Slam Dunk: Muguro

Chapter 183 Advance to the Final Four
A week later, Sunday, Kanagawa National Gymnasium.

On this day, it was the turn of the winter qualifying round to compete in the quarterfinals.

After defeating Kurido Industry, the Shohoku team continued to advance, defeating Sakai and Minowa successively and successfully advanced to the quarterfinals.

In these two games, Shohoku was led by Mitsui and Akagi, and Murasakibara did not play.

Although Minowa High School is one of the top eight teams in the county, it is still much inferior to Tsukutake and Miuradai, and is considered a weak top eight.

Even though Murasakibara did not play, Minowa was still no match for Shohoku, and eventually Shohoku won the game with a lead of over 20 points.

After the baptism of the national competition and more than half a year of hard training, the strength of Xiangbei players has been significantly improved.

Among them, Yuho Ikeda, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Kumamoto Yamamoto and Ichiro Sato have already qualified for starting spots in strong teams and even become main rotation players.

As for the starting level of a strong team, no one has reached it yet because the time is too short.

As it approached two o'clock in the afternoon, the atmosphere in the gymnasium became increasingly heated.

The stadium was packed, and even the aisles of the stands were filled with spectators.

"Mi-chan!"

In the stands, Tokuo Horita vigorously waved the "Flame Man" flag and cheered for Mitsui together with his two good friends.

One side of the auditorium was packed with female audiences, and they were none other than "Kuromuro no Mikoto"!
After this period of fermentation, the scale of "Kurogure-no-Mikoto" is still expanding further.

Their faces were filled with excitement and enthusiasm, and their voices cheering for Murasakibara rose one after another, gathering into waves of sound, attracting the attention of many viewers.

At 2:30, Shohoku and Ryonan finally took the court, and the atmosphere in the gymnasium finally reached its peak.

"Shobei! Shobei!"

Spectators without the ball waved flags and banners to cheer for the Xiangbei team.

Their enthusiasm and momentum completely suppressed the audience supporting Ryonan, making the entire stadium the home court of the Shohoku team.

Soon, players from both teams came on the court.

This time, Xiangbei sent out the starting lineup of Akagi, Yuho Ikeda, Ichiro Sato, Mitsui and Nobuhiko Okamoto.

That’s right, Murasakibara still didn’t play.

The reason why Coach Anzai did not arrange for Murasakibara to play was because he did not want the team to rely too much on Murasakibara, especially since Murasakibara was facing a two-game national ban.

If Shohoku qualifies for the winter tournament, Murasakibara will be suspended for the first two rounds.

At that time, Xiangbei can only rely on the current lineup.

Coach Anxi made this arrangement mainly to allow Xiangbei to adapt in advance.

On the other side, Ryonan's starting lineup came on the court at the same time.

Ryonan

Center: Jun Uozumi, 200 cm, 89 kg, first grade
Power forward: Inoue Toyoshi, 189cm, 84kg, sophomore
Small forward: Sasaki Oribe, 181 cm, 74 kg, third grade
Shooting guard: Yusaku Ozawa, 177 cm, 71 kg, third grade
Point guard: Matsushita Asahi, 167 cm, 63 kg, sophomore
Like the practice match, there was no change in the Ryonan team's lineup.

Seeing the starting lineup of Xiangbei, Yusaku Ozawa frowned and whispered to himself: "Sure enough, Murasakibara didn't play!"

This did not surprise Yusaku Ozawa, because in the previous game against Minowa, Murasakibara also did not play.

Among the top eight teams in the county, Ryonan is in the middle. Even if it is stronger than Minowa, it is only slightly stronger.

At this time, the other Ryonan players also discovered that Murasakibara was not on the court.

The Ryonan players suddenly felt that they were being looked down upon and felt inexplicably unhappy.

This is just like in the plot of the match against Xiangxiang, where the 'substitute player' Fujima did not play.

"We have to teach them a lesson and force Mugure to play!"

As the captain, Yusaku Ozawa took the opportunity to inspire his teammates' fighting spirit.

