16 Still Not Good Enough

Sunshine walked into the school gymnasium and saw the first years playing basketball. She was surprised by the looks on the players' faces, they wore serious eyes as they run around the court.

And then Allan suddenly charged past the defenders and dunked the ball towards the hoop again with a nice resounding bang. Everyone in the paint just stared at the giant man land on two feet.

It was a short break for taking a deep breath, it only lasted a second but they were able to quickly recover some energy to continue. It is only the start of the second quarter but the players from both teams are perspiring hard. At one glance anyone can tell how intense the game is, even the original members of the club forgot that they are watching a tryout game for the first-year freshmen.

Sunshine could not help but admire the ones playing and take look at their eyes. And then she saw the look in Allan's eyes and felt cold chills run down her spine. It was a fierce gaze coming from his tenacity and will to win.

She watched him play for a second as he once again tried to dunk the basketball into the opponent's hoop. Clearly, she can tell that with his God-given body Allan has an undeniable dominance on the court.

As Allan brought the ball up mid-air while ready to slam it into the hoop a figure suddenly soared into the air and swatted the ball out of his grasp. Allan and everyone else was surprised by the sudden turn of events.

Sunshine who was watching from the sidelines even let out a sound in surprise as she heard the crisp sound of the blocker's hand hit the ball perfectly out of Allan's hands. But the most surprising discovery she had is that the blocker is not even tall but he managed to reach and block the ball from a very high point!

Actually, forget about the guy who can really jump! She never even thought anyone can block a dunk from a guy who is at least 7 feet tall!

"There it is!!!"

"The 40-inch jump!"

"Whaaaaaa!!!!"

"Did he just swat the ball out of Allan's hand in the last minute!"

Sunshine looked at the one who cheered before looking at Lance's direction. She saw his mediocre stature and thought, "...A high leaper?"

The first team was delighted by what happened and was about to switch into offense when Jonas suddenly stole the ball from a teammate and made a layup which caught everyone off guard.

27 - 32

The gap in the score is increasing. Lance run towards the opponent's side and received a pass from a teammate.

He looked around and planned how to make create a point. He noticed Gray at the far left with the one marking him not guarding him enough. Gray also watched the defender in front of him whose back is completely facing him. Gray moved quietly as he noticed Lance's gaze and saw him nod.

Lance dribbled the towards the left-wing attracting defenders and run past Gray. At the right timing, Gray run towards the opposite direction around the arc.

When Lance effectively reeled in the defenders, his hands blurred as he quickly bounced the ball towards Gray's direction. It was sudden that no one managed to react fast, even Gray was almost caught off guard. Thankfully, Lance added more force into the bounce to make it become more audible for Gray to notice.

What comes next is a clean three-point shot from beyond the arc!

30 - 32!

Sunshine subconsciously brought her hands to a clap when she saw the magical play.

"That leaper has good playmaking skills!"

Then she noticed Lance's strange movements and said, "He is gonna intercept an open pass..."

Just as she predicted, Lance suddenly jolted for a steal and intercepted the ball mid-air with a steal.

"Nice steal!" Nathan cheered while waving his hands in the air from the bench.

As Lance caught the ball he quickly dribbled it once before making a jump shot. The release was good and the ball flew into a nice arc towards the basket. It was smooth, as nothing but the sound of the ball shooting through the net was heard.

"Nice shot!"

32-32!

The game is tied!

Lance quickly switched into defense and assisted their center.

Everyone was engrossed in watching the game. The game is exciting albeit a game played only by the first years. Everyone even started to feel restless, wanting to join the play.

Sunshine also just stood by the Gym's entrance while watching with sparkling eyes. She never would have thought that the First City Basketball team would have lots of potentials.

She looked around and walked towards the nearest person she saw in the Gym.

And then, the acting referee whistled as the ball came out of bounds. Everyone in the court is panting in exhaustion, especially those who have no stamina like Lance.

