Tokyo Nationals Qualifier Part 3

The Next day after Hanabira won against Yamabuki Middle School and Asahi Middle School. 

They will now face Sakura Middle School. This school got out of the first two rounds by their barrage of three-points. This team was headed by their Shooting Guard and Point Guard who like to shoot threes and have strategies revolving shooting threes. Their Small and Power Forward also shoot threes. 

Good thing Megumi and Ayumi scouted this team and the team was able to have an abrupt plan in defending against their three-point barrages. 

The game started and from the get go Sakura Middle School shot 7 consecutive threes and Hanabira only effectively defended 3 of the 7 three-point shots. So in 3 minutes, the score was at 12 - 8 in Sakura Middle School's favor. 

The scoring barrage in the first quarter primarily came from the Shooting Guard and Small Forward, for the Shooting Guard he is skilled on moving as his teammates screened for him (like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson in Golden State Warriors offensive system). So Tanaka (SG) was pissed as the screens were hard for him to traverse and most of the time Sakura's shots went in. 

The first quarter ended in 27 - 19 in Sakura Middle School's favor, Sakura Middle School targets Tanaka and the Shooting Guard's sniping capability. So in the short quarter interval Coach Yoshida told the team "Okay, we'll adjust the defensive assignments and as the game goes by I'll look into who will change. So for now, I'll change Benjie for Haruto Ito, so he can react to the Small Forward if he tries something and I want Hideki to switch marks with Tanaka since you're thin so you could navigate screens better and reach their Shooting Guard's shooting motion."

Assistant Coach Suzuki told Ito "Okay you were also brought in for the three-points, we need to counter the three-point barrages that Sakura Middle School are doing" 

As the second quarter started the defensive strategy paused Sakura's offensive assault as Coach Yoshida stated these changes was new for Sakura and stifled their three point barrages.

In Sakura's first possession, Hideki was marking their Shooting Guard, Sakura players still did their motion sets and Hideki completely stopped their Shooting Guard's shots, even when he shot the three point behind a screen, due to Hideki's tall frame and long arms he blocks the Sakura's Shooting Guard's shots. 

On the other possessions, Tanaka (SG > PF) and Ito (SF) effectively guarded the Power Forwards and Small Forward respectively, as the Point Guard was completely covered by Suzuki (PG). This made Hanabira effectively guard Sakura's three-point barrages. 

On Hanabira's offense, with Benjie out, the transition points were lessened as Hideki has to finish fastbreaks alone, but due to Ito's hustle to get to offense too Hideki was able to cooperate with Ito who was on the top of the key so in times where Hideki has a defender on him he passes the ball to Ito to shot a three. With ito's efforts Tanaka also does the same so they cover the wing if one was at the top of the key. 

Now this defensive and offensive flow for Hanabira, the game got into their favor and slowly but surely got it into their hands, and Sakura didn't have any answer for that, so as the game goes on Hanabira's momentum was slowly increasing and Sakura couldn't do anything and they do not have a deep bench either to support them so their hold on the game was loosening and by the end of the third quarter the score was at 60 to 50 in Hanabira's favor.

Of course there's still the fourth quarter but Hanabira upped their intensity and effort as they continued to dismantle Sakura to end the game.

The game ended in 79 to 66 in Hanabira's favor, this was the first game where their opponents exceeded the 50 point mark but it was due to Sakura's offensive outburst at the start of the game. 

Hideki's statline

Points - 14

Rebounds - 10

Assists - 14

Steals - 9

Blocks - 9

As they finished the game Coach Yoshida commended the team for their efforts most especially Ito who for Hideki was the MVP of the game, Hideki told Ito after the game "Ito-senpai for me you were the MVP of this game, your intensity both in defense and offense paid off, if it weren't for that the game would've ended closer for comfort." Ito brushed off and was humble and said "Don't mind it Hideki, I've done my job for the team."

Next game was against Hikari Middle School. A team 

*terms used:

Top of the Key - The spot behind the three-point line and the spot behind the free-throw line.

Wing - Spot in the three-point line or the perimeter in between the top of the key and the corners.

Deep Bench - A team that has a good supporting cast after their star players. An example of this are the Golden State Warriors (2015 to 2018 era) and Denver Nuggets (2023 Championship team)

Shallow bench - Bench players are not that skilled enough to contribute for the team. Most NBA 'superteams' employ this. Examples are the Phoenix Suns after they acquired Kevin Durant.