Nationals Tokyo Qualifiers Intro

So to those wondering how Megumi and Hideki's scouting went? Regarding Yamabuki? Nothing, but Megumi learned a lot from Hideki how to scout, of course we didn't cover all of it, because it will reach too many chapters of nonsense mumble jumble jargon.

So Megumi and Hideki scouted for the possible next opponents, but Hideki let Megumi handle it on her own, like a tutor. But Megumi got the basics pretty quick and she got the first try right, with the advance scouting part to follow, which Hideki will tutor her for.

But enough about that.

3 weeks later. 

Hanabira got better and adjusted for their first games and had notes for their next opponents courtesy of Megumi and Ayumi. The Nationals Tokyo Qualifiers were held in three different gyms where the three groups were playing, with the gyms having 2 courts alongside each other. 

So, the day has come where Hanabira will play the gauntlet, where it is survival of the fittest, one loss and it's goodbye for the Nationals. 

The team arrived at the gym on the school bus, the first years were nervous, the sophomores were excited and the seniors were kind of anxious, this being their last dance. This extended to the student managers as Megumi also felt nervous like the freshmen and Ayumi was feeling anxious for the seniors. But as they entered the court for their first game, all of it was left outside of the court as they wore their game faces on. The team had done their drills and shooting exercises. 

Hideki didn't do any rookie moves and ate all the nervousness and even ended the warmup time with a simple one-handed dunk so people's eyes were on him and he basked in the praise of the small crowd. 

Well, a small crowd is a good start for his budding and exploding Middle School career. 

After that dunk showcase, Coach Yoshida told Hideki "Normally, I would have scolded you, but that dunk removed your teammates' remaining nervousness, good job Hideki-kun. And next time you'll dunk just ask me and we'll plan it out for a better one, I won't take away your happiness."

The team gathered for a small huddle as Coach Yoshida began to speak, "Okay, we've gone through the plans but let me say one thing and enjoy playing with each other, I'd rather we lose the game by 1 point than win by 20 points were everybody's not having a happy face on them. So please, play like this is your last and tribute this game to everybody you love."

Hideki looked at his coach and was like 'Dude, that's cringe', before he speaks up, Assistant Coach Suzuki then started the team chant every huddle, "Hanabira, WIN on 3, 1. 2. 3." Everybody shouted "WIN" at the top of their lungs and the adrenaline starts pumping in and the starters gathered up to the court and shook their opponents hands as a show of sportsmanship. Then they slowly formed for the jump ball.

Kobayashi won the jump ball and tapped the ball to Hideki who instead of passing the ball to Suzuki (PG) he went on and delivered the ball to the rim in a surprising speed, agility and wittiness, everybody thought he was going to pass the ball but instead laid it into the basket as soon as he saw that he has an open lane for a layup.

After Hideki bamboozled everybody including his teammates, he then proceeded to get back on defense as he told his teammates "Nice surprise attack guys, let's get back on defense!" As the seniors saw that they chuckled and liked Hideki's attitude as it boosts the team morale.

After that play, Yamabuki was startled at first by the sudden score by Hideki but they ignored it as the players told themselves that it's fine and they'll score back, which was unsuccessful, their best scorer was their Power Forward and Hideki was better than the guy in all aspects but one, experience, he was a senior fighting for the last tournament of his Middle School basketball career.

As the Yamabuki Power Forward tried to get past Hideki with a quick left right dribble with a hesi then quick step inside for a jumper, as he shot the ball Hideki was behind him and blocked the shot from behind, he was shocked as Hideki blocked his shot and that was due to Hideki's gamble, he did bite on the hesi and quickly tried to recover and block the shot since he was long. Hideki thought that the opponent will shoot the ball on the first try as that's what he does in practice. 

But unfortunately Yamabuki's Center got the ball and was able to score due to Kobayashi's late reaction. 

Their score was 2-2 and it was just a minute in the game.

Suzuki (PG) got the ball from inbound and signaled the simple play he, Hideki and Tanaka (SG) employed. Tanaka sets a screen for Suzuki's man and Hideki screens also for Tanaka's man to confuse the opponents. At the first instance, both Hideki and Tanaka's man chased Hideki and Suzuki's man saw this and tried to defend Tanaka but it left Suzuki wide open and had an open lane for a layup. 

Yamabuki's effort on offense was massive but from the bystander's point of view, it was nothing as Hanabira chokes them out of the game from the first quarter, the only good thing for Yamabuki, Hanabira's shots do not always go in. 

Just like prior games, Hanabira does not allow their opponents to score freely and makes them do difficult and sometimes circus shots, but more difficulty means lesser probability for the ball to go in.

So after 9 more minutes, the first quarter ended with the score of 21 - 10 in favor of Hanabira. One thing to take note here is Hideki's man was only able to score 2 meager points after 8 attempts, due to Hideki's persistent defense. 

Hideki's man was only able to shoot the ball after he executed the same move, left right hesi but with a hard stop with spin fade away, as said earlier the more difficult the shot, the lesser the probability for it to go in, but what's unsaid was it also makes it harder for defenders to react to if they didn't know what will happen and this was one instance where Hideki couldn't block the shot and that shot luckily went in after 2 lucky bounces above the rim.

After a productive first quarter Hanabira further intensified their defense and kept the same production on offense. As the saying goes, 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' Hideki, Suzuki and Tanaka continued to use that set as it still made Yamabuki clueless on how to defend it. 

As for Kobayashi and Benjie's scoring production, you might ask how do they score? Well Benjie gets his score via transition points while Kobayashi gets open looks after rebounds so he scores after getting a rebound and he's open.

So far in the second quarter, it was almost the same as in the first quarter and they continued to be pests in defense and get as many offensive opportunities as much as possible.

*terms used (I may have described a term again, so sorry if there was one):

Hesi: Short for 'hesitation'. Basically change your speed in a drop of a hat most commonly done to sell a jumper and then drive inside the lane. 

Jumper: Another term for Jumpshot. Most typically used for two-point jumpshots, and is usually a few feet outside the basket.

Inbound: After every out of bounds (score, foul, or other game stopping scenario), pass the ball back inside the game to resume the game.

Rim: The metal ring (circular) in the basket.