Practice Game, Part 1

Today the first-string of Tokiwadai Middle School was going to have a practice match with Nambara Middle School. Nambara Middle School was coming to Tokiwadai Middle School for the practice match.

Nambara Middle School was a top sixteen middle school in the Tokyo prefecture. They requested a practice match with Tokiwadai Middle School.

Tokiwadai Middle School had accepted the proposal as Nambara Middle School was a well-known school, and Tokiwadai Middle School wanted to check their new lineup.

Shun was getting ready in the locker room. He had worn his jersey and was pulling a shirt over his jersey.

Shun made his way back to the gym.

Nambara Middle School had already arrived, and when Shun entered the gym, all eyes moved towards him.

Shun felt the eyes on him, but he didn't react and made his way to Tokiwadai's bench.

Nambara member One: "Hey, isn't that Kageyama Shun?"

Nambara member Two: "Yeah, that's him. The super rookie who won all the individual awards and the MVP award."

Nambara member Three: "He scored seventy-seven points in the finals. How in the world did he manage to score that many points."

Nambara members looked at the rest of the Tokiwadai team.

Nambara member One: "He isn't the only one on the team that is a monster. Look at the person beside Kageyama."

The other member looked at the person beside Shun.

Nambara member One: "Mibuchi Reo, the second-year shooting guard from Tokiwadai. He is an extremely dangerous shooter. His defenders are scared of making contact with him as they might get drawn in to commit a foul."

Mibuchi was famous in the middle school basketball scene. The ability to draw in fouls and make four-point plays was extremely flashy and dangerous.

Nambara member Two: "His 'Heaven' shoot is also almost impossible to block."

The other members agreed with him.

Nambara member Three: "Yeah, he is already tall, and over that, he jumps so high and back that it makes it impossible to block."

Next, they saw the looming figure on the Tokiwadai's bench.

Nambara member Two: "Aone Takanobu, he is over 185 cm tall and was Tokiwadai's power forward with that height, most players with that height would be the center on the team. I think he is Tokiwadai's center now."

Nambara member Three: "He is going to be difficult to fight over rebounds. He looks so intense and serious."

Aone was a tall and strong looking player. Aone looked like he would easily dominate the post and defend the area under the basket with ease.

Nambara didn't know about Kaitani and Yuki as they hadn't played in any high-profile matches, so they were still unknown.

-*-*-*-*-

Tokiwadai's coach was going to be the referee of the practice match.

He called upon the members from both the teams to the center of the court.

Coach: "Both teams, please lineup."

Both teams lined up as ordered.

Coach: "Bow."

All players bowed and greeted each other.

Players: "Let's have a good game."

All the players took their position on the court for the tip-off.

Shun stretched his body a little, closed his eyes, and took one last deep breath. He opened his eyes as he exhaled.

Shun: 'Let's win a game, shall we?'

Aone and Nambara's Center jumped up for the ball, and Aone easily won the tip-off.

Shun looked at Aone's jump at the tip-off.

Shun: 'His jump has increased even if by only a few centimeters. The vertical jump is the only few physical attributes that can be increased significantly by training.'

The tipped-off ball was caught by Shun.

The team had been training with mini-games every day, so they moved immediately to their designated spots on the court.

Shun moved forward with the ball, in his way was Nambara's power forward, Shun looked at the right and leaned slightly on his right feet.

The power forward stepped to the right and leaned in the same direction. Shun switched the direction of his toes to the left instantly and exploded to the left, leaving behind the stunned Nambara's power forward.

The movement was simple, but Shun performed it with such exceptional sharpness and speed that the simple movement became a spectacle to watch.

Shun didn't move further and passed the ball to Mibuchi.

Nambara's players were so concentrated on Shun that they forget one of the most basic rules of basketball; Never leave the sight of the ball.

Mibuchi caught the ball right in his shot pocket. Shun was getting better at passing the ball, he could aim at players preferred area of receiving the ball, but the hand placement was still far from Shun's skill level.

Mibuchi shot the ball elegantly, and it landed in the net smoothly. Tokiwadai had scored the first points within mere seconds of the games start.

Nambara's team was left dazed as Tokiwadai returned to their side of the court for defense.

The ball was now in possession of Nambara. They took a few seconds to collect themselves together.

Nambara's point guard bought the ball to the half-court and then increased his speed suddenly. Nambara's point guard intended to score by himself, but as soon as he stepped on the three-point line, Kaitani was there to block him.

Nambara's point guard stopped and then tried to get past Kaitani, but Kaitani was always ahead of him, blocking his path. Nambara's point guard was getting impatient, and that allowed Kaitani to steal the ball.

Kaitani tipped the ball out of Nambara's point guard's hand, but the now free ball was caught by Nambara's small forward, who immediately squared himself for a jump shot.

He shot the ball, but Yuki was his guard and managed to touch the ball with his finger.

Nambara's small forward warned his teammates.

Nambara's small forward: "He touched it!"

Three of the Nambara's player immediately got ready for the rebound, and from Tokiwadai, Aone and Shun got in position.

Shun successfully moved in front of Nambara's power forward and gained a more suitable position. Nambara's center was trying to gain a more suitable position on Aone, but Aone wouldn't budge from his spot.

Mibuchi, who saw that, smiled.

Mibuchi: 'This must be easy for him since he has been getting beaten in rebounds by Otsubo-san every day.'

The ball bounced off the rim, and all five rebounders jumped, the one who reached the ball first was, of course, Aone.

Aone caught the ball, and Nambara's center and power forward were on to him, so he passed the ball to Shun, who further relayed the ball to Kaitani from between the Nambara's power forward's legs.

Kaitani moved back a step, dribbled the ball once, and then took a jump shot. The ball went in the basket after bouncing off the backboard.

The game moved on as Tokiwadai steadily increased the point gap. Shun had yet to score a single point. The main scorers until now were Mibuchi and Kaitani.

The game's first-quarter finished with a nine-point gap, with a score of 18-9 in Tokiwadai's favor.