40 Chapter 40 : VS Seiho VI - Win!
"Damn!" Kasuga cursed loudly, venting out his frustration. His expression was mirrored by all Seiho players. It was the intermission before the fourth quarter, and Seiho is down by 16 points.
46 – 30
"We were careless." Out of a sudden, Iwamura spoke. "They are not the same Seirin we won easily last year. No, they come back with revenge on their eyes. They came here prepared to kill us, yet we were still underestimating them."
Hearing what their captain said, all Seiho players went silent.
"You are right, Iwamura." The coach nodded. "They came really prepared for us. I bet they spent so much time watching our recorded games to figure out our weakness."
"Eh? There is a weakness?" Tsugawa asked naively, causing his coach to roll his eyes.
"Of course, there is a weakness. Every move always has at least one weakness. Nothing in this world is perfect after all."
After pondering for a second, the shooting guard asked once again,
"Then, what is our weakness, coach?"
His coach just let out a tired sigh before he replied,
"Just like all forms of martial arts, the training you have done would create some sort of pattern that even though not easy, it would be possible for someone to figure out. In my naivety, I didn't think any teams in this tournament would have enough time to study our game that they managed to figure out our pattern and find a way to handle it. I am sorry."
Seiho players were taken aback by the sudden apologies from their coach, especially when they saw him bow deeply at them.
"Don't worry, Coach," Iwamura spoke. "The blame is not all yours. We share this burden too. If only we treated this game with no carelessness, this situation would never happen."
Several players nodded in agreement that it touched their coach's heart at how they all cared about him too.
"Nonetheless, I am your head coach, and I will take the blame for this loses."
"Hey, what are you talking about?" Tsugawa suddenly exclaimed. "We haven't lost yet! There is still the fourth quarter left! Of course, the gap is huge, but we are still on the game! Come on!"
His teammates were surprised, but within a second, they all share the same smile at Tsugawa's optimism.
"This kid.." The coach shook his head helplessly, admiring Tsugawa's ability to lift up the mood of the team.
"Tsugawa is right, we haven't lost yet. Let's try to close the gap first. But if I see the game is not progressing well enough and I cannot find any hope for us, we will give up the game and let the first-year play to gain some experience. We will take revenge in the winter tournament. Is that acceptable?"
"Yes, Coach!"
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A minute later, the final quarter of the game started with the ball in Seirin's possession. But now the entire roster is very different from the third quarter. You could see Furihata, Kagami, Kuroko, Fukuda, and Kawahara playing on the court.
"It's been a while since us rookies playing together like this, right?" Fukuda said, gaining nods from his teammates.
"Well, although it's just a month ago, with all of our hellish training, time seems to go slowly for us." Kawahara chuckled for a bit. However, right when they saw their opponent arrive on the court, all the playfulness vanished from their eyes.
"Don't let your guard down," Furihata spoke with a serious tone. "It might be garbage time, but if we bottled our lead, our playing time would be taken away from us. Treat it like a normal game and we have no advantage against them."
Kawahara and Fukuda nodded solemnly. Then, Furihata turned around to Kuroko and Kagami.
"Red, Phantom, you remember why is Riko-senpai letting us play in this quarter, right?"
"Yeah, to keep our body warm for the next game," Kuroko replied immediately, followed by Kagami's nod.
"Good. Just work hard in defense. I will try to not use you two too much in offense. You both would be needed for the game against Midorima."
Kagami and Kuroko tensed for a second after hearing the name Midorima before they nodded at Furihata. But the serious atmosphere between them suddenly vanished when they all saw Furihata smiling.
"Good! This will be our first game together since the last scrimmage against the senpai team. Let's try to have some fun here!"
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A moment later, the game started with the ball in Furihata's possession. They are already on the lead, so he decided to slow the tempo.
"You all really think this is over, huh?" Kasuga who guarded him suddenly spoke. "Underestimating us by playing a bunch of rookies. Who do you think you are?"
Furihata rolled his eyes slightly before he replied,
"We are Seirin, duh. The team that has 16 points leads against you. Who do you think we are?" He smirked when he saw Seiho's point guard clench his fists in frustration.
