Slam Dunk: Muguro

Chapter 421 The Poor Shohoku Team

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At this moment, Coach Kazumi Kawasaki immediately requested a timeout.

When the timeout ended, Buriram United's lineup remained unchanged, but they noticeably increased the pace of the game and the frequency of their fast breaks.

Initially, Buri's fast-paced attack tactics did indeed prove effective.

Among the players on both sides, Uozumi was the slowest, given his size.

Compared to Uozumi, Nagamitsu has a slight edge in athletic ability.

Soon, Coach Taoka came to the sidelines and beckoned Uozumi over.

"Uozumi, reduce your offensive attempts and give up on offensive rebounds. Get back on defense as soon as the offense ends!"

"I understand, Coach!"

Uozumi agreed with Coach Taoka and immediately agreed.

The next moment, Ryonan launched another attack.

Uozumi began to focus more on the defensive end and supporting his teammates' offense.

These two aspects are also Uozumi's strengths; he is better at providing support.

With Uozumi making changes, Takezato, who had finally gained momentum, was suppressed again.

The pace of the game changed, and Ryonan's defense became more tight, leaving the Buri players bewildered.

On the Buri bench, coach Kazumi Kawasaki frowned, clearly aware of the predicament the team was facing.

He paced anxiously back and forth on the sidelines, racking his brains for a solution.

When Ryonan took a double-digit lead, Coach Kazumi Kawasaki had to call another timeout in hopes of finding a way to break the deadlock.

During the timeout, Coach Kazumi Kawasaki repeatedly emphasized tactical points to the players.

In addition, he began to try adjusting the lineup, replacing Ebina with Hiroshi Natsume, attempting to find a breakthrough through different combinations.

With Hiroshi Natsume's entrance, his matchup against Sendoh attracted a lot of attention from the audience.

There's no way around it, the two of them have the cutest height difference.

In Slam Dunk, the tallest point guard is Sendoh, while the shortest is not Miyagi, but Natsume Hiroshi.

Like Yoshinori Miyamasu, Hiroshi Natsume is only 160 cm tall, making him the shortest player in Slam Dunk.

Unlike the physically weak Miyamasu, Hiroshi Natsume has excellent athletic ability.

His characteristics are similar to Miyagi's; both are players known for their speed.

His speed was so fast that even the Shohoku team in the original story suffered from it.

The difference is that Miyagi is taller, while Natsume Hiroshi has excellent shooting ability.

On the field, Hiroshi Natsume caught Sendoh off guard.

For a time, Buri's offensive efficiency improved.

Of course, Hiroshi Natsume is also a double-edged sword, as his height is a significant disadvantage.

Sendoh was a full 30 centimeters taller than Hiroshi Natsume, so he naturally wouldn't let such a good opportunity pass by and increased the frequency of his shots.

Hiroshi Natsume was powerless to stop him, as his defense was completely ineffective against Sendoh.

Left with no other choice, Hiroshi Natsume and Ichiro Katsumi switched positions to guard Minoru Matsumoto.

Although Minoru Matsumoto is the shortest player on the Ryonan team, he is still 185 cm tall, especially considering he is a shooting guard.

For shooting guards, their primary responsibility is naturally to score.

Thus, Sendoh began supplying Matsumoto Minoru with artillery shells.

Minoru Matsumoto seized the opportunity, scoring 12 points in just three minutes with a shooting percentage of 70%.

Coach Kazumi Kawasaki had to substitute Hiroshi Natsume, but instead of bringing on Yoshiyuki Haishinaga, he substituted Kazuo Imamura.

As a result, the point guard position in this Buri squad is now vacant.

Surprisingly, the point guard was not Kazuo Imamura, but Mike Okita.

The power forward position was not played by Kazuo Imamura, but by Tomokazu Godai, who is only 180 cm tall.

At Tsugubu, Tomokazu Godai usually plays as a power forward, but this is the first time he has played as a power forward in Tsugubu.

Despite being only 180 cm tall, Tomokazu Godai is very strong in physical confrontations.

In the original story, he was matched up against Sakuragi and even managed to throw Sakuragi away during a contest for the ball, demonstrating that his strength and explosiveness should not be underestimated.

Thanks to Kogure and the experience gained from the National Tournament, Tomokazu Godai's strength has increased considerably.

This also resulted in Godai Tomokazu's status in the Buri team being second only to Meiko Mitsu and Mike Okita, making him the undisputed third in command!

With Mike Okita taking over as point guard, the clashes between Sendoh and Mike Okita naturally became a hot topic.

