Chapter 50: The Bloodstained Champion
On April 1, April 1, 1996, April Fool's Day, the NCAA Championship Game of the '95-96 season entered the second ten minutes of the game, and the UCLA Bruins led the Kentucky Wildcats by two points 65-63.
The attack of the Bruins, Liu Han, who controlled the ball, felt that his lower abdomen was still aching, and the injury he received before the end of the first half did not make Liu Han afraid, what he was thinking about now was to win this championship, not for anything else, but to make the other party regret his actions.
Liu Han dribbled the ball steadily outside the three-point line at the top of the arc, and almost all the players of the Bruins on the court were killed by the opponent, so Liu Han decided to come by himself with this ball, he first dribbled with his left hand to break through on his left side, causing the center of gravity of Tony Decker to defend Liu Han, and then Liu Han used a concise back dribble to pull the ball back, at this time the opponent's Tony Decker also tried to keep up with Liu Han's rhythm again, and the soles of his feet had begun to be chaotic. Liu Han changed direction in front of another right-handed dribble body and broke through to his left side again, Derk, who defended him, had done his best to defend Liu Han, his body and center of gravity had completely turned to the right side of his body, Liu Han immediately made an emergency stop after sensing that the opponent's center of gravity had been completely adjusted, and then retreated to outside the three-point line. Tony Decker tried to adjust back after being deceived by Liu Han's feints to the center of gravity, but he couldn't ignore the inertia to the extent that he mixed garlic under his feet and fell in front of Liu Han.
Liu Han, who was outside the three-point line, slowly raised the ball in his hand at this time and hit a three-point shot, 68-63.
Liu Han's whole set of smooth movements and the clumsy performance of the opposing defensive players made the audience on the field exclaim, and the substitute players of the Bruins on the bench also waved towels to cheer for Liu Han.
The Wildcats were largely indifferent to the situation on the sidelines at this point, and with the exception of Tony Decker himself, who felt a little humiliated, the rest of the players now basically only cared about the score of the game.
The Wildcats attacked, and Tony Deck, who was still a little unstable, handed the ball to Anthony Walker to handle, and he ran with Liu Han, who was defending him. Anthony Walker relied on his physical advantage to squeeze out his defender, Paul Pierce made a layup, 68-65.
The game continued, Liu Han controlled the ball quickly through the half, he did not single this time, but hoisted the ball to Paul Pierce on the left side of the court near the bottom line, Paul was just beaten by the opponent by relying on his body, and now he should want to return it very much, this is Liu Han's thoughts.
Paul Pearce received the ball and immediately put it on the frame, then tentatively stepped forward, then broke through the opponent's defense to the baseline and scored the ball with a lever under the basket. Very beautiful singles, 70 to 65.
The Wildcats immediately returned the favor to the Bruins on the next offense, and Anthony Walker hit a three-pointer from Tony Deck's breakaway to tie the score at 70-68.
Liu Han did not disappoint his teammates either, he immediately hit a three-point jumper in the Bruins' offense, Liu Han's shooting choice this time was not good, because Tony Delke's defense was not out of position, but Liu Han basically relied on his own feelings to play at this time, and he felt that this ball must be scored, so he shot.
With seven minutes left in the game, both sides are familiar with the characteristics and styles of each other's main players, and now at the end of the day, the game is a confrontation of will and mental focus, and whoever can't hold back this momentum first will lose the championship.
In the next game, the Wildcats finally began to show a trace of fatigue, they failed to succeed in two consecutive attacks, and the tense atmosphere of the game and the long period of physical confrontation finally made the Wildcats players start to feel a little nervous.
The Bruins seized the opponent's two attacks to no avail, and Liu Han and Pierce hit three points one after another, and the gap in the score finally widened, 79-68, in less than two points, the gap in the score changed from two points to eleven points.
Wildcats head coach Rick Pitino called a timeout, and now the situation for the Wildcats is at its most critical.
"Bao Jiao, Bao Jiao that Oriental man, now we need to stop the opponent from scoring by all means, the championship is in sight, you decide the way out for yourself." Rick Pitino's instructions were as simple as ever.
After a timeout, the Wildcats attacked, and the Wildcats players who had a little rest finally scored the goal, and the Wildcats small forward Derrick Anderson broke through the Bruins' defense and pulled back a bit of momentum for the Wildcats with a violent dunk. 79 to 70.
But in the face of the Wildcats' defense, Liu Han once again exerted his might, he took the ball less than two steps after half court and shot directly, and the ball flew into the net with a strong rotation. This ultra-long-range three-pointer finally gave the Wildcats players a sense of despair, which was unreasonable, neither in the NCAA nor the NBA, where no team had such a long range. 82 to 70.
Liu's three-pointer made Wildcats head coach Rick Pitino, who had been sitting on the bench watching the game, unable to sit still, and he stood up and came to the halfway line to stare at the players on the court.
The Wildcats' next offense finally gave the team a second life, and it was Derrick Anderson again, who hit a three-pointer in the bottom corner to bring the deficit back to nine.
