Chapter 53 : VS Shutoku XII - Time out!

"Damn!"

Kagami clenched his fists in anxiety as he watched Midorima knock down the first three-pointer of the quarter. Without him on the court, Kagami believes no one could stop the green-haired shooting guard from wreaking havoc on their defense.

He turned around to his coach and decided to ask,

"Is it really impossible for me to play?"

Riko sighed helplessly before she replied,

"As much as I want to let you run amok on the court again, your knees could only handle two or three more jumps before you broke down with it. I don't think you can hold back your jump to that number for the entire quarter."

"Tch." Kagami clicked his tongue, not liking the decision she makes. "So, that means I can only watch my teammates getting beaten like this?"

"Yes." Riko nodded without hesitation, startling Kagami for a bit. "You have to realize, Kagami-kun, that we are still a new team. All our core members are still in the second year. We still have at least three more tournaments before the senior members graduated. Risking you in a game like this is not worth the win. Be patient."

Even though Kagami knows about it, the thought of losing against Midorima left a bit of sourness in his heart. After all, who like losing, especially after they had the lead for almost all the time during the game?

Riko sighed helplessly as she knew what Kagami is thinking.

"You know what? If the gap is under five points when the time left is only one minute, I will let you play."

"Really?" Kagami widened his eyes in surprise, didn't expect his strict coach would let him do that.

"Yeah." Riko nodded a little. "So, be patient and trust your teammates, okay?"

Kagami nodded as that is the only thing he could do for now.

He observed carefully as the game restarted with the ball in Izuki's hand. He couldn't help but amazed at the sight of how Furihata tore down the structure of Shutoku's defense with his off-the-ball movement.

"Damn, that's crazy."

He praised Furihata under his breath. However, it is not low enough to allow Riko to hear what he muttered.

"Oh? Is this the first time you saw him from the bench?" Riko asked in a surprised tone. However, Kagami shook his head before he replied,

"Not really. But other than when he is on the defense, all I saw is how he handled the ball. I have never noticed how amazing he is even without the ball."

Riko looked at the red-haired boy with a strange expression. It is still weird for her to hear Kagami openly praise Furihata like that. Those two spent most of their time acting like they are nemeses to each other after all.

"Well.. I can see where you are coming from." Riko finally replied. "He is the one who usually defends the point guard. So, your attention would fall on his defense naturally. As for his off-the-ball movement when we are in offense.. While indeed it was impressive, it would also be his downfall too."

Kagami is taken aback by the statement.

"What do you mean?"

Riko didn't answer immediately. She pondered for a moment before replying,

"It is just, even though he has always been impressive for us, he is still inexperienced in terms of trusting his teammates. He, like any other rookie, tends to always get involved in every play even as little as possible. That's why even though Izuki asked him to stand aside and do nothing, Furihata-kun still decided to run around the court and create more space. He doesn't know how to do nothing."

"So, what is bad about that?" Kagami asked in a confused tone. But Riko just shook her head a little before she replied,

"I don't say it is bad. But it would hurt him and the team more if he doesn't have enough stamina to back up his movement, like what happened right now."

She narrowed her eyes at the first-year point guard who is panting heavily on the court. Having a father who is a personal trainer and has a degree in sport science, Riko learned a bit about how to assess someone's capability just by looking at his body, and now, her eyes are telling her Furihata is on the verge of passing out.

"I need to make a move before it is too late." She murmured under her breath.

And when she saw the turnover from Tsuchida to Izuki and Midorima tied the game with another three, she knew she had to take a timeout right now.

"Seirin High, time out!"

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Riko looked at her players with a grim expression. She knows almost all of them are way beyond exhausted. The only players who didn't show any sign of tiredness are Tsuchida and Mitobe, but that is because she rotated those two quite often. The same couldn't be said for Furihata, Hyuga, and Izuki as they are the main attacker on the team.

After pondering for a moment, she clapped her hands, gaining the attention of her players.

"Okay, everyone!" She began to speak. "We face a really tough position right now. As you all can feel within yourself, your stamina is already drained into nothing, yet we still have nine minutes before the game ends. Because of that, we need to make some adjustments."

Her players nodded seriously, knowing their coach is right.

"First, Furihata-kun, Izuki-kun, I will put both of you on the bench." Both point guards nodded while sighing in relief as they both feel their legs numb. "As the players who substitute them, Koganei, Kawahara-kun, be ready."

All Seirin players widened their eyes in shock, especially the first year.

