Nationals Finals vs Teiko

The team was still in the changing room with Kanai again inside taking care of Hideki, well more like keeping him calm after the previous game, and ensuring he won't waste more energy as he went ballistic against Minamikaze just half an hour ago. And speaking of Hideki he was taking a rest, no moving, no talking, just nothing, this is all just to preserve his energy. 

As to why he went ballistic, he demolished Minamikaze and in particular Makoto for 'injuring' Benjie and pissing him off.

As for Benjie? Well, Kanai told the team, "I got in contact with the medic that took care of Benjie-kun, and we got bad news but I won't tell it right now. But the good news is he still has a chance to play basketball in the future." Everybody sighed in relief at that news but the real news is first, Benjie won't play anymore in this game, and the more bitter news, according to the doctors initially diagnosing Benjie's injury, he may not play basketball at the Middle School level.

This information made Kanai go out of the room in the guise of "going back to her friends" but in reality, she doesn't want the team to know about her actions, she knows that Hideki is smart and is observative that he may see through her actions that his best friend is down for the count on the Middle School Basketball scene.

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Earlier Coach Yoshida told the team "Good job on the win guys, the championship game is just 5 hours from now at 4 PM, I want all of you to rest here and don't waste your precious energy." Then he began strategizing for the next game, "Against Teiko, there is much data we can gather from them due to them being in the Finals like us, but it will be used against us. And with this, we will adjust our lineup accordingly, and I want Ito in. Your experience is valuable in this championship game." 

Lastly, Coach Yoshida looked at Hideki and said, "Last but not the least, I will assign Hideki against Shuzo Nijimura, he is their ace and I am confident that Hideki can hold him." Hideki heard the coach but didn't nod, and Coach Yoshida was fine with that, he knew Hideki heard him.

For offense Coach Suzuki told the team "For the first half, I would like Suzuki to use the others for offense, as we have to rest Hideki in offense, so he can carry us again in the second half" The players nodded, even Hideki looked at Suzuki with understanding eyes.

Fast forward to 30 minutes before the game, everybody is now well rested and Hideki still feels stiff but is raring to go and win this.

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Before the tip-off, Hideki shook hands with the opponent's vice-captain Nijimura and told him "May the best team win, Nijimura-san" who responded with a smile "Likewise, Hideki-san"

At tip-off, Kobayashi won and the ball got to Hideki's hand again. Still, to everybody's surprise (except Hanabira and probably Teiko) he passed the ball to Suzuki (PG) for him to set the half-court offense. Hideki was assigned to the weak side, which usually should be Ito (SF) or in rare cases Tanaka (SG) who resides here. Nonetheless, this offensive style still bore fruit as Tanaka and Ito screened Suzuki's man, and the ball was passed around until it got to Tanaka's hands who let it fly and swished in the net.

Teiko on the other hand wouldn't let it slide, they knew Hanabira was a team who also rammed their way to the Finals and they did a half-court play of their own which resulted in 2 points.

This would be the only time where Hanabira would be in the lead.

As the quarter progressed, Hanabira as usual more missed shots than Teiko and this reflected on their score shown in the scoreboard, as the quarter ended, the score was 15 to 23 in favor of Teiko. This was mostly due to Nijimura not really being incorporated in the action, as the Teiko coaches were afraid he would get shut down by Hideki and the team morale went down with the game.

But in the second quarter, the brilliance of Teiko's coach shone. He began to slowly incorporate Nijimura in the offense, but subtly letting his teammates score the ball more rather than letting his more capable ace do it, this ensures that Hideki is thrown into the action and exerts more effort and stamina so he gets more tired in the 2nd half, at the first possession he knew what Hanabira was doing, he is wise just like his age. 

The good thing that happened was that Nijimura's shot attempts were blocked or stolen by Hideki, so the score didn't balloon that much, but it still let Hanabira bleed in the scoring department.

The 2nd quarter ended with the score at 50 to 34, with Teiko in the driver's seat.

Skipping the halftime break, we go straight into the third quarter, and they will try to get back to the game with a freshened up Hideki. 

The third quarter began with Hanabira's possession, Suzuki quickly passed the ball to Hideki who signaled for an iso play against Nijimura to test his mettle against him, he did a left right left against Nijimura and got past him, but the guy quickly got back in front of Hideki and Hideki planted his left and faked a shot which both Nijimura and his help defender reacted by jumping, Hideki saw a sliver of daylight and shot the ball to the front of the rim, they thought he missed due to fatigue but Kobayashi caught the ball and slammed it in. With that play, everybody at Hanabira was envigorated.

This was when Hanabira was going all out again, attacking Teiko and their defense, stopping Nijimura and the others when opportunity presented itself.

The third quarter ended with 72 to 63 with Teiko in the lead. 

Hanabira was now feeling confident they would come back and get the lead but Teiko's coach was a brilliant man and he again adjusted his team's lineup at the last second, before Hanabira could do a change of their own, they slotted in their taller Power Forward who can shoot perimeter shots and more importantly three-pointers so Hideki is forced to guard him a few possessions, with Nijimura going to the Small Forward slot. 

The first 2 possessions went as he predicted, Hideki tried to leave his man to help guard Nijimura, but he is in for a bad, bad reality. In the air Nijimura goes for a layup but clutches the ball and passes it to where Hideki's man was, Hideki tried to run and disrupt the shot but the guy was spot on and knocked down threes, and it happened on two possessions. 

Hideki signaled Ito to switch but the man was comfortable hitting mid-rangers against smaller defenders like Ito, he was at most 185 or 187 centimeters, a whole 10 more than Ito's, what's more ridiculous is at mid-range, and he incorporated jab-steps to confuse Ito to step back but the man was cunning, he re-arranged his position and shots the midrange. 

This led to Coach Yoshida shouting at the sidelines and saying "Ito! Tanaka! Switch marks!" This stemmed the bleeding a bit and by the time this was done, 7 minutes were remaining and the score was at 80 to 73, the lead was cut down in two but this is where the real game begins.

Both teams landed quick haymakers on each other, Nijimura playing like he wanted to win it all, he did it all, pass, shoot, score a layup, and defend others, but Hideki was doing it also but more, with the floor stretched out, this made Hideki's job more harder, but he can still deliver, he was able to stop the spot up shooters and their shots missed, more frequent as the game goes on. Not being bad on Teiko but Hideki is playing at a hundred percent.

At the three-minute mark, the game was at 95 to 99, Hanabira, with most of the effort from Hideki, was able to claw their way back into the game.

But this was the only time they were close.

Hideki showed signs of fatigue and Nijimura was now able to get around him and score on him, but the shots were difficult, but it still went in. Hideki tried to do his own thing but due to his fatigue, Nijimura knocked the ball off Hideki and Hideki tried to dive on it but Teiko's PG quickly got the ball and ran to the other court with Nijimura, which resulted in a score. 

Hanabira didn't score another basket and the game got out of hand quickly.

In the end, the final buzzer of the Nationals sounded and Hanabira lost, by 15 points.

The game ended in 95 to 110.

Hideki's stats against Teiko

18 Points

8 Rebounds

12 Assists

10 Blocks

11 Steals

After the buzzer sounded, Hideki fell down on his butt, due to the adrenaline not being there anymore. Nijimura saw this and helped him stand up and shook hands with him. Hideki showed him a 'professional smile' and said "Congrats on the win. I guess we are not the winners this year." Nijimura smiled too and said "Yeah, but congrats on getting to the Finals, I know it's a win for your team getting here. I guess we're lucky that you decided to hammer down Minamikaze in the previous match" Hideki chuckled and said "Yeah, but the goal shouldn't have been that, 'hammering down', but that one" Hideki pointed at the trophy.

Nijimura looked at the thing that Hideki was pointing and he heard Hideki say "I promise, we'll meet again in the future and I'll try to take back what's mine" Hideki said it with grace and Nijimura was not offended by it but his competitive spirit grinned at Hideki and said "Sure, we'll be there guarding that against you" 

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The trophy ceremony was going through with all top 3 teams on the podium, and to no one's surprise, Minamikaze were the third team.

As the Nationals Committee head was giving the medals to each player, he got to Hideki after giving the Hanabira players their own trophy and told Hideki "Incredible showing young man, I hope this loss won't let you down. I hope what I'll put on your neck will be a gold medal in the near future" Hideki had a smile but a solemn heart as he told the head of the committee, "Thank you, sir, the team and I will strive hard to be the best team next tournaments"

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After the tournament Hideki got back home and wept bitterly about their lost against Teiko.

References used:

Weak side - in a half court setting, the weak side is usually the side where the ball is absent, usually in the modern game, spot-up three point shooters are assigned here.

Iso / Iso play - Isolation game

Floor stretched out - means that there is too much space as some players prefer to knock down 3 points, like Teiko's current SG and PF.