章 72: Chapter 72 : VS Toō Academy V : Still Alive
It is the end of the first quarter, and the gap between both teams is getting wider again. Now, the score is 9 – 29 for Toō's lead which is quite brutal for Seirin's first year who has never experienced it. And even though it is not the first time the senior member experienced such humiliation; nobody likes this kind of game.
That is why the atmosphere on Seirin's bench is quite depressing.
Riko rubbed her temple in frustration as she racked her brain, trying to think of a solution to this situation. There she saw Kuroko who looks like a zombie drenched in sweats, couldn't move a single part of his body anymore. The condition of the others is not that better. The only one who didn't show any single hint of exhaustion is Hyuga, and that is just because he is a stamina freak.
She let out a deep sigh as a headache came through her head. She could only find one solution, but it is quite risky to do it without any preparation. After thinking for a few seconds, she finally makes her decision.
"Okay, everyone! Listen to me!" She clapped her hand, gaining the attention of her players. "I know this is possibly one of the worst scenarios in your minds. But this is not the end. We still have three quarters left, and I don't want any of you to leave this court with heads down. So, even if we lose, let's show them our spirit! Can you do it?!"
"Yes, coach!"
"I cannot hear you! I ask again, can you do it?!"
"YES, COACH!"
Even though the answer is kind of half-hearted, Riko doesn't mind it. With only one minute timeout before the second quarter begins, she needs to be fast to tell the strategy.
"Okay, for the players, Fukuda-kun, you are in for Kuroko-kun."
"ME?!" The first-year center exclaimed in surprise. Not only he, the other players also feel the same. "Why not Tsuchida-senpai or Koganei-senpai like the usual?"
"If it is the normal condition, I will also do that," Riko admitted. "However, with how big the gap between us, we need to score at every chance we get. And Tsuchida and Koganei are not the best in the offense. No, you are our best chance right now."
Fukuda is stunned for a second before he speaks again in hesitation.
"But this is Final League. What if I messed up?"
Riko snorted at the question.
"Don't worry about it. The worst thing that could possibly happen is we get humiliated just like the last year. And while I don't want to experience that again, it is not like we have anything to lose. So, just treat it like any other normal game, you will need this kind of experience in the future."
Fukuda nodded even though he still has doubt in his eyes.
"Don't worry about it, Fukuda-kun." Hyuga patted his back. "While playing in a big game like this might be scary, just like Riko said, the gap is already this big. You cannot do much to make it worse. Trust me."
"Just like the captain said," Izuki added. "Just don't make any stupid play, and everyone will forget that you play in this disaster game."
"Well said, Izuki." Riko nodded at the point guard. "So, with Fukuda-kun on the court, we can at least have two big men inside the paint. And with Fukuda's scoring ability, there will be a lot of space for us to exploit in the second quarter."
"What about our defense?" Tsuchida who hasn't spoken anything voicing his thought. "It doesn't matter what is our offense strategy if we cannot stop Aomine, right?"
Riko nodded at that point, but instead of answering, she turned her head to Furihata.
"So, what do you think, Furihata-kun?"
Now, everyone is also turning their heads to Furihata, the one who gets bullied the most by Aomine.
"I have already caught his rhythm." The first-year point guard spoke. "I believe I can stop him three out of his five attempts now."
"Awesome!" Now, everyone has their eyes lightened up as if they got a second life. "If what you said is true, we still have a chance in this game!" Excitement suddenly grows in Seirin's bench when they realized they are still alive. However, what Riko said next calmed them down in a second.
"I want you all to not think about winning right now." She said. "I know you think we might have the chance to overturn the score. But right now, our priority is to shorten the gap first. If we cannot shorten the score by at least 10 points before this quarter ends, we can say goodbye to this game."
After a few seconds of silence, the players nodded at each other before they replied in unison,
"Yes, Coach!"
"What if Aomine doesn't play?"
Riko pondered for a moment before she replied,
"If that is the case, try to keep pressuring them. Don't give them any easy points, and score every chance you have. Understand?"
"Yes, Coach!"
------------------
A minute later, the game finally started again. However, all the players could see the audience is getting fewer than in the first quarter.
"Well, even the audience is getting bored with this kind of game, right?" Imayoshi spoke with amusement in his tone. Furihata just snorted at him before he asked,
"Does this happen a lot?"
"Yeah." Toō's point guard nodded. "When the score is getting ridiculous, the audience would leave the gym sooner than later. I can still remember almost all of the audience left the gym even before the first quarter ended the last game. It is quite depressing, but what can we do?"
Furihata nodded, could see that happen.
"So, where is Aomine?" He decided to change the topic as he didn't see the power forward on the court.
"Well, just like the audience, he also gets bored. So, he leaves the game."
"And your coach allowed it?"
"What can we do?" Imayoshi shrugged his shoulder helplessly. "He is recruited by the headmaster personally. Even our coach couldn't do anything about it."
"Poor you.."
"Don't worry about us." He waved his hand nonchalantly. "Even though he is not here, we are still capable of winning this game. It would be a shame if we forced Aomine to go back because we bottled the lead he gave us."
"Well, if you say so,."
A moment later, the game restarted with the ball in Imayoshi's hand. However, Furihata frowned when he saw the one who replaced Aomine.
'Toō #17. He is a traditional power forward, and by how his body builds, he is a physical player. Fukuda will be at a disadvantage now. I better keep my eyes on him.'
