Kapitel 181: The Girls And Their Basketball Masterclass; Second Half
(Third Person's POV)
"Yah, that was nicely done, Rokuko-chan, Pochi-chan. Good job!" Mutsuko said while looking at the scoreboard where they are on the lead by a good amount.
"Thanks, Mutsuko! That was really fun! I definitely could shot more threes though…" Rokuko said while wiping her face with a clean towel.
"Pochi is sorry nodesu! Pochi got super excited doing layups nanodesu! They can't catch Pochi, nanodesuyo!?" Pochi said while sitting right next to Tama who helped her wipe her sweat with a towel.
"Thank you Tama nodesu…"
"Elcome~!"
Everyone just talked about the game during the halftime break. Those who got to play shared their experience while those who still haven't gotten the chance to play were brimming with excitement as they listened in on their classmates talk.
Even the calm Kanzaki couldn't wait to have her turn in playing. Incidentally, she's one of the players who'll be going out to play during the third quarter.
After talking for a few minutes and relaxing a bit, the second half finally started with yet another huge change to the roster of Class 3-E. The players from the Girl's Basketball Club who just regained some of their lost confidence after talking about the countermeasures they'll be doing against the players of Class 3-E was rattled when they saw yet another different roster.
"Coach…"
They all looked at their coach helplessly, trying to find some answers from him. Of course, the coach himself felt like he was getting played by this Class 3-E.
Whoever's acting as their leader right now is already labeled as a sadist inside his mind. Why does she keep on changing their roster when it was doing so well!? If it were him, he wouldn't do that.
'I just hope they wouldn't make all of their best players play together…' the coach thought, feeling a cold chill run down his spine.
The current roster of Class 3-E is those five who haven't played yet. One of them is the said coach/leader of the team, Sakaki Mutsuko.
Other than her, there's Kanzaki Yukiko, Yada Touka, Hara Sumire, and Fuwa Yuzuki. This time, since there's really not that much of a height difference between all of them, with Hara Sumire being the smallest amongst them(156cm), whilst the other four's heights are hovering around 159-167cm.
Their height are 159cm, 161cm, 156cm, and 160cm respectively. As for Mutsuko, well, she's 167cm.
Since she was the tallest, Mutsuko decided that she will be playing as the Center/Forward while the other three should play the position they like to play. Thus, Yada Touka ended up as the Point Guard, Hara Sumire as Shooting Guard, Kanzaki Yukiko as the Small Forward, and Fuwa Yuzuki as the Power Forward.
With their positions arranged, they are now just waiting for the game to begin. It's being delayed since the enemy team still isn't inside the court.
"You girls know what to do now, right? Our primary goal is to maintain the lead, while our secondary goal is to crush them with an even higher lead!"
"You got it, chief! Good thing you, Labyrinthhart, Kuro-chan, and Shirayuki-chan are here. If not, we wouldn't have been showcased in the past few chapters." Fuwa commented, acting like she was some kind of work of fiction who's trying to break the fourth wall.
"Eh? What do you mean, Fuwa-san?" Kanzaki asked while a lot of question marks are floating above her head.
"Hahaha. It's just Fuwa-san's imaginative brain on the work, Kanzaki-san. Anyway, she was definitely right on the first part." Yada commented.
"Uh-huh… She's as much of an otaku as that Terasaka." Sumire added.
"What do you mean by that!? I felt hurt by that comparison, Hara-san!" Fuwa exclaimed, backing off slightly while looking a bit irked by the comparison.
"Hmm, Fuwa-san is right. If there's anyone who's the protagonist here, it should be Shun-kun." Mutsuko said after pondering for a moment.
"Eh, that's true. He's got that protagonist-like, atmosphere to him. Though I think that's the same for you, Kuro-chan, Shirayuki-chan, and Labyrinthhart-san!"
"Hah, that's kinda true…? Shirakami-kun is really cool…" Kanzaki commented, agreeing with what Fuwa said. Her latter words was a little inaudible though.
"He likes to tease others a bit too much, though…" Yada said with a wry smile on her face. She's been teased by Shun a couple of times during their practice, whenever she messed up.
"He came across as a cold and aloof guy when he first transferred in, but it turns out that he wasn't like that at all." Sumire added.
"Really? I think Shun has always been an approachable guy. Maybe you think like that since he intimidated your classmate the moment we transferred in." Mutsuko said while putting her index finger on her chin.
That was when the referee finally blew the whistle, indicating that the match is finally starting.
"Alright! The game's starting guys! Don't forget, if you can't find a way to score, just pass the ball to me!"
""""Hai!""""
The game started with the Girl's Basketball Club players getting the first possession of the ball for this third quarter. Since they don't really have any idea as to how this specific arrangement of players play, they chose to do their usual passing patterns.
They've used it so many times against Class 3-E and they've been stopped most of the time. Thus, this play is nothing short of a miss-play for them.
Class 3-E already know this passing pattern. What's more, there's someone in this specific lineup of Class 3-E who has a pretty good memory.
'Their usual play!?' Fuwa thought the moment she saw the very familiar way of how the point guard of the enemy team entered the half court.
