Tokyo National Qualifiers Finale

Hanabira won against Sora in a hard-fought battle of the best Tokyo Defenders' team and advanced into the Semi-Finals.

Now their Semi-Finals opponents are Hayabusa Middle School, which is a team consisting of smaller players with the Center listed only at 5'8'' but can shoot the ball better at imd-range and a respectable 3-point shooter. With their power forward at 5'7'' same play as the Center. This team was a menace to their opponents as they always made them second guess on defense. Due to this, they employed what is modernly known as the small-ball lineup

Coach Yoshida even told the players before the match "They may be small but they pack a punch, so be careful out there and communicate with your teammates"

The battle was a hard fought affair as Hanabira tried to limit Hayabusa's offensive output, and match their scoring output. Hideki in particular didn't like this matchup as he is a sitting duck as his opponent loves to shoot 3 pointers in his face at a respectable clip of 45% shooting accuracy.

In the first quarter both teams are neck and neck even finishing the quarter in a tie of 28 points.

Coach Yoshida then made the decision to slot in Daiki to match the pace as Kobayashi was unable to match the opposing Center or even the other players.

After that adjustment, the game is still dead even, looking like when one gets the smallest lead they will win the game.

Even with this adjustments, both teams are tied again at 50 points in the halftime.

In the halftime break, Hideki told Coach Yoshida that their Small Foward's outside shots are missing but is punishing them on the inside due to the lack of resistance, so he told him "Coach, can we make some adjustments? Insert Aoki in the lineup and move me at Small Forward, as he can only shoot inside and his outside shots are not falling. I can chase him and block his shots when given the opportunity. And the Power Forward and Center are both outside shooters, so I'll anchor the middle."

Coach Yoshida again praised Hideki with his in-game analysis and he approved of the change. 

In the third quarter Hayabusa was shocked to see Hideki guarding their small forward and subbed in Aoki. This proved to be their Kryptonite as Hideki's opponents still fail to let his shots fall in and resort to inside scoring. And with this Hideki was able to anchor the middle. 

With this adjustment, Hanabira was able to pull ahed little by little, but at a really slow pace. Which made the game kind of slower, so the score after the third quarter is 65 to 63 with Hanabira in the lead.

At the break Yoshida told the team, this will be the lineup until the end, and will sub Ito for Aoki if three pointers are needed. But they didn't have to resort to that.

In the fourth quarter Hayabusa's Small Forward, their ace player was unable to get hot in the fourth quarter, and Hanabira held on to their lead until late into the fourth quarter, their Small Forward got hot too late into the game and was unable to take the score back.

The game against Hayabusa ended with 90 to 87 score, with Hanabira taking the hard fought victory.

Benjie and Hideki high fived in the middle of the court and saw that the Small Forward of the Hayabusa team was seething in rage, most likely at himself for not brining the team the much needed victory, so Benjie and Hideki approached him and told him "It's okay brother, sometimes we won with strategy and luck, if you were able to get past me in the mid-range or 3 points, we could have lost." 

The player then looked at both players and shook their hands and told them "Yeah, it happens, I hope to face you next year. And please win the last game for us" Hideki and Benjie nodded their heads and said "Sure, will do"

Now at the final hurdle before the finals was against Koukou Middle School. switch was another middle school that employs a balanced team with bigger bodies under the rim, their twin towers were 6'0'' and 6'1'',which was their power forward and center respectively. Their point guard was a respectable point guard in their block, who was good at feeding the rock to open players.

In the game Hanabira employed both Hayabusa and Hikari's strategy, which a small ball shooting lineup, consisting of Suzuki and Tanaka at the guard spot and Ito and Aoki at the forward positions with Hideki at center.

Seeing this adjustment, Koukou was surprised and was unable to adjust to Hanabira's sudden burst in pace. Their twin towers were unable to contend with Hideki's sudden inclination to distribute the ball in the high post. Ito and Tanaka were shooting the ball from behind the arc and Aoki was helping from the mid-range. Suzuki and Hideki were dishing out assists left and right.

But what was surprising was Hideki was able to hold on his own on defense against the twin towers, due to his equal height and speed advantage against the twin towers, this was the game where Hideki's name was put onto the map of the Middle School Basketball Scene as a prodigy. Hideki was stealing and blocking balls left and right.

In the halftime, the score was at 56 to 49 with HAnabira in the lead, even though Hideki was hold the twin towers to a low score, the other three from Koukou Middle School were able to score even though it was essentially a 3 and a half against 3 with Aoki helping on certain scenarios off of Hideki's heroics.

The game stayed the same in the 3rd quarter as Koukou is a top heavy roster, and a very shallow bench, with only the backup Small Forward the reliable sub for them, but his playstyle is an isolation heavy play which Hanabira will deeply appreciate if Koukou decides to pull that trigger. 

But in an interesting turn of events the Koukou wing and guard trio players got hot and was able to elevate their scoring for a few minutes. So Hideki told Aoki to guard the Small Forward and Ito to help on guarding and effectively trap the point guard before reaching the half court. Coach Yohida heard this and approved of the plan immediately.

In the next defense, the wing players were shocked with a 4 top defense with Hideki holding against the twin towers. They tried to pass the ball inside but Hideki stopped both players' offensive attempts, which upped the team''s morale to try more on the defensive. 

So the third quarter ended with 78 to 73 with Hanabira in the lead.

In the fourth quarter, with only the wing players the only effective scoring option for Koukou Middle School, they got tired with some double teams and their offense dipped or was like dropping slowly from a slope downward. 

Now the game's momentum on Hanabira's side and they slowly left Koukou behind the dust. 

The game ended with a score of 100 to 89. Hanabira won against Koukou and was able to advance to the Nationals.

Hideki was silent and did the obligatory shaking of hands, and bowing at center court after the game. But as the team entered the tunnel, Hideki got weak and Benjie and Tanaka caught him and hanged his hands over their shoulders, Coach Yoshida saw this and said, "Thank you for the great effort Hideki-kun, this game was actually yours to lose, and you rose to the occasion time and time again. Now let's focus on the Nationals."

Hideki's stats:

Points - 8

Rebounds - 8

Asissts - 19

Steals - 17

Blocks - 11

*References / Terms used

Small-ball lineup - a lineup famously employed by Golden State Warriors during their 2015 to 2019 NBA title runs, with Draymond Green at Center, who is only 6'6'' but is an effective defender and great ball distributor, which makes the team offensively deadly.