However, Toō did completely opposite of what he thought they would do. Instead of taking advantage of their duo of big men, they choose to distribute the ball evenly. The ball went from Imayoshi to the player with the jersey number 17 and moves again within a second toward Susa in the corner area.
And when all Seirin players think he would make a shoot from his spot, Susa made a pump fake movement and drive toward the basket from the baseline. Even though it doesn't fool Hyuga, with how fast the ball moves, it scatters Seirin's defense, and Toō took advantage of that quite effectively.
"Wakamatsu!"
"Nice pass, Senpai!"
When Wakamatsu tried to launch the ball to the basket, Fukuda has already moved to cover the defense.
"Don't think about it!"
The first-year center raised his hand high to prevent Wakamatsu to take a shoot. Toō's center tried to fool Fukuda with his quick footwork. However, when he saw Mitobe running at him to help Fukuda, he knows he has to act quickly. So, he kicked the ball out.
"Sakurai!"
With all Seirin players scattered on the court, it is expected that Sakurai to have an easy bucket. However, before the ball could reach him, Furihata suddenly extended his arm and tapped the ball, making it fumble and about to go out of bounds.
"Nice defense, Furihata!"
"Someone, get the ball!"
Because Furihata is the last one who touched the ball, there is no pressure on Toō's players to reach the ball as if the ball went out of bounds, it would still be in their possession. However, the same couldn't be said for Seirin. Right after he saw his kouhai tapping the ball, he run toward the ball with all his strength and slapped the ball back to the court right before it touched the floor.
*BRUGGH!*
"Izuki-kun!"
Due to only looking at the ball, the point guard didn't see the whereabouts of the referee outside of the court, causing the clash between Izuki and the referee. His hustle stunned the entire court for a while before they all turned their heads toward Izuki with worried expressions. However, before anyone could check his condition, they all heard him shout,
"GET THE BALL!"
As if something snapped their mind, All Seirin players reacted immediately after they heard the yell. Hyuga is the first one to react. But he was followed by Imayoshi who is also aiming for the ball. Seeing that the opponent is faster than him, Hyuga dived onto the floor and tapped the ball once again, hoping his teammates to get the ball.
"SOMEONE, GRAB IT!"
The situation is chaotic right now. Izuki and Hyuga are still down on the floor, leaving Furihata, Fukuda, and Mitobe alone to cover the defense. Sakurai is trying to take advantage of this situation and grabbed the ball. However, right before he could get it, Furihata flashes and outmatches his speed.
"Not today, Sakurai-kun!"
"What?!"
Furihata tapped the ball forward and before anyone could react, he charged forward with all his strength to get the ball. And because of the chaotic situation on Seirin's side, nobody could catch up with his speed, leaving him alone with the ball.
*Splash!*
An easy layup for Furihata!
And when he turned around and see all his teammates are ready for another play, he waved his hand forward, signaling them to keep pressuring their opponent.
"Come on!"
"Keep pushing!"
He could see the frustration rising in Toō players as they cannot get enough space to get the ball even from the inbound situation. When almost eight seconds passed for the turnover, Wakamatsu who is responsible for the inbound pass has no choice but to throw the ball forward to Imayoshi, trusting his captain to be able to get away from Seirin's tight defense.
"SENPAI!"
Imayoshi didn't have any hint of panic when he saw the ball is directed at him. He has the confidence to get away from Izuki's tight guard. However, he didn't expect Hyuga to come and double-team him.
"What the hell? I haven't done anything noticeable! Why are they on me?!"
He tried for a few seconds to get away from those two. When Susa arrived at his eyesight without any guard, he bounced the ball straight to the small forward. But once again, it was a futile attempt as Mitobe suddenly popped up between them both and stole the ball.
"DAMN!"
"STEAL!"
"DEFENSE! GO BACK!"
Both senior members of Toō tried to cover the defense quickly. But Mitobe is faster. He passed the ball right after he gets it, and his target is Furihata.
"Nice pass, Senpai!"
He is about to pull up a shoot from way downtown. However, before he could do it, Sakurai arrived and raised his hand up, trying to prevent the shoot.
"I am sorry, Furihata-san!"
'Tch!' Furihata clicked his tongue in frustration as he couldn't release the ball without Sakurai's intervention. 'We need to score before they could organize their defense again! Why is Sakurai being so stubborn today?!'
"Furihata-kun!"
The shout of his name from his left side snapped him from his thought. He didn't have any time to recognize who it is, as Sakurai is still trying to poke the ball from his hand. So, he trusted his instinct and passed the ball to the source of the voice.
"Nice pass, Furihata-kun!"
When he turned around, he could see now Fukuda is holding the ball, being guarded by the Toō player with the jersey number 17. And right after he gets the ball, Fukuda did something unpredictable. Instead of driving forward or contesting in a physical battle against his guard, he made a quick step-back move and pulled up a three like a point guard. His guard who didn't expect this widened his eyes in surprise as he tried to stop the shoot. However, he is a bit too late as the ball is already in the air, and a second later,
*Clank!*
*Splash!*
A three-point bank shoot!
Not only Toō players, even his teammates are looking at him with astonished expressions, couldn't believe what Fukuda just did. And it is understandable, considering he has never shown anything like that in the training session. But a second later, the silence broke as Furihata roared at Fukuda.
"LET'S GOO!!!"
14 – 29
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Author note :
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You can also read this fanfiction up to chapter 92 on that page. Thank you! :)
-Zeta Faes-
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