Compared to the prefectural tournament, Mike Okita has grown a lot and become more well-rounded.

However, compared to the genius immortal, he was ultimately inferior.

Under Kogure's tutelage, Sendoh's growth surpassed that of Mike Okita.

In their head-to-head matchup, Sendoh's performance was visibly superior to Mike Okita's.

Mike Okita was ultimately a last-minute scramble to become a point guard and was not competent for the position.

His playing style is mainly based on breaking through and passing, and his organizational ability is clearly inferior to Sendoh's.

In his confrontation with Sendoh, he was subtly at a disadvantage.

Under these circumstances, Ryonan's lead is still slowly widening.

Coach Kazumi Kawasaki, seeing this, was anxious and had no choice but to request another timeout.

However, this pause had little effect, and Wuli continued to be suppressed by Ryonan.

Although Takezato was not without the ability to fight back, he was always steadily suppressed by Ryonan.

As time ticked away, the Buri players grew increasingly anxious.

During this period, Coach Taoka also made substitutions, sending Ajin, Fukuda and Kiyota onto the field one after another.

Among them, Ah Shen's hands were burning hot.

Whenever Buri tried to narrow the score gap, he always responded with accurate three-pointers, making it difficult for Ryonan to shake their lead.

By the end of the first half, Ryonan had a lead of nearly twenty points.

When the second half started, Buri did not give up.

Despite the unfavorable situation, they fought hard on the field, trying to turn the tide.

During halftime, Coach Kazumi Kawasaki conveyed the belief of never giving up to the players.

In addition, all sorts of inspirational quotes learned from Coach Anzai were fed to the players as if they were free.

His words were like a shot of adrenaline, boosting the players' morale and preventing Buri's team from collapsing despite falling behind, allowing them to maintain their fighting spirit even in adversity.

However, the gap in strength between the two sides is obvious.

Having gained experience in national-level competitions, Coach Tian Gang has developed a commanding presence and acts with exceptional composure.

Time passed slowly, and Ryonan's lead became increasingly obvious.

Ten minutes into the second half, A-Shen hit another three-pointer, extending Ryonan's lead to 25 points.

With ten minutes remaining in the game, a 25-point deficit practically sealed the fate of Buri.

Nevertheless, the Buri players did not give up and continued to look for every possible opportunity.

Their efforts were ultimately in vain, and three minutes later, Ryonan's lead had widened to 30 points.

Coach Kazumi Kawasaki sighed helplessly and then substituted all the key players off the field.

Coach Taoka decided to call it quits and fielded a reserve lineup as well.

In the end, the Ryonan team successfully defeated the Buri team and advanced to the finals.

Ryonan's victory reflects their overall strength and tactical execution. While Buri suffered a defeat, their indomitable spirit earned them the respect of the audience.

As the match ended, Coach Kazumi Kawasaki could hardly hide his disappointment and resentment.

He originally wanted to meet Coach Anzai in the finals and have a mentor-student basketball game, version 1.0.

Unfortunately, he still fell short and lost this crucial match.

He can only learn from this defeat and summarize his experience so that he can perform better when facing Ryonan in the future.

Not long after, it was Shohoku's turn to play against Shoyo.

Compared to the previous match, this match was clearly more popular with the audience.

Both teams brought a large number of fans. Shohoku team goes without saying, while Shoyo team won the hearts of many viewers with their gorgeous playing style.

One or two of the stands were filled with Xiangyang students holding plastic bottles.

In preparation for this match, Xiangyang High School voluntarily gave students a holiday and organized them to cheer for the team.

If it weren't for the limited seating, the number of students at Xiangyang could at least double.

Even so, Shohoku's momentum was still firmly suppressed by Shoyo's.

In Kanagawa Prefecture, Shohoku High School has long since replaced Hainan High School as the king of Kanagawa!
Among them, the number of 'Kogure no Mikoto' alone exceeds that of the students from Shohoku.

Soon, the game officially started.

Surprisingly, Kogure did not play; he sat quietly on the bench reading a book.

Kogure opened the cover and began reading "YAIBA" with great interest.

"YAIBA" is also known as "Dragon Ball" and is a manga series created by Gosho Aoyama.

It was this manga that earned Gosho Aoyama a large following, laying the foundation for "Bleach: Elementary School Student".

Kogure was quite impressed with this manga, especially the scene where the protagonist peeks at the female protagonist taking a bath.

Both are about reading books, but Kogure doesn't just look at the title page; he reads the entire book carefully.

In this match, Coach Anzai did not field Kogure, but instead fielded a lineup of Akagi, Naito, Sakuragi, Rukawa, and Mitsui.

