Chapter 46: Kyōsen Private Middle School VS Yurisei Middle School; Second Half
「Nationals (Junior High Division), Day 1, Group Stage, Round 2: Round-robin」
It's the group stage of the middle school basketball scene's Nationals. This tournament is currently taking place at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, with 48 teams in attendance.
These said 48 teams are divided into groups of 3, which formed 16 groups. In this sixteen groups, only one team will get the ticket to the much awaited playoffs.
Currently, at the court number 15, two people are performing a two-man show. The aces of both teams are on a tear as they created their own shot opportunities, the ace of Kyōsen is creating his shots off the dribble against the other team's ace, while the ace of Yurisei is taking his shots conservatively, and, with the help of his teammate's screens, managed to atleast not make the lead grow even more.
It is clear for all to see that Kyōsen have a clear advantage against Yurisei. Albeit similar to the situation between Tōdaiji and Kyōsen during the exhibition match, with both team's aces being the main offensive option, the simple fact that Rukawa is, at the moment, not as good as Mitsui, is already a great indication of how this game will progress.
In this game, Seiji is doing some heavy lifting. His teammates is currently having a bad shooting game as even Kogure and Izuki, one of their team's best shooters, is missing quite a lot of shots even though he had a few open looks for threes.
Since the situation isn't that dire or urgent, coach Chu Lin chose to wait and see if Kogure and the others will find their groove once again this game. It would be a problem if they loose their groove like this in a crucial match, after all.
He and the senior members of this basketball team knows that they couldn't always rely on Seiji.
The game's current score is 97-75, with Kyōsen on the lead. Yurisei currently have possession of the ball, with Rukawa once again leading the charge for his team.
Akagi just scored for his team with the use of his Gorilla Dunk so Rukawa and his team wanted to take back the points or maybe even lower the lead. During this ball possession, Rukawa once again opted for a switch in defenders.
However, this didn't work as Seiji left his teammate and still pursued him. Because of this Rukawa got stuck in a double team situation. This situation was just temporary though as Seiji asked Kogure to go back to his mark.
"I got this vice captain!"
"Alright!"
With Seiji once again marking him, Rukawa once again had a hard time scoring. Seiji is tightly guarding him, sometimes leaving some openings in his defense to probably bait him into driving or attempting to score. With the shot clock winding down, Rukawa had no other choice but to take the shot, which he unsurprisingly missed.
During transition, Kyōsen capitalized on Yurisei's stamina problem that is already rearing it's ugly head.
They opted for a run and gun tactic to score but, unfortunately, Izuki missed his shot. They tried to recover the ball, of course, but Yurisei's center is quite fast in taking the defensive rebound.
In the next three possessions after that, no one was able to score because, for one, Rukawa is being tightly defended by Seiji, while on the other hand, Kyōsen just can't seem to find their groove. They kept on missing a lot during this last one and a half minute that Chu Lin decided to call for a timeout.
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At Kyōsen's bench, Chu Lin is asking his players about what exactly is happening.
"Why is there so many miss during this game youngsters. You were having a pretty good game during the last game so why, exactly, are you missing a lot of shots this game?"
The first to answer their coach is the captain of the team, Akagi.
"It's like this coach. We seniors had a brief conversation regarding the past quarter finals that we attended during the breaks and…"
"…And it seems like you're experiencing your past trauma again, is that it?"
"That's right coach."
All the senior players lowered their heads, unable to look at their coach in the eye. Ever since Chu Lin came to their school to coach this team, he brought nothing but glory to their school.
However, ever since the first quarter finals run that the past Kyōsen team did, these quarter finals finishes kept on happening over and over again.
The root of all of this problem actually started way back when Akagi and Kogure were just first years. Because their school lacks talents, Chu Lin placed them in the starting line up and made them play for their school's team.
During that same time, their team came across the very strong team of Shiratorizawa during the quarter finals of the Nationals. They got crushed very badly during that game, with the freshman Fujima orchestrating all the plays that slowly but surely dismantled the team's rhythm and defense.
Using his God given talents and wits, Fujima made sure to beat the entire team of Kyōsen down and continued doing it until the end of the game for good measure. After that game, Akagi and Kogure would start loosing their rhythm whenever they remember that match.
After that year, Kyōsen once again faced Shiratorizawa during one of their practice games and let's just say that the results were ugly. In summary the whole team, except for the newcomers, have some history with the defending champions.
By the end of the discussion, Seiji just suggested that they should visit a psychiatrist in order to know what is wrong with these players. At times, inconsistencies in a player's performance have something to do with the psychological aspect of things so it would be of great help if they could ask help from a professional.
"Coach, I think we should hire a sports psychologist or something. This problem wouldn't be solved if we don't get any help from professionals."
Chu Lin agreed to this proposal immediately, knowing that this couldn't continue any longer. He just haven't addressed this problem because at first, he thought that it was just pure happenstance that his team is suffering from this kind of problem.
After that timeout, Chu Lin pulled out his players, Izuki, Akagi, Kogure, and Wakamatsu, and substituted them with the first years.
Even though the skill level of these first years and the players of Yurisei, except for Rukawa and Seiji, are on an equal level, Kyōsen's team is winning still because Yurisei is now having some stamina problems. The pace in which Seiji and Rukawa played for the last 20 or so minutes really took a toll on them.
Even Rukawa, who, at first, is playing in a fast pace alongside Seiji, is now on the verge of loosing all of his stamina. Seiji on the other hand, is stil doing fine, occasionally helping his fellow freshmen with some screens and off ball movements.
If Rukawa faced Seiji before he awakened his ability, 「The End」, he might've stood a chance in defeating Seiji. However, he unfortunately faced him just after he battled against a player who's in the Zone almost toe to toe.
In this quarter, Rukawa tried really hard to close the gap with him averaging 20 points for his team but it isn't nearly enough.
Because Seiji is really doing a great job at defending him, Rukawa had to constantly go around, in search for a mismatch in order to score. This made him dribble the ball too much, resulting in him expending too much of stamina as the game progressed.
Because of his stamina being a slight issue, he had to slow his pace, resulting in Seiji and his team continuing to widen the point gap between him and his team. Rukawa got blocked many times by Seiji while his teammates couldn't really help him out.
His teammates just couldn't do that well against Kyōsen while, Kyōsen's freshmen did a really great job at defending the players of Yurisei.
Experience wise, the freshmen of Yurisei trained alongside players like Hyuuga, Fukuda, and Seiji so their defense is quite honed. Of course, it could be said that this kind of defense is not even gonna remotely stop the players that are mentioned above.
If, on the third quarter, Rukawa could barely keep up with Seiji and his team, during the fourth quarter, he barely touched the ball. He still scored some points, yes, averaging 13 points during the second half of the game, but the gap between their scores didn't even lower.
At the very end of the game, Seiji approached Rukawa and said something that really surprised him.
"You should search for a better team and coach next time. You're a really great player but being the only great player in your team isn't gonna cut it, unfortunately…"
When he was just about to turn around, Seiji seems to have remembered something as he gazed at Rukawa again.
"…Also, if you really want to get better than me, talk less and play harder. Having confidence is great and all but pissing off someone you shouldn't isn't a good habit."
With that being said, Seiji walked away while Rukawa looked at his gradually disappearing back while gritting his teeth. This loss was a huge HUGE blow to his pride.
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To be continued…
[A/N¹: Some must be asking inside their head, "Why is Rukawa so weak when Mitsui got his own OP ability!?" Well, to answer this question, you have to look at his age. As you guys know, Rukawa is still a freshman like Seiji. What would it signify if Rukawa have his own ability even before facing Seiji? It meant that he awakened even earlier than Seiji who awakened earlier than the GoM. Seiji awakened extremely fast by the way.]
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JadePanda003 The next chapter will be later this afternoon, 12:00 PM +8:00 GMT Philippine Time.
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