The other Ryonan players nodded in agreement, secretly vowing to teach Shohoku a lesson and prepare to prove their strength with practical actions.

For a time, Ryonan was full of fighting spirit.

Like Minowa, the Ryonan players had the same idea.

However, Minowa failed, and they never forced Murasakibara to the field from beginning to end.

Beep~
As the whistle sounded, the referee threw the ball into the air. "Hah!"

Yuzumi overpowered Akagi and passed the ball to Matsushita Asahi first.

Seeing that there was no fast break opportunity, Matsushita Asahi carried the ball across half court, waiting for his teammates to get into position.

Soon, Yuzumi took the initiative to step forward to screen for Matsushita Asahi Ken.

Yuzumi's pick-and-roll was of very good quality, and Matsushita Asahi easily shook off Okamoto Nobuhiko and attacked the basket with the ball.

Akagi had no choice but to switch defense and head towards Matsushita Asahi.

Matsushita Asahi dribbled sideways, and when Yuzumi cut into the basket, he immediately passed the ball to him.

Bang~
After receiving the ball, Yuzumi successfully scored a slam dunk with the Monkey Boss.

It was Shohoku's turn to attack, and Nobuhiko Okamoto passed the ball to Akagi who was in the low post.

Although Murasakibara was not on the court, the Shohoku team showed no weakness.

Akagi received the ball with his back to the basket. Since he often stayed with Uozumi, both of them were familiar with each other's style and habits.

Unfortunately, Yuzumi has been exposed to basketball for too short a time, and there is a big gap between him and Akagi.

Akagi used his back to the basket to successfully shake Yuzumi's center of gravity and immediately turned around to break through.

After attracting Sasaki Oribe's backup defense, Akagi quickly passed the ball to Sato Ichiro who appeared at the corner.

The horns on both sides are Sato Ichiro's most reliable shooting points.

As soon as he received the pass, Ichiro Sato immediately made a mid-range shot.

shuh~
The basketball hit the net.

Having started three games in a row, Ichiro Sato's confidence has continued to grow and his performance has become more stable.

In the audience, Ichiro Kamiso, who was watching the game with Yoshitaka Fukuda, couldn't take his eyes off it.

Ichiro Kamiso stared at Ichiro Sato closely because he found too many similarities between the two.

"If he can do it, I should be able to do it too!"

Seeing Sato Ichiro's performance on the court getting better and better, and even scoring the ball against Sasaki Oribe's defense, Kamiso Ichiro, who was still playing center at this time, finally made up his mind.

He really doesn't want to play center anymore!

He seemed to have found his path in life from Ichiro Sato.

The game on the field is still going on. The players of Ryonan are all full of fighting spirit, with firm belief revealed in their eyes. They are eager to force Murasakibara to play.

However, under the leadership of Akagi and Mitsui, Xiangbei never fell behind.

In the first half, the two sides were almost tied.

In the second half, Mitsui began to exert his strength. His three-pointers were like precision-guided missiles, hitting the basket accurately again and again.

When the Ryonan players began to focus on defending Mitsui's three-pointers, Mitsui resolutely started the breakthrough mode.

Under the guidance of Murasakibara, Mitsui's breakthrough skills have reached top level, but because of Murasakibara, Mitsui rarely has the opportunity to show this talent.

Ryonan was unable to effectively curb Mitsui's scoring momentum.

With Mitsui's outstanding performance, Xiangbei gradually took the initiative on the court.

The current Shohoku is no longer the team that was trampled on by its opponents at will. Even without Murasakibara, it has the level of being one of the top 16 in the country.

As the game progressed, Xiangbei's lead further expanded.

Faced with the strong performance of the Xiangbei team, Ryonan seemed a little overwhelmed.

Even though Coach Tanaka called timeouts repeatedly, he was unable to curb this trend.

Beep~
When the long electronic beep sounded, symbolizing the end of the game, Shohoku finally defeated Ryonan with a double-digit advantage and advanced to the semi-finals.

The next opponent will be Shoyo, and the game will be held next week.

(End of this chapter)