Chapter 23: The First Battle (3)
At the start of the second half, the line-up on both sides was very different from the one at the beginning of the first half.
On the Xiangbei side, only the big forward Ishii is still on the court, and the remaining four are center Akagi, small forward Shakura, point guard Mizuno and nominal scoring guard, but in fact, Takasu, who focuses on outside defense.
Compared with the original lineup, the current one old and four new ones are not inferior in height at a glance, which can also be seen that the quality of Xiangbei's freshmen this year is actually quite high. In comparison, although Cheng Rin's side only replaced a Muji, it was immediately judged as two teams.
Having lost their respective scoring strengths, the second half of the game started to be a bit lackluster.
The new Mizuno is the best performer in the Xiangbei team. In Suzuki's opinion, after this period of training, although he is only in the first grade, he already has enough strength to start on behalf of Xiangbei.
It's hard to say that Mizuno's strength has surpassed that of the second-year Endo, but even if there is a slight gap, it is not obvious, and it is enough to compete with him.
It's a pity for Suzuki that whether it's Mizuno or Endo, the two have not practiced a stable mid-range shot so far, otherwise, sometimes playing double point guard tactics and then sacrificing the twin towers is a very lethal choice.
Mizuno made a number of exquisite passes to penetrate Makorin's defence, but unfortunately, only about a third of his passes turned into assists.
Shabin's scoring efficiency began to decline.
On the one hand, it is because after Koganei continued to eat and shake, he began to consciously suppress his instincts, relying on his little experience to judge Shakura's next move, and then choose the way to defend. Although this can sometimes be half a beat slower than the pace of Shakura, Koganei's good physical fitness still allows him to recover some disadvantages and interfere with Shakura's shots.
On the other hand, after Maki's break, although the replaced Akagi was full of deterrence on the inside and firmly suppressed Seirin's current center Mitobe, Akagi would neither pull the opponent's center away like Maki, nor did he rarely cover Shakura's inside attack, so it also affected Shakura's efficiency.
After Mito carried it with Akagi once, he knew that this new center forward was not easy to mess with, and immediately changed the way of defense to defend around the front, and it happened that Mizuno and Akagi had not formed enough tacit understanding between the two, but he broke the ball from Akagi's hands and in front of him once.
It's just that the defense around the front is always to make a prediction and move first, and this kind of gambling defense is not always successful, as long as Mizuno changes the rhythm, the Mito department will immediately expose the gap in the inside line, and then the ball will pass again, and Akagi will be able to score easily.
After Mito was promoted to the center, his original power forward position was taken by Tsuchida, who was resting on the side in the first half.
Tsuchida's physical fitness is not even as good as Hinata's, and after standing on the inside line, he is not an opponent of Ishii Nu at all, and he is squeezed to the ground and completely untenable.
After realizing that the level of the person opposite him was very average, Ishii began to wave to Mizuno frequently for the ball.
Ishii is now the only senior in Xiangbei on the field, and when he raised his hand to ask for the ball, Mizuno naturally didn't dare not give it.
Ishii's play after taking the ball is very simple, which is to squeeze out of Tsuchida and shoot under the basket. Mito was not his opponent in the first place, not to mention that Akagi was holding back, and for a while, Ishii scored two goals in a row and gave Akagi an assist.
After Xiangbei lost Maki, although the three fronts were not strong in scoring ability, they all still had the ability to score, but on Chengrin's side, after Mu Ji was gone, he suddenly lost the means to score.
Mitobe faced with the combination of Akagi and Ishii, as if he had hit an iron wall, and could only barely protect the ball with his nimble feet, but he couldn't get close to the basket, and finally had to return the ball to the outside.
Koganei's arsenal is surprisingly rich, but as a beginner, he doesn't have a single weapon that he can use perfectly, and after performing some difficult technical moves, he can't even find the ball himself, let alone score a goal.
Even if they successfully get rid of Shakura's defense, Koganei is also facing the same predicament as Shakura, as a small forward, they are really a little short in height, and the range of shots is very seriously pressed by the opponent's inside line, in order to prevent being covered, they need to shoot quickly, so it is difficult to say whether there is a crosshair.
Makoto Rin's reliable scoring point is only the captain Hinata.
After understanding that it was not enough to break through Takasaki, and that he had to face the defense of Shakura, Hinata paid special attention to Shakura's position when he got rid of Takasaki, walked around him, or beckoned Koganei and Tsuchida to come over as a cover for blocking and demolition.
However, this not only consumed a lot of his physical strength, but also consumed a lot of his energy, which made his hit rate decrease.
At this time, Seirin's rebounds were completely unsafe, and they were basically grabbed by Akagi and Ishii, and Mitobe and Tsuchida could only regain possession if the ball flew right towards their position.
After conceding two goals, Hinata shook off her hand hatefully, glanced at the scoreboard again, and was stunned to find that her team was already 10 points behind.
"We can't fight like this anymore!" Hinata said in a low voice, and her face sank, like a dark cloud.
Takasu was the first to sense Hinata's change, and he noticed that Hinata's movements had become tougher and more aggressive.
Originally, in order to hit the rate, Hinata usually flashed out of the gap before throwing, but now he will still force the shot when there is no gap.
Takasu didn't check a single one, he hit a three-pointer head-on, and he struggled to block in the next round, but he also sent a foul while failing to defend, and was beaten into a 4-point!
Hinata's outburst made Kiji, who was originally a little restless on the sidelines and chattering to Aita and wanting to reappear, a lot quieter, but soon, Suzuki's adjustment made him have to ask Aita to play again.
Seeing that Takasu was already a little restrained in the face of Hinata, wanting to intercept but also afraid of fouls, and losing points due to continuous poor defense, Suzuki was in the protection of Takasu, and pointed out Ki Twilight and Hotta, making the third substitution of the game.
Ishii, who had worked hard, was replaced, and although Hotta was inferior to him, it was more than enough to deal with Tsuchida.
After Ki Twilight came on the court, he stood in the small forward position, but in fact, he was swinging on the outside, and he was able to wrap Hyuga with Shakura at any time, and his offensive style was biased towards the pitcher, and he didn't need to rush into the inside, so he was able to take turns attacking with Shakura, and kept Hyuga guarded all the time, and didn't let Seirin play a fast attack.
Hinata, who scored 12 points in a row and tied the score difference in one go, was dumb again.