Chapitre 180: The Girls And Their Basketball Masterclass; First Half
※~・Arc 13: Assassination Classroom; Middle School Time!・~※
(Third Person's POV)
Every one was surprised when they saw the alley oop and the quickness and nimbleness of Tama's movements. Although you could somewhat explain her nimbleness because of her small-ish size, that doesn't explain how fast she went from coast to coast while breezing through her defenders who tried to stop her.
Anyway, there's no time to become surprised though as the game goes on. The possession of the ball is in their hands and the PG of the Girl's Basketball Club is now being extremely wary of Tama.
*dang* *dang*
As she dribbled the ball across the half court, she never took her gaze off of Tama who was just nonchalantly waiting for her before the three point line. When the PG arrived, Tama picked her up.
The PG was giving signs to her teammates to finally start the pick and roll action, with one of their wing playing coming over to do a screen but then, when she used the screen to get past Tama, Tama just easily maneuvered around the screener and stick to her.
"Wha—!"
In a bid of panic, she picked up the ball and got ready to pass it towards her center but, unfortunately for her, she was intercepted by Tama who cut her off completely.
"Mine~!"
After taking the ball away from the opposition's PG, Tama once again took off and made the PG of the enemy team eat her dust. In just a matter of seconds, she arrived just before the three point line wherein she shot a quick release three.
Upon seeing this madness, the PG girl of the enemy team of course couldn't help but snicker at Tama's miss-play. Taking a deep three while being still below 5ft? That's a bad shot, surely.
"Ha! That's a bad shot, shorty."
However, as if the ball was trying to ridicule her, the ball sank inside the hoop with nothing but net.
*swoosh*
"Thrrrreeee~!"
Tama was so elated that she raised both her hands that are now forming the 'OK' sign before putting them over her face as if she's wearing glasses. What's more, she was running backwards while looking at the enemy PG who's now receiving the ball that was being inbounded by her teammate.
She saw a player do this at the television the other day so she wanted to copy it as well. There was even that dancing thing while running back, which she wanted to try and do once the time is ripe.
As Rikka and Satania have said, posing at your enemies is all about the timing. It has to deal the maximum impact or else, it would be useless.
"Good job, Shirayuki-chan. Keep doing that and feed us the passes. We'll do our best to score." Kataoka Megu said while giving Tama a smile and a thumbs up.
"Ai~!"
"You were so great Shirayuki-chan! That really blew away my nervousness!"
"Yeah, mine too. Thank you, Shirayuki-chan…"
Kayano Kaede and Okuda Manami then thanked Tama for her display. They were amazed by Tama's display.
Meanwhile, Hazama Kirara just gave Tama a smile and a thumbs up. It did come across as a bit creepy but that didn't really bother Tama as she smiled bashfully while scratching the back of her head.
"Hee hee~…"
As the game progressed, the starting five of the Girl's Basketball Club finally regained their composure and started targeting the mismatches, which was, by the way, many, and started to get a few scores in. However, although their defense was clumsy and left a lot to be desired, their offensive prowess was no joke due to the presence of one cheat of a character named Tama.
Halfway into the game, Okuda got tired so she got subbed out and replacing her was Kurahashi Hinano. Well, it was not only Okuda who would, from time to time get replaced as even Tama would get replaced at times.
Their rotation was basically revolving around the starting five and Kurahashi. Unlike Okuda who prefers to be a spot up shooter, Hinano likes to move around off ball and be, over all, active around the court.
Looking at the scoreboard, Tama saw that they were up by 8 points, which was honestly quite a lot given how they were all inexperienced when it comes to playing basketball. While she was dribbling the ball, she saw Kataoka and Kurahashi switch defenders.
Seeing that Kurahashi was asking for the ball, Tama just fed the ball to her. Kurahashi is a little bit of an iso player and she thrives at creating scoring opportunities by herself.
"Thank you, Shirayuki-chan!"
Once she received the ball, Kurahashi got to work. Although her dribbling was a little bit unpolished, she could properly hold her own. Her defender tried to follow her movements, which really didn't help her.
*dang* *dang*
After a bit of a crossover, and a little step back, the bigger girl stumbled and fell onto the ground. After that, Kurahashi took an uncontested three point shot, which she managed to sink in.
The next play, Tama saw that Hazama managed to break away from her defender. Hazama then started to run around like she was playing tag with her defender before cutting the back lane.
That was when Tama passed her the ball, which she then picked up and managed to score an uncontested mid range shot.
"Good job~!" Tama said to compliment Hazama with a thumbs up.
"*sigh*… I would much rather read a book than run around but, scoring a few points isn't half bad." Hazama said while directing a crooked smile at Tama.
Yet another successful play that was directed by the fearsome little floor general of Class 3-E, Tama. In the eyes of the members of the Girl's Basketball Club, Tama was like a terrifying manipulative predator under the guise of a harmless sheep.
She's controlling the game like she's playing with them like they're toys and the basketball court as her playground. To them, her innocent, harmless-looking smile looks more like the smile of a devil.
If Satania were to hear their thoughts at this moment, she would've felt very proud of Tama. Her teachings is bearing fruit, or so she will think.
With only a few misses due to the other players of Class 3-E being a little too nervous, the score at the end of the 8 minutes long first quarter was 26-17.
The ball possession time was 30 seconds so Class 3-E took their time to score points. Even the coach of the Girl's Basketball Club had to advice his players to lower the pace of the game or else they'll get tired.
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
After the first quarter, just as the Kunugigaoka Junior High School's Girl's Basketball Club was ready to teach the enemy a lesson after a full quarter of analyzing them, all of it has gone to waste because Class 3-E had a different plan. The lineup of Class 3-E was completely replaced, all five of them.
"Eh? Why would they change their lineup when they were doing just fine?"
"That's right!"
"Heh. They're probably tired already. This is our chance."
As the girls of the basketball club was confused, their coach decided to speak up.
"Don't bother thinking about that. Focus on the game and win it. They're basically giving this game to us, now that they subbed out their best players!"
Everyone was instantly revitalized as hope was reignited within their hearts. Unfortunately for them, their hopes are about to get extinguished once again.
The lineup is now Kuroinu Kanami(Pochi) as the Point Guard, Okano Hinata as the Small Forward/Cutter, Rokuko Labyrinthhart as the Shooting Guard, Hayami Rinka as another Forward, and Nakamura Rio as the one who will be guarding the paint. This line up is lacking on the height department but their offensive prowess is higher than the previous team.
Although Class 3-E lost a great floor general in Tama, the individuals in this team is quite good at generating points for themselves. In short, all of them are great one on one, isolation heavy players.
Coming into this game, Mutsuko only told them some things to remember.
"Don't let them catch up to us! Close out on them if they're attempting a three ball! Pochi-chan, Okano-san, Hayami-san… It's gonna be your job to steal their ball if you get the chance! Focus on shooting from the outside this time… Okay, Rokuko-chan, Hayami-san?"
That's basically their strategy. Rokuko and Hayami will make themselves free as much as they can while Pochi and Okano will be focusing on attacking the rim.
Nakamura, Okano, and Pochi was especially told that they should pass the ball to either Rokuko or Hayami if they saw them become free. Hayami is pretty good at taking off the dribble shots but it's not on a high percentage like Tama's. Rokuko, on the other hand, have a very high percentage in catch and shoot situations, so Shun told Mutsuko to add a lot of rim attackers to draw the defense inside if she wants to make full use of Rokuko.
Once the game started, the basketball club had an easier time scoring because of the height advantage. They relied on overhead passes right off the bat so Okano and Pochi had a hard time stealing the ball.
However, on the offensive end, the Girl's Basketball Club couldn't even keep up with their intensity. Unlike Tama who's completely calm, calculating, and unfeathered, Pochi was the complete opposite.
Pochi is wild, aggressive, and high spirited. They noticed it when she started the offense. Instead of being constantly on the lookout for a pass or passing opportunities, Pochi drove directly inside the paint and scored an easy layup against her opponents.
"Haaaaa, nanodesu—! That's two points for Pochi, nanodesu! Tamaaa~! Did you see what Pochi did nodesu!?"
Right after scoring, Pochi looked at their bench and waved at Tama.
"Good job~!" Of course, Tama gave her a thumbs up.
The next plays were the same. Pochi would drive inside the paint and either score by herself when there's only two defenders on her or pass the ball to her now open teammates.
They couldn't just ignore her because of her intensity when driving inside the paint. Her huge presence was like a magnet that was drawing them in. This worked perfect with her teammates who were trying to diminish their presence as much as possible before shooting some threes and sinking them in.
'What's with this team!? It's like… It's like they're assassins hiding under the shadows of this very strong light!' Each and every enemy player inside the court thought so.
Pochi's light was so strong that she could make her teammates fade into obscurity. If she was a few years older, I bet she'll be dunking on us over and over again, they thought.
Well, they're not exactly far from the truth. In fact, if Shun didn't teach them how to control their strengths, especially Pochi, she would be mowing each and every enemy down before dunking over them.
*swish*
"Great job everyone, nanodesu! Isn't Pochi a great pulay-maker, desu?"
"Hahaha, I like your energy, Kuro-chan. You're doing great!" Nakamura said.
"Un, but, aren't you a bit too energetic, Kuro-chan?" Hayami asked.
"It's fine, it's fine! She's able to deal massive damage towards our enemy's psyche so isn't it fine?" Okano replied.
Meanwhile, while the other three are praising Pochi, Rokuko have something different in mind.
"Hey, Pochi. Why are you letting go of the ball earlier. It's happened three times already, you know?"
"Eh? Eeehh!? Ball-san is just slippery to hold nodesu! It wasn't on purpose nanodesu! The enemy-sans were bad for taking it away from Pochi nanodesu!" Pochi replied with indignation.
Yet another identical play to what's been happening since early in this second quarter, but no one in the basketball team could stop Class 3-E's offense. After running down the lane, Pochi passed it to Okano, who then passed it to the now open Rokuko.
It's like, the Girl's Basketball Club thought that they could pick their poison at first. But then, instead of that, they were forced to swallow one specific poisonous pill instead.
Some could resist and try to pick the other poisons but the end result is still the same… Death.
『T-That's the end of the first half. It's really unbelievable. Class 3-E. They… They are now on a 20 points lead!』
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※~To be continued~※
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Author's Remarks:
※ End of First Half. The next chapter will be the last one about this short basketball match.
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