At this time, Fin called for a timeout and withdrew the 5 players of the second team from the court. They have been playing for 16 minutes already with only inbounds' and fouls' time of rest.

Claude did the same and assigned substitutes for the 5 players of the first team on the court.

Sunshine saw this and took a good look at the players who are covered in sweat as they went to the bench.

She was amazed by Allan's sheer size and long arms. Such a player is sure to dominate in her opinion. She has no doubts that Allan would turn out big in the future. After watching him play for a while no one can deny that his level of dominance is already high at an early age.

After glancing past every player she noticed Lance the last.

"He is the one who is a high leaper... He is also quite the playmaker."

She looked at Lance's face as she recalled how he controlled the game without losing to Allan's dominance. Other than being a high leaper, after watching him play she began to associate him to the title of tactician.

Suddenly Lance noticed her gaze and met her eyes, and then ultimately ignored her and sat on the bench while resting.

Contrary to his reaction Sunshine was stunned. It is because of her finally realizing why Lance felt quite familiar.

Who would have thought that she would meet the guy she splashed and poured a bucket of water which made the guy head home soaking wet earlier in the morning here in school.

She thought, 'Did he notice me?'

Only when Lance ignored her did she sigh in relief.

When Lance turned away she shirked into a corner and hid from plain sight.

And then when she looked at Lance again she noticed his breathing and thought, "Isn't he way too tired?"

Oblivious of Sunshines thoughts in the background, Lance looked at the court while heaving heavily and wiping the sweat on his forehead.

"I don't have enough stamina yet."

He looked at the score and smiled.

"We managed to tie up the score early in the second half, hopefully, we'll get a chance to gain an advantage later."

Nathan sat near him. "You alright? You played very well in the game, I rarely saw anyone move like you! Were you a varsity player during you middle school?..."

Lance just smiled at his classmate's compliments and nodded every now and then.

Johan, Gray, and Luke also approached him and were honestly surprised by his performance. If it wasn't because of Lance's setting and playmaking they wouldn't have thought they'd be able to score off of the Gigantic size of Allan.

"...What's your name again?"

Lance looked at Johan and said, "It's Lance."

"Haha! You were amazing there! Honestly, I didn't have my hopes up looking at our heights."

Nathan stepped up and patted Gray, "Yeah! Also, don't forget about Gray! Didn't think he can shoot from afar!"

Gray heard him and blushed. He was a small guy and looked like someone from middle school.

"Lance, you should rest for a while. You look too tired."

"Eh?"

Lance did not notice it but he is still not breathing normally.

"Everyone does have a weakness I guess." Nathan jokingly said his line as he also noticed Lance's weakness.

Lance may be an athletic and skillful player but he has weak stamina to back it up for the whole game.

Claude appeared behind Lance and Nathan and surprised them all.

"You shocked me first-years! Never thought you were this good!"

He looked at everyone and especially Lance. He also noticed that he has the least stamina of the group.

"Everyone should sit now and rest. You are not gonna play anymore."

" "WHAT!?" We can still play though!"

"And what? Gonna hog the court all by yourself? We still have a lot of first years waiting to play. Don't forget, this is just a try-out game alright?"

Lance was slightly surprised by Claude's words.

"I forgot! This is a try-out game isn't it?"

After a minute, both teams changed players and continued the game.

Both teams did good but there are more experienced players in the second group so they eventually gained an advantage and begun to widen the gap of their scores.

Lance and his teammates watched the game as the first group gets dominated by the second.

The game finished with the second team winning by 29 points.

Everyone in the first team just sighed and blamed what they want to put the blame on.

Lance just smiled and gathered with all the first years.

Fin stood in front of them with the other senior club members.

"You all did well everyone! I won't drag this for long and will just thank you all for coming and participating in this tryout. I just hope every one of you will choose to join our club as we the members of the basketball team will play a practice game before you!"

And then as soon as he finished his speech, the members took off their t-shirts and revealed their black jersey with bright red and white design!