"You don't have to worry, though." Furihata decided to add more salts to the open wound. "Even though we are just a bunch of rookies, if we bottled the lead, we would get benched in a heart bit. A bunch of rookies would treat you with more seriousness than our main players who treat this as garbage time. Not that it would matter to you, though. As if you can beat us."
"Damn you!" In frustration, Kasuga takes a step forward and extended his right arm to the ball. However, by extending his right arm, he opened his left side, and Furihata punished it immediately.
The point guard shifted the ball to his left hand with a behind-the-back crossover and drive forward after getting away from Kasuga.
"Gotcha!"
"Damn!" Kasuga couldn't help but curse himself for his carelessness. However, before he could stop Furihata, the ball is already moving to the corner area where Kawahara is standing. The small forward took a stance for a three. He stopped right before he pulled the shoot as his guard jumped in front of him.
"Not this time!"
That was when Kawahara remembers Furihata's play against Kaijo. He smirked a little before he lowered the ball, leaned his body forward, and dribbled the ball from the sideline.
"What? Damn!"
His guard who jumped to block the shoot didn't have any chance to stop him. However, the paint area is full of Seiho's players. But Kawahara is not worried for a bit. He jumped for a layup, and when someone tried to block him again, he goes up-and-under before flicking the ball to the basket.
48 – 32
"Nice one, Kawahara-kun!"
"That's a fancy move you have here!"
"Yeah!"
Seirin players celebrated for a moment, exchanging high fives before they went back for the defense.
The game restarted again, but without Tsuchida and Mitobe on the court, Seiho decided to exploit the low post area since the beginning.
"Damn!" Fukuda gritted his teeth, trying to fight back Iwamura from the low-post battle. But the difference in size put the first-year center in a disadvantage, and within a second, Iwamura dunked the ball on him forcefully.
A posterized dunk!
"Don't worry, Fukuda." Furihata patted his shoulder. "You will have your chance later. Just do your best to stop him now." Fukuda nodded and started running to the other side for the offense.
Furihata holds the ball again, organizing the play. But his guard changed from Kasuga back to Tsugawa.
"Wow, you are switching the defense a lot." Furihata raised his eyebrows. "Well, I can expect that for a weak team like you." Seeing Tsugwa grit his teeth in frustration, Furihata let out a small smirk. It is always satisfying to fire back at the trash-talker after winning the game.
"Oh, why are you suddenly turned into the silent type? Don't worry though, I will not bully you that hard." That was the things that Tsugawa said to him when he substituted Izuki in the first quarter. Furihata feels good after striking that back, so he decided to not bully Tsugawa anymore.
He dribbled the ball a little until he got into the free throw area, then suddenly pass it into the paint area where Fukuda is waiting with Iwamura. However, right before Fukuda grabbed the ball, Kuroko suddenly appeared out of nowhere and re-routed the ball high to Kagami who is already hanging in the air.
All Seiho players have the same thought right now,
"What the hell? Since when both of them are there?"
They all are questioning how Kuroko and Kagami could suddenly appear in the paint area without anyone detecting their presence. However, they are too late as Kagami is already slamming it down to the basket.
*BAAAM!!!*
"Nice dunk, Kagami-kun!"
"Awesome pass like always phantom!"
"Good play!"
That was what happened for the rest of the game. Seiho would fight back, but they wouldn't be able to close the gap. The moment they score two points, Seirin would be able to strike back with three points. And when the time left is only 40 seconds, Furihata snatched a rebound in the air before sending it forward to Fukuda.
"Run!"
Fukuda grinned, knowing Furihata's intention. This is Furihata and Kagami's famous red run, and now he is the one who received the ball. No one is chasing him as it is pointless already to stop him from scoring.
When Fukuda arrived at the paint area, he jumped with both his hands holding the ball, and slammed it down to the basket.
A dunk!
Even though that was just a normal dunk and couldn't be compared to Kagami, it was Fukuda's first dunk in his entire life. Even if it looks easy, not everyone can do it since they need to have enough explosive jump to reach the basket.
However, Fukuda did it! He washed away his embarrassment of the failed dunk attempt against Shinkyo! And when he landed on the floor, he let out a wide grin on his face.
"Finally, Fukuda!"
"Nice dunk!"
"Don't miss that again!"
And with that, the game ended in Seirin's win.
60 – 41
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Author note :
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