With five minutes left in the game, the Bruins still have a nine-point lead over their opponents, and as long as the Bruins don't mess up in the next two or three offenses, the Bruins will win the championship.
Liu Han, Liu Han again, he once again used his unreasonable three-point shot to give the Wildcats a fatal blow, there is still a meter away from the three-point line, there are Wildcats players in front of him, Liu Han did not hesitate at all, received Thomson's pass and directly pulled up and shot, the basketball as always crossed the beautiful arc and fell into the net, the score gap returned to twelve points again, there were four minutes and forty seconds left in the game, and there was not much time left for the Wildcats.
The head coach of the Wildcats had no choice but to call a timeout again, this was the first time he had led the team to the NCAA finals, and he didn't want to give up.
"I said, Bao Jiao, Bao Jiao, this damn Oriental Yankee, as long as he passes half the court, he will be clamped by all means, and he will stop at nothing to interrupt his shooting rhythm, what we want is the championship, the second place is nothing to anyone, the champion takes everything, money, beauties, luxury cars, villas, these are only worthy of the champion, take out the courage to fight, not to the last moment, we will never give up." Rick Pitino finally changed his usual composure and grace and began to slap the tactical board in his hand to cheer up the players.
After the timeout, the Wildcats attacked, and the Wildcats players who showed the courage to win finally played their momentum, Tony Decker relied on the cover to shake off Liu Han and then distributed the ball to Anthony Walker on the outside, who twisted ****** broke through the Bruins' defense and dunked Thomson. 85 to 75.
There are four minutes left in the game, the Bruins' possession, Liu Han controls the ball and advances steadily, and at this time in the game, what the Bruins need is a success rate and try to exhaust the time for each attack.
Thomson mentioned the outside line to cover Liu Han, Liu Han broke through the inside line of the Wildcats in the direction of the cover, the Wildcats changed defenses, and the center followed Liu Han, Liu Han did not play misplaced, but re-passed the ball to the outside line to organize the attack again.
Paul Pierce received the ball and tried to break through, but after finding that the opponent's defense was in place, he passed the ball to Liu Han, who received the ball and made a shooting feint to shake off Derrick Anderson, who was defending him, and hit a two-point pull-up jump shot, and the gap in the score returned to 12 points.
The Wildcats attacked, and they played tenacious, and Tony Deck risked a three-point shot to make it 87-78.
The Wildcats, who completed the offense, immediately launched a full-court press, and at this time, Paul Pearce, who served from the baseline, made a low-level mistake, and in the face of the opponent's crazy pressing, he violated the serve, and the ball came to the Wildcats.
The Wildcats cheered at the unexpected player, and they seemed to see hope of overtaking.
Point guard Decker prepares to serve on the sideline, and the other players line up at the top of the Bruins' arc, and when the referee signals that they can serve, the Wildcats players explode instantly, Liu Han follows the opponent's Derrick Anderson, the Bruins' defense is in place, and every Wildcats player has a Bruins player around him to defend.
Decker passed the ball in the direction of Derrick Anderson, who was close to him, and Liu Han shot out from behind Anderson like a cheetah, he barely touched the ball with his fingertips, and the ball changed direction and rolled towards the Wildcats' halfcourt, Liu Han started again and chased the basketball.
Liu's steal drew an exclamation from the sidelines, and the Wildcats who had made a mistake ran like crazy towards their own half, and if Liu Han threw the ball, the Wildcats had little hope for the remaining three minutes.
Liu Han, who successfully got the ball, ran to the opponent's half at full speed, and the Wildcats' Derrick Anderson was not weaker than Liu Han's, and when Liu Han entered the Wildcats' three-point line to prepare for a three-step layup, Derrick Anderson also returned to defend in place, and he also twisted his body to jump after Liu Han jumped, ready to block Liu Han's layup.
Behind Liu Han, the annoyed Tony Decker also chased back when Liu Han jumped, and he was ready to block Liu Han's layup from behind, but he was helpless that his height was not enough to reach the ball, so he slapped Liu Han directly on the back of the head with a thought.
Liu Han didn't expect that there was a black hand behind him, his head was hit hard by the opponent, and there were opponent's players in front of him, Liu Han maintained balance in his hand and threw the ball gently, and then his body lost his balance.
Derek Anderson jumped first so he landed faster than Liu Han, after he landed, Liu Han's body leaned forward to him and pressed over, at this time, if Derek Anderson helped Liu Han with his hand, then Liu Han should not be hurt too much, but Derek Anderson's evil thoughts protruded, he curled up his body, seemingly to protect himself from being pressed by Liu Han, but in fact, Liu Han's body was completely out of control, Liu Han fell to the ground with an upside-down onion, and his right hand tried to support the balance when he landed. But his forward momentum was too great, his right forearm was directly broken, and his head hit the ground directly, Liu Han only felt that his eyes were dark, and then he lost consciousness, his head was bleeding after the impact, and the bright red blood flowed towards the rolling basketball.