"ME?! Are you kidding?" Kawahara shrieked in horror, couldn't believe for a single moment his coach would play him at the most crucial time. However, Riko just looks at her kouhai with a serious gaze, showing that she is indeed not joking.

"Yeah, Kawahara-kun. I am serious here. Prepare yourself."

Now, all players are looking at her coach as if she is crazy. Yet no one speaks anything as they all are too speechless at the sudden decision.

"Are we really throwing this game?" Hyuga suddenly asked, breaking the tension. Seeing Riko shake her head, a lot of players sighed in relief.

"I know you might think that I give up this game already. But you are wrong. I want to win too, and this is the only strategy I could think of to help us win the game right now."

"So, why Kawahara-kun and not Kuroko-kun?" Hyuga asked once again, glad that his coach is not giving up the game yet.

"The problem with Kuroko-kun is he needs to be surrounded by offensive players for us to use his ability properly. But now, without Kagami-kun, Izuki-kun, and Furihata-kun on the court, it would just be a waste of his time. No, right now, what we really need is to buy time as much as possible until our offensive players could go back on the court with new energy. That's why we need more defensive-minded players like Kawahara-kun."

"Smart." Furihata nodded in approval, seeing where the coach comes from.

"But that means we would be playing without any point guard, right?" Kagami chimed in, voicing the problem with the strategy. Riko nodded slightly at the red-haired boy, have already seen the problem from the start.

"I know about it too. Hyuga, Mitobe, our offense would be running through you both. Just make sure that you spend all 24 seconds on every possession and do not get stolen by your opponent. And if you feel you cannot score, just shoot or throw the ball out-of-bounds, or if possible, draw fouls from your guard. Anything that you think can make the game run longer than necessary. Do you understand?"

Hyuga and Mitobe looked at each other, communicating silently. After a few seconds, both turned back their attention to their coach and asked,

"How long do we need to do that?"

Riko didn't give an immediate answer, but turned her head to both her point guards.

"How much time do you need to recover before you can go back to the court again?"

"Five minutes." Furihata answers without hesitation. Meanwhile, Izuki just shrugged helplessly before he added,

"I am not sure about myself. Maybe a bit longer would be nice."

Riko nodded before turning her attention back to Hyuga and Mitobe.

"You heard them. Can you do that for five minutes?"

Hyuga furrowed his brows, thinking for a moment.

"It would be hard." The captain admitted after a few seconds. "I don't think we can hold them that long."

"I know." Riko nodded, agreeing with Hyuga's assessment. "That's why we will go with the best strategy possible to stale the time, foul game."

Now, almost everyone has their expression lightened for a bit, realizing where their coach would go.

"Maybe that could work," Izuki muttered under his breath, calculating the chance of their new strategy.

With the foul game this early, the only problem they have to face is the number of fouls for every player on the court. If someone gets six fouls, they would be ejected immediately. Fortunately for Seirin, they didn't make a lot of fouls this game. The players who have the most fouls among them are Mitobe and Kagami, and they only collected three fouls.

If they could force Shutoku to spend most of their 24 seconds in offense and end up with fouls, one sequence would cost them at least one minute. And if they could do the same for the offense, it would only need four to five sequences before Furihata was back to the court again, and the score difference would not change too much. As long as they could hold the gap at least below ten points, they would have more chances to survive in this game.

"This might really work."

Izuki's face suddenly brightened after he racks his brain for the calculation. Not only him, but several players also have the same expression, realizing their chance is not as bad as they thought at first.

"Of course, it might work," Riko replied with a smug smile before her expression turned back to business.

"However, it depends on how we could hold them in every possession. Kawahara-kun, as the players with the most stamina here, I need you to be everywhere. Don't stop running. Keep follow the ball movement. Always disturb Shutoku's momentum. And if you see the ball would go to Midorima, double-team him with Koganei. You both don't need to stop him from scoring. But if you see him about to take a three, draw a foul. We will go with the mind game here, drain them physically and mentally. Can you do that?"

The first-year small forward nodded with a serious face, imagining how he should play in the next sequence. Riko didn't wait for him to answer verbally as she turned her attention back to Hyuga.

"Junpei, I know it is not your natural position, but we will need you to be our emergency point guard again. Do you think you can last until Furihata-kun and Izuki go back to the court?"

Hyuga snorted a little before he replied,

"Don't worry about it. My job would be easier this time."

"Good." Riko nodded in satisfaction. "For the last part, I will say this. We might be at a disadvantage here, and they would expect us to give up the game with this line-up. But we are Seirin, and we will fight until the end! Do you understand that?!"

"YES, COACH!"

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Author note :

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