawasaki served the ball from the baseline to Murasame. Kawasaki was absent-minded and the ball was slow. At the same time, Murasame didn't pay attention to catching the ball. "This ball is mine!" Kiyota rushed over from the side, stretched out his hand to intercept the ball, and then stood up and slammed it!
Coach Miuradai saw that the situation was not good and quickly called a timeout.
During the timeout, Coach Harada scolded his players again, but this time the effect was good. The morale of the Miuratai players was restored.
After the timeout, Araki controlled the ball to the front court and passed it to Murasame. Murasame tried to catch the ball, but still couldn't get rid of Fukuda's defense. Miyamoto ran over to respond. Murasame passed the ball to Miyamoto and slid to the bottom line with Fukuda. Kawasaki also ran out from the inside, but Sakuragi ignored him. Miyamoto saw this and passed the ball to Kawasaki. Kawasaki made a mid-range shot. The ball bounced a few times on the basket and luckily rolled into the net.
Xiangbei attacked, Sakuragi leaned against Kawasaki with his back to the basket, received the pass from Yohei, and then turned around to face the basket. Kawasaki did not lose his defensive position. Although Sakuragi turned around, he still had no chance to shoot, but he could still do other things. Sakuragi raised his hand and threw the basketball diagonally. Fukuda had already shaken off Murasame's surveillance and cut in from the side. He received the ball and scored a jump shot.
On the Miuradai side, through screens, it was finally a situation where Murasame was bigger than Yohei under the basket. Mito Yohei knew that it was difficult to defend against Murasame's attack under the basket with his height, so he let Murasame score two points.
"Give me the ball." After Murasame scored, Mito Yohei signaled Fukuda to quickly serve the ball from the baseline. After receiving the ball, Mito Yohei organized an attack. Sakuragi and Kiyota ran to the back of Miuradai, one on the left and one on the right. Mito Yohei passed the ball to Kiyota, who dribbled with his back to avoid Miyamoto's interception and rushed to the basket.
"You long-haired boy, forget it!" Murasame came up, jumped high, and covered the basketball in Kiyota Nobunaga's hand. Kiyota Nobunaga was not panicked in the air, he collected the ball, curled up into a ball, and floated past Murasame, stretched his body violently, and dunked the ball into the basket with his backhand.
"Damn, how can this brat jump so high?" Murasame saw that he couldn't block the ball, but he couldn't let Xiangbei gain momentum, so he fouled and hit Qingtian's arm hard. This ruined the dunk. It was a good idea to not let Xiangbei gain momentum, but he forgot an important point.
"Black 4. Hand foul, 5 fouls, out" Murasame ignored the number of fouls he had committed! With 13 minutes left in the game, the captain of Miuradai was sent off.
Qingtian made both free throws. After the defeat in junior high school, Qingtian strengthened his training in mid-range and long-range shooting. Although the quality of his long-range shooting is still average, his mid-range shooting near the free throw line is already quite good. If he is fouled, it may not be worth it.
In Miuradai's attack, player No. 9, who replaced Murasame, made a three-pointer from the outside.
Seeing captain Miuradai leave the field, Xiangbei's offense was a little relaxed this time. Kiyota's pass was intercepted by Miyamoto, and Miuradai quickly counterattacked and succeeded.
Miura Tai missed the three-pointer from outside, but Kawasaki made a tip-in directly, and Sakuragi didn't even try to get the rebound.
Xiangbei's attack failed, and Miuratai players grabbed the backcourt rebound and quickly counterattacked.
"Don't be too careless. Don't let your guard down just because the other team's captain is gone. There's still a long time left in the game," Akagi loudly reminded the players on the field.
"Good!" After being chased by three goals in a row, the Xiangbei players on the field corrected their attitude. This time, No. 9 took advantage of the gap and tried to shoot a three-pointer, but Kemei made up for it. Under Kemei's defense, No. 9 shot a three-pointer. Fukuda got the ball. Attack and defense changed. After passing, Sakuragi finally scored two points by attacking the basket.
Araki attempted to make a three-pointer to narrow the gap, but Mito Yohei was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He knocked the ball out of Araki's hands and took the ball, disrupting the attack. Shohoku quickly counterattacked and scored.
"It seems that Miuratai is doomed," the audience concluded. In the following game, it was indeed as they judged. In front of the Xiangbei players who had a correct attitude, Miuratai, without the captain, could not play any offense, while Xiangbei played better and better. In the end, Xiangbei won 105:61 and entered the joint finals.
"Shohoku..." Ryonan, Kainan, and the Shoyo players who arrived later looked at the Shohoku players with mixed feelings. In this game, the Shohoku senior trident actually only played together for 15 minutes (with 5 minutes left in the first half, Mitsui and Akagi were replaced), and only scored 35 points. In the second half, the first-year and two sophomores played for 10 minutes, and then it was garbage time. Everyone played, and the shortest-playing cross country also played for 10 minutes. And everyone scored, and Nakajima, who scored the least, also scored 4 points. Not only did the seniors of Shohoku play normally, but the three first-years also performed well. Sakuragi scored a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds, Kiyota contributed 4 wonderful dunks and also scored 10 points, and although Yohei only scored 6 points, he contributed 9 assists and 4 steals. This kind of Shohoku is the most terrifying.
As of 3:00 pm, the six teams for the joint finals were all decided: Green Wind, Buri, Xiangbei, Ryonan, Kainan and Shoyo! After the elimination round, the group draw ceremony was held. The rules of the draw were also very simple. The top two teams of the previous session were separated, the third and fourth teams were separated, and then Buri and Green Wind, who entered the joint finals for the first time, were separated. The final grouping is as follows: Group A: Xiangbei, Shoyo, Green Wind. Group B: Kainan, Ryonan, Buri
The specific schedule is as follows:
June 6: Group A: Xiangbei vs. Green Wind, Xiangyang has a bye Group B: Ryonan vs. Buri, Hainan has a bye
June 6: Group A: Xiangbei vs. Xiangyang, Green Wind has a bye Group B: Hainan vs. Buri, Ryonan has a bye
July 7, Group A: Green Wind vs. Shoyo, Xiangbei has a bye Group B: Hainan vs. Ryonan, Buri has a bye
July 7rd: The third and fourth place battle, the first and second place battle