Regional Finals (3)
The 3rd quarter started with Kibito in possession. Jun had the ball and looked around the court, getting a rough idea of his teammate's positioning.
Dribbling slowly Jun came up with the play to start this second half. Jun did a between the legs and shifted his body to the left. Eiji blocked the pass courses to the right as he closed his mark on Jun.
His mark Eiji followed, Jun smiled at that, playing against a good player really was refreshing for Jun because he could expect them to follow. Sometimes it is harder to play with weaker less experienced players because of their recklessness.
Jun didn't linger on the pressure that was coming, he did a bounce pass between Eiji's arm and leg.
Even Isao who received the pass seemed surprised as he received the ball. The same could be said for the opposing team who didn't contest in time. Allowing Isao to make an easy shot. (48- 39)
Unfortunately, the player who should have been surprised wasn't as his fighting spirit heightened.
''Hey wake up, pass me the ball.'' Eiji yelled as he already was breaking. The ball was quickly delivered.
Jun didn't try to contest the ball, Eiji received the ball at the 3-point mark unfortunately Jun was already in a position to defend against him. Jun left some space to have time to react.
Unfortunately, this proved to be cocky on his part because Eiji just winded up and shot the ball from the 3-point line for the first time. Making a clean swish. (48-42)
'He can shoot 3s too?' Jun's eyes widened since he had to take another thing into account.
Next possession Jun wasn't left with the time to think because Eiji already was on top of him, if there was anything Jun had learned from his previous coaches it was that the one who initiates contact is the one at an advantage, and he was at an disadvantage because Eiji had done so.
Jun didn't panic although, he did a fake to the right and did a half-spin to the left, proceeding to dribble the ball between his legs and burst through the right, the move made wonders because Eiji was broken through,
Closing down on the basket and faced with a defender up front Jun took a long step to the right and motioned to pass the ball in that same direction, with a second long step to the left while shifting his body to the left he dodged the defender while bringing the ball over his head, proceeding then to make an easy lay-up. (50-42) (Euro-Step)
Thankfully he had built momentum from breaking through Eiji, and Higashigahara players had yet to respect him even though he had gone toe to toe with Eiji and had managed to get through his defence so many times.
The next in-ball Jun again faced Eiji, who now became more proactive in searching for easier pass courses where he could receive the ball, even if such was in the half-line.
Approaching the 3-point line, Eiji sized Jun up and proceeded to do a between-the-legs while he burst forward not shying away from making the first contact with Jun, this brought to him a valuable advantage since he kept on line with his desired path, Jun tried to battle it out but Eijis physique proved to be above him.
After a little bit of this show of strength, Eiji took a step back, looking toward the rim. Jun prepared to block the shot, but the next second neither the ball nor Eiji was in front of him anymore.
Flabbergasted Jun stared behind him and saw Eiji throw the ball toward the backboard, and jump to receive it. Once he had the ball in his hand he dunked the ball hard between the rim.
It was an insane self-alley hoop, and the crowd was sure to show their satisfaction as they cheered. (50-42)
Jun saw the dejected faces of his teammates and the pumped opposing team who had found newfound drive, or rather energy.
He had no time to address this, as he wanted to get Higashigahara back to maintain their comfortable lead.
Unfortunately, although mistakes began to happen, and the main cause was that dunk which brought Kibito's player morale down, having momentum is extremely important in any stage of the game, when you have momentum everything seems to go well, but when you aren't everything seems horrendous.
From players on the Higashigahara side scoring 3's to Kibito losing possessions because they didn't receive a pass well or just losing rebounds, it was an awful 3rd quarter for Kibito Middle School. By the time Jun tried to push the mood back in place, the damage had been done.
By the end of the 3rd quarter, they found themselves, at a disadvantage. (62-67)
Jun was panting as he stared at the board, sweat fell from his face. Much to his delight Eiji too didn't seem as composed as he had been at the start of the second half, he had been running around away from Jun to then score.
But it was worse on his side and Jun knew it. He had to figure something out because he knew just how pressing their situation was.
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This is a smaller chapter sorry for that, but I wanted to wish a great Xmas Eve to you all, And Xmas too. I'll try to mass upload in the next few days so stay tuned. Dw I'll deliver the chapters in batches of either 2 or 3. Depends on how much I manage to write. Though I'm still a little under the weather.