Coach Anzai believes this lineup is enough to defeat Shohoku.

After both teams entered the game, the Shohoku players finally realized that Kogure was not on the court.

"Damn it, Kogure didn't play! We've been underestimated!"

"Stop looking down on us! No matter what, we must force Kogure to take the field!"

……

In an instant, an indescribable sense of humiliation welled up in the hearts of the Xiangyang players, and an atmosphere of shared hatred quickly spread.

With this indomitable spirit, the Xiangyang team did not fall behind and even took the lead over the Xiangbei team at one point.

In the stands, Xiangyang fans erupted in applause, cheering for the Xiangyang team's tenacious fight.

Unfortunately, the good times don't last long.

After being caught off guard at the start, Shohoku quickly made adjustments.

They started to exert pressure on the defensive end, not giving the Xiangyang team any easy scoring opportunities.

Shohoku's defense significantly reduced Shoyo's offensive efficiency.

On the other hand, the Shohoku team, under Mitsui's organization, launched wave after wave of attacks.

Although Mitsui's playmaking and passing are not as good as Kogure's, they are still among the best.

In his matchup against Fujima, he gained a significant advantage.

Riding this momentum, Shohoku gradually overtook the score.

The moment they took the lead, the cheers of the Shohoku fans rose and fell, creating a huge and overwhelming atmosphere that completely overwhelmed the Shoyo fans.

Nevertheless, the Shohoku team did not give up.

Under Fujima's leadership, the Shohoku team launched counterattack after counterattack.

Every Shohoku player was giving it their all, trying to turn the tide.

However, faced with overwhelming strength, Shohoku's efforts seemed somewhat pale and powerless.

Coach Kitano looked helplessly at the court and asked the basketball manager beside him, "Tell me the number of rebounds for both teams?"

"Shohoku had a total of 16 rebounds, including 7 offensive rebounds! Our team only had 8 rebounds, all of which were defensive rebounds!"

Looking at the data in the notebook, the manager of Xiangyang Basketball Team couldn't help but sigh.

The main reason why Xiangyang was behind was their huge disadvantage in rebounding.

This can be seen from the inside players on both sides.

In the Shohoku team, neither Hanagata, Kishimoto, nor Hasegawa are players who excel at rebounding.

On the other hand, the Shohoku team has three rebounding fanatics: Akagi, Naito, and Sakuragi, each of whom has the potential to compete for the rebounding title.

In addition, Rukawa Kaede's rebounding ability is also quite good, and he can even compete with Hanagata of the Shohoku team.

"drink!"

Just then, Sakuragi shouted and once again overpowered Kishimoto to grab the offensive rebound.

Bang~

Before Sakuragi could land, he used his amazing core strength to complete the follow-up dunk.

The Shohoku players were helpless in the face of this.

They gave it their all, and the whole team worked hard to protect the rebounds.

Even so, Shohoku always seemed to find a way to break through and snatch offensive rebounds from their heads.

As a rebounding fanatic, Sakuragi never missed an opportunity to fight for the rebound.

In addition, there are Akagi, Naito, and Rukawa.

Of the entire Shohoku team, only Mitsui didn't contest for offensive rebounds.

It wasn't that he didn't want to take it; he was simply powerless to do so.

Such scenes began to play out repeatedly in the game, with the Shohoku team gaining numerous second-chance opportunities thanks to their absolute advantage in rebounds.

For a time, the Xiangyang restricted area was in a state of panic.

As time went by, Shohoku's lead continued to widen.

In the first half alone, Shohoku built a lead of nearly 30 points.

The two teams had an astonishing 2.5 to 1 ratio of rebounds.

Such a huge rebounding gap made the Ryonan team, who were watching the game, very nervous.

"Luckily we have Uozumi and Nango, so the rebounding won't get out of control like it did with Shohoku!"

Coach Taoka tried to convince himself, but he was still uneasy and inexplicably sad.

Because he discovered that even though Kogure had gone to America, Ryonan didn't seem to be a match for Shohoku.

Compared to two years ago, Shohoku's roster is much stronger, with a surge of outstanding players.

This left Coach Taoka both puzzled and envious.

The game continued, and Shohoku continued to struggle, but no matter how they changed their tactics, they could not change their huge disadvantage on the boards.

Unfortunately, their performance in this game was not hot, which made it impossible for them to turn the tide.

Despite Xiangyang's best efforts, they were ultimately unable to turn the tide and change the outcome of the game.

Following Ryonan, Shohoku team successfully advanced to the finals.

(End of this chapter)