Nationals vs Teiko Round 3

Now the match against Nishiyama and Eikichi was finished and now they'll deal with the biggest challenge in the Nationals, a powered up Teiko.

You may wonder what happened to Teiko.

Their ace Aomine, surpassed his pre-conceived notion of his potential, and ascended to the team's true ace, he outscored his previous opponent, not the player but the whole team itself as he scored the team's 85 points out of 169 against Kamizaki Middle School and trounced Inoue Tomoya, another superstar ace of the Middle School scene, just below Hideki's level. 

Then on their next match they held their opponents to 39 points as they lost their will to play with an Aomine that's doing everything on the court and nonchalantly obliterated Yano Kogyo Middle School. 

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Before the match started, both teams shook hands and was met with the flare of the announcers, which was hired for this match. 

Both captains shook hands and Hideki was shocked that it was not Nijimura shaking his hand and said "Well, this is an unexpected one, you became the captain huh Akashi-san." Akashi Seijuro chuckled and said "I thought Momoi-san told you? Being her suitor and whatnot?" Hideki stopped shaking Akashi's hand and said "How did you know? Did she tell you?" Akashi didn't answer that directly and just said "No, but I have my ways of getting information" Hideki just did a chuckle and said "Man, rich men and their ways of getting information. Well, thanks for telling me you knew Akashi-san" Both players removed their hands from the handshake and he just said "Welcome, Hideki-san, I bid you good luck on this match" Hideki just said "Yup, same to you too"

As Momoi is on the Teiko bench, Hideki shook each players hands and as he got to Momoi, he jokingly said "No good luck for me?" Momoi giggled and said "Of course, good luck out there Hidekin! Oh and meet my new best friend, Tetsu-kun!" she motioned for the player to shake hands with Hideki, Hideki saw him instantly as he was mentioned and said "Now, you're marked by me, it won't be that hard to defend against you, but unfortunately, I have to stop Aomine from his madness" Momoi and Tetsu, who is known as Tetsuya Kuroko thanked him "Thank you, please give him the challenge he wants"

Hideki nodded and just said "I'll try, to be honest, we only have a single plan to try and stop him, and that plan is me." 

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After a brief introduction, just the teams, the tip-off is now and Murasakibara won it and tapped the ball to Akashi the Point Guard who quickly passed it to Aomine, Aomine was met at the top of the key by Hideki. Aomine didn't try the waters and quickly tried to get past Hideki, who was able to react and get in front of Aomine, Aomine saw that Hideki was infront of him didn't stop and jumped when he was near the painted area, he spun and his back was facing the basket and tried to get in between Hideki and the basket, which was successful and laid the ball in quickly before Hideki was able to react to it.

Hanabira lost the tip-off and Aomine was able to score against Hideki in a quick set, this was going to be hard for Hideki but of course Aomine was not just his problem, everybody at Teiko was a problem, individually they outmatched Hanabira, in every aspect except defense they are only a little better than Hanabira, but it was attributed to their superior physical stats.

On the next possession, Teiko was able to steal the ball from Renji as he got close in the vicinity of Aomine, Hideki saw this and knew that there was no hope on saving that play so he darted to the other court to try and stop Aomine, initially he did but Aomine stopped instantly and faded away for a shot, Hideki was in front of Aomine and jumped but Aomine still didn't release the ball and released it when he was almost parallel to the ground, the shot was out of Hideki's reach. As Aomine got up he said "Come on man, I heard what you said to Momoi, do you seriously think you can stop me? The only one who can beat me is ME."

Hideki signalled Renji to pass him the ball in the inbound and as Renji got past him he said "Well, shit just got real." He raised his hand to show a peace sign, Teiko didn't mind this and Hanabira knew what the signal meant, double screen against Aomine, Hanabira did this and Hideki got a free space and proceeded to shoot as Aomine spun around the screen and recovered to have the tip of his finger scrape the ball, it got to the net but was short, Hideki felt it and tried to run towards the basket for a put back slam but Murasakibara boxed him out instead of Hanabira's Center, normally this shouldn't happen but this was a Miracle, Murasakibara outrebounded Hideki and Hanabira's Center. 

