Bab 7: Yoyogi vs. Iwatobi
Tokyo Preliminaries, Day 1, Block A, Round 2.
Yoyogi Middle School vs. Iwatobi Middle School.
Both teams positioned themselves at the centerline for the tip-off.
No matter how Shin looked at it he didn't see any way Otsubo was losing the tip-off, he was 188 cm tall, and the opposition's center was only around 177 cm tall, there was a difference of eleven centimeters.
[A/N: Otsubo's height in his third year at Shutoko High School is 198 cm.]
And, just as Shin predicted, Otsubo won the tip-off with ease and passed the ball to Ishida, who dribbled it past his defender with ease and passed it to Mibuchi, who was at the three-point line, and scored before his mark could even entirely raise his arm for the block.
Iwatobi tried to attack with a quick break, using a long pass but in a spectacular feat of athleticism; Aone lunged at the ball, catching it, drove his way to the basket, and scored.
The game then went with both sides scoring, but the point gap increased as Iwatobi were getting their ball stolen or blocked, they were even losing a grave number of rebounds.
The goal that Shin set for this game was to disrupt the opposition's teamwork. If their passes didn't go as planned and kept on getting stolen, then they would stop making passes with even the slightest risk.
If the players hesitated to pass the ball, then it would result in the speed of the play dropping and reduce the number of ways for the ball to move around. The players would then be more likely to panic and make shoddy plays.
Shin's plans did bloom into success as in the latter part of the first half, Iwatobi's ball movement slowed down, and the players weren't able to move as freely as possible, thus making shots like three-pointers even when their mark was close enough to touch the ball.
The offense was on Yoyogi's side was going smoothly, Ishida kept the ball moving, and chose good timing to pass. As Otsubo did a good job of getting rebounds, Ishida started to sink more and more shots from downtown.
Otsubo didn't experience any resistance from Iwatobi, so he started to play more in the post, his favorite post move was the front turn he would get the ball, turn upfront and used his size to score.
Mibuchi didn't show his Heaven shot till now because it was not necessary, and he was even having some fun by sometimes going in the paint to score even though he preferred to procure points from the outside.
It seemed that Aone had taken Shin's suggestion too seriously as while Shin was busy stealing balls, AOne busied himself in blocking both inside and outside, he was all over the place contesting shots.
The score in the first half was 38-23 in Yoyogi's favor, and this was when they were conserving energy and two of their player not actively trying to score.
Coach: "Excellent work out there; Aone-kun your defensive game is perfect today, and Yukimura-kun those steals have chained Iwatobi down considerably. Now, for the second half, I want you to widen the point gap so that there is no chance for a comeback."
Team: ΅Yes, Sir!"
Coach: "Good, now go out and return as victors."
Yoyogi changed their gears in the second half, the whole team except Shin went on offense and started to score with a much higher intensity.
With the addition of Aone on offense, Iwatobi's rebound rate dropped even further.
Shin dropped the steal strategy as the damage was already done, and fear already took place in their hearts, and he took on Aone's job blocking.
Shin started to slam layup attempts against the backboards and contested more than half of three-point attempts made by the whole Iwatobi team, decreasing their already subpar scoring ability to dismal at best.
[A/N: Shun is not going one-man team here as the total number of three-point attempts was already low because of Otsubo getting most of these rebounds and making them hesitate more and more.]
In the last five minutes of the game, Shin asked Ishida to pass all the balls to him. Shin asked Ishida to pass all the balls to him. Shin used the Iwatobi team to practice his quick spin followed by a layup, or a hook shot.
Iwatobi team saw that Shin was using the same pattern every time, in their last effort to protect their dignity started to defend Shin seriously, even going as far as to triple-team him, but no matter what they did Shin kept scoring using the same pattern.
Shin was experimenting with God-Speed Impulse. He wanted to see how far his reflexes could go, by using the same pattern every time the chance of him getting blocked, and this was excellent grounds for using God-Speed Impulse.
He wanted to see how late and fast he could adjust his play with God-Speed Impulse.
Shin remembered, how in the anime, during the training camp at the beach, Midorima blocked Kagami ten times in a row because he knew a dunk was coming. He wanted to see the limit of timing for adjusting the shot, so he used the same pattern, and they were not stupid like Kagami and figured out what he was doing and when for the blocks.
The result was astonishing. Even though Shin didn't have Kyoshi Teppei's Right of Postponement, Shun with God-Speed Impulse could wait till his very last moment to make a play.
The game ended with Iwatobi failing to stop Shin. The score that was displayed on the scoreboard was stunning to any view in the gallery.
Yoyogi had won the game with a score, 91-42. Leading by an astonishing score of 49 points.
The other teams in the gallery were stunned, they knew that Yoyogi was the country's number, but seeing it in person was another story.
The team cooled down by doing stretches, and when they finished, a first-year, third-string member came to Shin.
First-year: "Yukimura-kun, Shoei match is done, they won the game with the score 72-54."
Shin: "Thank you, I will treat you to some food later."
Mibuchi: "Yukimura-chan, why did you send that first year to watch that game? "
Shin: "Shoei is the only school in our block that is any real danger to us, so I sent him to record the game, with the coach's permission."
Mibuchi and others still didn't have the moniker of the Uncrowned Kings as the Generation of Miracles wasn't a thing yet.
Shin was very satisfied with his gains today. He got to test out God-Speed and obtained a video on Shoei and Kiyoshi Teppei.
Shin: "I would go home and watch the video and see what is the current level of Kiyoshi and how much has he developed Right of Postponement."
On the first day of Tokyo preliminaries, out of twenty-four regular entrs and four seeded entry of block A, only eight remained.
[A/N: Out of 29 only 8 remains, even I was shocked by the amount of elimination when I first calculated it.]
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone