While Sakuragi Hanamichi was practicing his three-point shooting, the rest of the Shohoku team were also busy.
Akagi Takenori, Rukawa Kaede, Mitsui Hisashi, Miyagi Ryota, and Kogure Kiminobu, the five starting players for Shohoku High School, are playing a practice match against Josei High School.
Changcheng High School, as one of the top eight teams in last year's national competition, is strong and its members are naturally quite arrogant, so the atmosphere was very tense as soon as the two teams met.
Coach Kudo, a junior of Coach Anzai and the basketball coach of Changcheng High School, looked at the intelligence data of the Shohoku team in his hand with a solemn expression.
Based on the data, Shohoku's interior defense features center Takenori Akagi and power forward Hanamichi Sakuragi. Their combination allowed Shohoku to firmly control the paint, causing great trouble for other teams in Kanagawa.
What puzzled Coach Kudo was that Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was listed as number 10 in the data, was not present here.
Coach Kudo then looked at player number 7, Ryota Miyagi. This player, who is only 168cm tall, is extremely fast, has excellent ball control, and is agile. He is one of the top point guards in Kanagawa.
Number 14, Mitsui Hisashi, is a sharpshooter with three-pointers and is also the MVP of Kanagawa Prefecture this time.
However, Coach Kudo was most concerned about player number 11, Rukawa Kaede.
As the saying goes, youth is the greatest asset in boxing, and in the world of basketball, people pay the most attention to outstanding newcomers.
Especially for a super rookie like Rukawa Kaede, who has a real chance to compete for MVP.
Coach Kudo scanned the Shohoku players and thought to himself, "Aside from Kogure Kiminobu (number 5), who is rather ordinary, the other four Shohoku players are definitely worth paying attention to! However, our Changcheng team was among the top eight in the nation last year! Shohoku, do you have the strength to defeat us?"
The captain of the Changcheng team is Mikoshiba, and he shares similar ideas with Coach Kudo.
At this moment, Mikoshiba was defending against Rukawa Kaede.
Mikoshiba spread his arms to defend Rukawa Kaede, and taunted, "Rukawa Kaede, you're lucky! You're only a first-year student, and you already have the opportunity to participate in the national tournament!"
From Mikoshiba's flippant tone, it was clear that he didn't take Rukawa Kaede seriously at all.
Rukawa Kaede never bothered to respond to such arrogant people with words; he preferred to use his strength to slap them in the face.
Rukawa Kaede's hand, which was behind his back, was making a subtle gesture towards Miyagi Ryota, as if asking for the ball.
Miyagi Ryota understood and immediately looked for an opportunity to pass the basketball to Rukawa Kaede.
Without saying a word after getting the basketball, Rukawa accelerated instantly, about to break through Mikoshiba's defense.
Although Mikoshiba hadn't expected Rukawa to move so quickly, he remained calm and hurriedly retreated to defend.
But just then!
Rukawa Kaede stopped abruptly, simultaneously performing a crossover dribble to steady himself, and then immediately rose to shoot.
Rukawa's movements were extremely fast and fluid, easily shaking off Mikoshiba's defense.
There was a "whoosh" sound.
The basketball went through the net cleanly.
As the basketball successfully swished through the net, Rukawa Kaede glanced at Mikoshiba with a nonchalant air and let out a disdainful snort.
Rukawa's unspoken message was: "Hmph! That's all?"
This scene infuriated Mikoshiba, but he quickly revealed an excited expression and said, "This kid! He's got some skills! But with that alone, he's far from being able to defeat me!"
Changcheng's team immediately began to organize an attack.
Facing Akagi Takenori's defense, Omiya Shōyasu of the Josei team faked a layup, tricking Akagi Takenori into jumping to block, but in reality, Omiya Shōyasu was passing the ball to Mikoshiba.
Mikoshiba successfully received a pass from Omiya Shōyasu and then made a jump shot under the basket.
The basketball went into the net and scored.
It must be said that Mikoshiba's ability to attack the basket is truly top-notch.
Chang Cheng's team just executed a very good teamwork play.
At this point, it was Shohoku's turn to have the ball and attack.
Because Rukawa scored right under Mikoshiba's nose just now, Mikoshiba was clearly playing much more seriously on defense this time.
Rukawa Kaede, however, paid no attention to Mikoshiba's defense.
Rukawa Kaede first dribbled between his legs, then accelerated, about to break through Mikoshiba's defense.
But just as Rukawa was about to charge into the paint, he suddenly passed the ball to Mitsui Hisashi, who was standing outside the three-point line.
Mikoshiba exclaimed in disbelief, "What? He actually passed the ball?"
Mikoshiba thought that Rukawa, who had just tasted success, would definitely want to have a head-on confrontation with him, but unexpectedly, Rukawa chose to pass the ball in this way.
Mitsui Hisashi successfully received Rukawa Kaede's pass and immediately got up to shoot. The opposing defender had no chance to interfere with Mitsui Hisashi's shot.
"That posture is perfect!"
Looking at the perfect arc of Mitsui Hisashi's throw, Coach Kudo of the Changcheng team couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
With a "whoosh" sound!
The basketball swished through the net!
Three-pointer!
Wow! Shohoku's number 14 shot a really accurate three-pointer!
"Yeah! That shot from number 11 was amazing, and now number 14 has even hit a three-pointer! No wonder Shohoku won first place in Kanagawa!"
"Such a brilliant start!"
The cheerleaders of Changcheng High School basketball team came to watch the practice game today, and they were clearly surprised by how strong their opponents were.
Mikoshiba glanced at Mitsui Hisashi, who had successfully made a three-pointer. At this moment, the look of disdain for the Shohoku team was gone from his face. Instead, he said seriously, "Three-pointers? We also have sharpshooters!"
Immediately afterwards, Tang Chuan, the sharpshooter of the Changcheng team, sank a brilliant three-pointer.
As soon as Xiangbei made a three-pointer, Changcheng immediately responded with one of their own. It has to be said that Changcheng, as one of the top eight teams in the country, lives up to its reputation.
Therefore, although the members of the Xiangbei team were very confident, they did not dare to underestimate the Changcheng team.
At this moment, Kogure Kiminobu passed the basketball to Rukawa Kaede again. This time, Rukawa Kaede seized the opportunity and accelerated instantly, rushing towards the basket of the Changcheng team with lightning speed.
"Rukawa Kaede, don't even think about it!"
"Rukawa Kaede, you underestimate us!"
Mikoshiba and Omiya Shōyasu jumped simultaneously under the basket to block Rukawa Kaede.
Facing the defense of two people, Rukawa Kaede was not intimidated at all and met the attack head-on.
Rukawa Kaede, holding a basketball, swung his arm in mid-air!
Rukawa Kaede actually made a windmill gesture!
This windmill move successfully evaded the defenses of Mikoshiba and Omiya Shōyasu.
With a "boom"!
Rukawa Kaede's powerful right-hand dunk!
With a "whoosh" sound!
The basketball swished through the net!
At this moment, even the members of the Shohoku team showed shocked expressions, because this was the first time they had seen Rukawa Kaede use the windmill dunk move.
So cool!
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