The first quarter continued with Teiko's ongoing trouncing of Hanabira, and it quickly ended with a bloody 31 to 10 score, all score Hanabira was able to do was due to Hideki's spectacular showing against the Miracles, but again, he was just a single man trying to topple behemoths. 

And the second quarter continued with that barrage, now they know how to handle Hideki and his pesky help defense, Akashi stepped up to have a pick and roll with anyone not named Hideki and purposefully go towards Hideki and passed the ball quickly to Aomine so Hideki has to double guess if Akashi or Aomine will be the one scoring.

This continual usage of screens mounted frustrations on Hanabira, the frustration was mounting up and was resulting in two things. For Hanabira it was slowly sucking the life out of them and Hideki was getting pissed that he was outplayed by Akashi.

The second quarter ended with the score of 70 to 25 with Hideki able to find opportunities in the mid-range and three but since he was not a perfect offensive player, his shots were not that reliable. And now he is the one with the fighting spirit, he continued to score by himself.

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In the halftime break, everybody from Hanabira were gasping for air, this was more than what they expected facing against Teiko and it was not like last year where they are playing against super rookies, now they are playing against players who outmatched them, every position. Even their ace player Hideki was outmatched by Aomine.

Hideki saw his teammates faces beginning to show despair so he shouted "GUYS! Don't give up yet, I know they outmatched us but please don't. Just feel that we can try to win this. At least just don't give up on hope."

His teammates kind of got pumped up, but, in the next quarter, they will know despair in basketball.

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In the third quarter, Teiko subbed out Ryota Kise their rookie this time for Kuroko Tetsuya, Hideki saw him but felt that he'll do more damage than what he is showing.

Teiko got the ball and Akashi was doing the same shit and as he got near Hideki, Hideki now was able to hold up against the two but what he didn't expect was Akashi passed the ball seemingly to his Center but before it reached him he saw Kuroko there and he tapped passed the ball to Aomine who quickly dunked the ball.

Now another headache from the Miracles was introduced, it was as if they wanted total annihilation of Hanabira and it was getting more successful every possession, what prevented it was that Hideki was purposefully searching for Kuroko's man and signalled him for a hard screen, which happened and as Hideki saw Kuroko in front of him trying to catch him unaware, he pulled up from mid-range and swished the shot. 

This gave Hideki a breathing room from the choking defense of the Miracles, with Kuroko, his height allowed him for a comfortable shot, but that moment was also lost as Akashi told Murasakibara to try and get closer to try and block the shot. 

In the next possession, Hideki tried this again and Murasakibara was in his vicinity and lobbed instead the ball to the Center who tried to lay it in but Aomine was quick and blocked his shot attempt, he surprised the Center with his blinding speed and was able to score the ball again.

The third quarter ended with 120 to 50. No more elaboration needed, Teiko totally annihilated Hanabira. 

In the fourth quarter, the same happened, Kuroko was not subbed out and continued to wreak havoc on offense, with Kuroko in their offensive efficiency tripled and they just outscored Hanabira in every step of the way. This was also the quarter where Hanabira was crushed by Teiko mentally.

Hideki still tried to fight out of it but Aomine's barrage of offensive tricks continue to outmatch Hideki's defense and score the ball. 

In one the last plays of the quarter, Teiko had the ball and Aomine got past Hideki who got in front of him and Aomine got the ball under Hideki and in the next second he is in mid-air for an alley-oop, Hideki tried to block it but Aomine was already in mid-air and dunked the ball, postering Hideki. 

After that Hideki saw Kuroko trying to fistbump Aomine but Aomine told Kuroko with eyes that had despair, most likely of his own power, "Tetsu, I really can't give it my all, everybody lost hope and even the King wasn't a match against me. The only one who can beat me, is really me after all."

Hideki saw this and now lost hope and quit the match, he requested a time out and in the bench he told Coach Yoshida, "I quit, let my sub play for experience" there was still 2 minutes remaining on the game so it's an experience to play against experienced players.

Kuroko and Momoi saw this and was disheartened. Especially Momoi.

With Hanabira now crumbled, Teiko breezed the last two minutes and of course won the game.

170 to 65

Hideki's stats were:

60 points

02 assists

6 rebounds

1 steal

1 block