"The next play should be…"
Fuwa eyed the person she's defending and saw her moving to do a screen. This finally confirmed her thoughts earlier.
When she looked around, she saw the Small Forward of the enemy cutting the lane, which gave her a pretty good grasp as to where the Point Guard will pass the ball. With that in mind, Fuwa moved carefully, seeing if the enemy has made the pass yet.
A second later, the Point Guard finally made the pass and Fuwa immediately jumped forward to cut the passing lane. With the ball in her hands, she made the run for it.
"As if I'd let you guys score that easily!" Said the enemy Power Forward who managed to catch up to Fuwa.
However, that didn't matter.
With a bounce pass, Fuwa passed the ball to her teammate Yada who ran faster than her and the Power Forward of the enemy. Well, that's kinda to be expected as she is an athlete, a gymnast to be exact.
Even so, the faster and smaller Point Guard of the enemy team still managed to catch up to Yada and was disrupting her so she had no choice but to pass the ball outside. Thankfully, Hara and Kanzaki were already there.
"Here! Score!" Yada shouted as she passed the ball with an overhead pass, making sure that the enemy Point Guard wouldn't be able to get it.
"Ah!" After receiving the pass and getting closed in on by the enemy Power Forward, Hara immediately passed the ball to the now free Kanzaki.
Kanzaki caught the ball before jumping and taking the shot rather confidently. She has been taught by Rokuko how to catch and shoot the ball so she knows a thing or two about it.
*swish*
Sure enough, the ball sank in without any problems.
A few possessions later, they did the same thing but, this time, Kanzaki unfortunately missed the shot since the enemy Shooting Guard managed to ever so slightly tip the ball. Thankfully, Mutsuko managed to easily box out the enemy's center despite being a smaller build than her before taking the rebound and doing a follow up.
"Haha, phew, that felt good." Mutsuko said while flicking her hair behind her.
The enemy team could only look at them with frustration as they couldn't, for the life of them, catch up to Class 3-E's score. Unfortunately for them, their nightmare doesn't end here.
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
Inside the gym of the Kunugigaoka Junior High School, everyone who's studying at the main campus who's here to see the Class 3-E get stomped on was extremely dumbfounded as they watched Class 3-E's lead grow higher and higher. They rarely get the chance to score as two small players of Class 3-E would, more often than not, steal the ball if they pass it carelessly.
Every onlookers were so dumbfounded that they couldn't even close their mouths shut.
"That… Is that really Class 3-E?"
"I… think so…?"
"It's really unbelievable that they're able to gain so much lead against our Girl's Basketball Team. They're constantly able to enter the Inter High, right?"
"Maybe they're just feeling ill. Look, all of the are looking pale."
"That must be the case! There's no way they could lose so badly against a bunch of losers and castaways."
These onlookers found the spectacle that they are witnessing so unbelievable that they thought up of anything and everything to discredit Class 3-E.
As if the current players of Class 3-E were saying, "What was it? You're saying something?" the white haired little girl threw the ball in the air before a black haired little girl took off and caught it midair. Then, when someone tried to contest her shot, she did a pump fake before spinning her body midair and laying the ball to the basket.
*swoosh*
"Yay~!"
"Yay, nanodesu!"
As if they were listening to the thoughts of the coach of the Girl's Basketball Club, Class 3-E's line up for the Fourth Quarter was literally arranged to put the nail in the coffin on the previously confident Girl's Basketball Club Team. Shirayukineko Sorashi(PG), Kuroinu Kanami(SF), Labyrinthhart Rokuko(SG), and Mutsuko Sakaki(C), the best players of Class 3-E, are now in the same line up during the fourth quarter.
Of course, their other classmates would sub in from time to time but, this was their best team yet. And, with this team, Class 3-E annihilated the Girl's Basketball Club, ending the game with a 50 points deficit.
Their best scorer was Pochi who scored a total of 35 points after just playing for two quarters.
『T-That… I can't believe what I'm seeing! They actually won!』
After that announcement, the referee reluctantly blew the whistle and announced the winner of the match.
*priiiiiiip*
"The winner of the match, Class 3-E!"
Under the gaze of the members of the Girl's Basketball Club who's now all grovelling on the ground with faces that couldn't believe what just happened, the girls all ran inside the courth and began doing a group hug. Because of this basketball match, the girls became a lot closer to each other.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
※~To be continued~※
Shameless Promotion:
Consider supporting me back on my ko-fi page: ko-fi.com/jadepanda0031! It's got up to 20 advanced chapters for you to read.
Author's Remarks:
※ End of this chapter! It took some time but here it is! Apologies if I didn't showcase the players enough. If I did, this would be a 10,000 chapter long arc of its own or something xD(because I could tell you with absolute certainty that I could write about this all day). Alas, all good things must come to an end. We don't want to get stuck here for too long haha.
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
JadePanda003
JadePanda003 Thank you very much to the continued support of my members back on my ko-fi page.
Ototsu_Yume
NuA
Francisco
Soulsmsher
Holo
Sam Morgan
Vero消滅
Ad-it
Ninetf9
Kaberial
Ryan
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein