25 Chapter 24

A/N: To those who dare utter the audacious complaint that this game has sprawled across a mere 20+ chapters, buckle up, for I shall defiantly and with unmatched resolve extend its narrative tendrils until it surpasses the 30+ mark. An act born not out of necessity or obligation, but from a place of deep-seated pettiness that shall serve as a scathing rebuke to such hapless critics.

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Maybe Aomine was too focused on Ichigo that he forgot Ogiwara was chasing him from behind. Aomine's instinct was to react to Ichigo's attempt to steal the ball because he saw Ichigo as the most dangerous player on the court. However, this unintentionally made him forget about Ogiwara.

Ogiwara, who was chasing after Aomine, reached out his hand to intentionally foul him. But just as he was about to grab Aomine's jersey, Aomine dribbled the ball behind his back, surprising Ogiwara. Ogiwara didn't expect to steal the ball; his intention was to grab Aomine's jersey and commit a foul.

With the ball in his hand, Ogiwara instinctively looked behind him and saw Ichigo unguarded. Without hesitation, he tossed the ball behind his head in the direction where he estimated Ichigo to be.

Ichigo caught the pass and didn't bother to dribble or get closer to the three-point line. Instead, he pulled up from 40 feet away from the basket. It was closer than his previous shot, but still a considerable distance for a conventional shot.

As the ball soared through the air, it had a nice arc to it. Ichigo saw the ball in the air but immediately turned around to locate Akashi and defend against him, even before the shot went in. This surprised all the players on the court because Ichigo was so confident in his shot that he didn't even bother to watch it.

Ichigo's intention was not to be arrogant or show off, but rather to quickly defend against Akashi and prevent him from wasting more time on the clock. However, the crowd perceived this as his arrogance and confidence in his shot.

Everyone watched as the ball swished through the net, and Ichigo made the shot, bringing the score to 104-114. The crowd exploded with cheers because they had never seen someone take such action in a high-stakes game.

Usually, they only get to witness it in an exhibition game or when Teiko blows out their opponents, as Midorima often pulls off stunts like that in a regular game.

With 29 seconds remaining in the game, the game resumes as Aomine inbound the ball. This time, he finds Akashi with a small opening and passes him the ball.

Akashi successfully secures the ball, and the only option for Ichigo is to intentionally foul him. Ichigo doesn't want to risk stealing the ball and wasting more time on the clock. It's better to stop the clock immediately with an intentional foul.

Akashi takes his position for a free throw. He successfully makes the first shot, bringing the score to 104-115. As he prepares for his second free throw, Akashi takes a moment to regulate his breathing and makes another successful shot, increasing the score to 104-116.

After Akashi's free throw, Ogiwara quickly inbounds the ball to Ichigo. Ichigo rushes past Teiko's players towards the other end of the court. He stops at the three-point line and attempts a shot. However, before he releases the ball, he notices Murasakibara's long arm aiming to block his shot.

Earlier, Murasakibara had stayed on the other side of the court, either because he was confident in Akashi's free throw or he was simply lazy to get the rebound. Seeing Akashi make both shots, Murasakibara commends himself for his decision to focus on defense.

As Ichigo rushes towards Murasakibara's side of the court, Murasakibara moves closer to the three-point line, anticipating that Ichigo will attempt a shot from there. His intuition turns out to be right, and he praises himself for his good decision-making.

This time, Murasakibara allows Ichigo to jump first. He knows that due to his height advantage, even if he jumps slightly late, he can still block the shot with his long reach. He also doesn't want to get tricked by a fake, so he waits for Ichigo to jump first to confirm if it's a real shot attempt.

Ichigo notices Murasakibara's hand blocking the path of the ball and is left with no choice but to adjust his shot to avoid getting blocked. He releases the ball while quickly positioning himself in the paint to go for the rebound.

As Ichigo lands after his jump, he sprints inside to grab the rebound. Meanwhile, Murasakibara, who jumps later than Ichigo, is still in the air. As the ball hits the rim and bounces out, Ichigo performs a powerful putback dunk, scoring for his team.

With a score of 106-116 and only 22 seconds remaining in the game, Aomine receives the inbound pass. However, he struggles to find an opening to pass the to Akashi with Ichigo's pressure defense, and time is running out, risking a violation for holding onto the ball for more than 5 seconds.

With no other options available, Aomine passes the ball to the nearest Teiko player, who happens to be Murasakibara. As Murasakibara catches the pass, he is immediately fouled by an opposing player.

Perhaps due to his heavy reliance on physical abilities and lack of practice, Murasakibara overlooked improving his basketball fundamentals. As a result, he fails to make his first free throw, falling short of the rim and airballing it.

The second free throw is even worse. As Murasakibara releases the ball, it becomes evident to everyone, including the crowd, that it is too strong. As expected, the shot hits the backboard and bounces back without touching the rim.

With Murasakibara's missed free throws, the players position themselves to grab the rebound. However, the ball is thrown too forcefully, leaving them no time to jump and secure the rebound. Instead, the ball ends up in the hands of Ogiwara, who was attempting to box out Murasakibara.

Initially startled, Ogiwara quickly passes the ball to Ichigo. Seeing his teammate gets the rebound, Ichigo immediately sprints towards the other side of the court.

As Ichigo receives the pass and heads towards the other side, only Akashi stands in his way. Noticing that Akashi is the sole defender, with the rest of the Teiko players rushing to defend, Ichigo confidently pulls up for a three-point shot, undeterred by Akashi's attempts to disrupt his shot due to his smaller stature.

The ball soared through the air and landed in the basket, bringing the score to 109-116. This was the first time in the game that Meiko was trailing by less than 10 points.

With only 7 points separating them from Teiko's lead, Ichigo's teammates stepped up their defense. They played with an intense level of pressure, almost hugging Teiko's players to prevent them from getting the inbounds pass.

As Teiko gained possession, Akashi signaled for Murasakibara to inbound the ball in order to avoid Meiko from fouling him. Murasakibara received the ball and scanned the court. He noticed that Akashi was tightly guarded by Ichigo and Aomine was double-teamed. This left him with two options: Kise or Midorima.

After assessing the situation, Murasakibara determined that Midorima, being taller than his defender, was the safer choice to pass the ball to. He believed that Midorima, known as their team's best shooter, would successfully make the two free throws.

With that in mind, Murasakibara lobbed the ball towards Midorima, who had a height advantage over his defender. However, Murasakibara, not renowned for his passing skills, ended up throwing the ball too high for Midorima to reach. It sailed past his outstretched fingers.

With the ball loose, both teams scrambled to gain possession. The player guarding Midorima was the first to reach the ball and dove towards it, securing their team's possession.

Seeing the player on the floor, Midorima tries to wrestle the ball out of the player's hand, but the player has a firm grip on it.

A few seconds pass as Midorima and the player wrestle for possession. The referee blows the whistle, signaling a jump ball situation.

All the players look at the scorer's table to check the possession arrow. They see that it is pointing towards Meiko's court. The referee signals the ball towards Meiko's side, giving them possession.

Akashi can't believe it. He is still irritated by Murasakibara's free throw last time and wants to prevent Murasakibara from getting fouled in this possession. Therefore, he makes Murasakibara the inbounder. However, it backfires horribly.

Not only did he fumble the pass, but he did it at a crucial time. With their team only leading by 7 points, there's a chance that they could lose this game for the first time in their basketball careers.

However, he can't really blame his teammates because it was his own decisions that backfired. The mistakes began when he had the ball and Ichigo managed to steal it from him multiple times. This is where everything started going wrong.

Fortunately for him, the scramble for the ball resulted in a significant amount of time being wasted from the game clock. There are now only 11 seconds remaining on the clock. And considering they are leading by 7 points, it's highly unlikely that Meiko will be able to score 7 or more points consecutively, right?