Nationals Quarterfinals Match vs Eikichi Nebuya

Now it was time for the Quarter Finals match against Eikichi Nebuya and Nishiyama Middle School. As any person who follows the budding Generation of Miracles and the Uncrowned Kings, this would be a certified banger of a match.

Now the teams are warming up for the match and are on the shootaround, both captains Nebuya and Hideki are shaking hands and Eikichi put more power in his handshake and he told Hideki "I hope we have a very powerful match Hideki! I can feel it in my muscles! And I will claim the title of the King with most muscles out there!" 

Hideki flinched at the handshake but he stood his ground (or was unscathed by the powerful handshake) and told Nebuya "Well, you're the second guy wanting to take that title away from me. I hope you'll bring on that promise Nebuya-san" Nebuya grinned at the challenge and so was Hideki.

Coach Yoshida told his players at the huddle that they will go man to man defense and Hideki will help off of his man and try to smother Nebuya's shots, as he could easily overpower against his man, the rookie Center of the team.

Assistant Coach Suzuki told the team that they will use the 4-out offensive scheme, as Nishiyama is not known for their perimeter defense and they will try to overpower them with mid-range and occessional three-point shots. 

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The tip-off started and Hanabira won the tip-off so Hideki caught the ball and Renji knew the assignment, he ran towards the three-point line while the opponents are scrambling on defense, Hideki executed a "laser pass" to Renji who quickly caught it and swished a three-pointer. 

Now Hanabira is feeling comfortable with the three-point lead and wants to hold on to it so they amped up their defense and won't let Nishiyama do damage on the painted area.

As Nishiyama got the ball, they quickly gave it to Nebuya and he proceeded to work on Hanabira's Center, who was easily pushed around and was able to break through him and slammed a powerful dunk before Hideki got off his man and help. 

The first quarter was really physically contested as almost all of the shots were inside the paint and the rebounds were as  physical as the points being contributed on the board. Hideki's advantage of height, length and quickness came inhandy today as he could get the rebound either by outjumping his opponent or getting a better position for a rebound.

And this physicality will persist on the whole game, and the players will feel this. But they are trained to shrug it off for the next game.

The scrappy first quarter ended with 23 to 20, Hanabira has the lead.

The second quarter got onto a hot streak of both teams able to score amidst their matchups, Hideki was able to use his quickness and length to effectively score and Nebuya was now constantly outpowering his matchup, where Hideki has to help so Nebuya couldn't score effectively.

Now Hideki was pulling double duty against Nishiyama and was scoring while defending, this would have drained his stamina if it was 2 years ago. Now he is a bonafide ace and star of Hanabira. And his willpower makes it possible for him to last the whole game.

At the 4 minute mark, Hanabira called for a timeout after their starting Center started signs of tiredness, he was worked to the bone by an Uncrowned King. So Coach Yoshida told Hideki that he will mark Nebuya for the foreseeable future. Until their Center recovers an ounce of his strength to be able to last until the final 3 minutes at least.

Now Hideki is marking their Center, Nebuya and is feeling the strength of his muscles trying to outpower him, Hideki tried to fight back but he was pushed by Nebuya and Nebuya tried to score, but Hideki's reaction speed came into play as he blocked Nebuya's shot.

You may wonder, Hideki was pushed and it was not called for a foul, well before the second quarter started, Nebuya asked Hideki if he would vouch for the more physical play, to which he agreed and as long is it's not a hard foul and both teams still play basketball and not Wrestling like in WWE, they'd give in to that request. 

As both captains agreed, they then talked to the referee to just call on hard fouls, especially plays under the basket, as both teams are physical and they can take more damage than usual, the head ref didn't budge at first, but Hideki told them that the game time will benefit as there won't be unnecessary "dead times".

Back to the game, it was more fluid as compared to the first quarter where both teams were awarded the ball or free throws.

Hideki was beginning to take over the game as he employed a back to the basket playstyle and uses more post moves to try and fool his defenders and do damage from there either by scoring or assisting.

On the other end, Nebuya could only effectively score if he was able to push Hideki back a little bit more for a powerful dunk that was felt around the arena. 

But Hanabira held on to the lead and the second quarter ended with 40 to 35 with Hanabira in the lead.

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At the halftime break, the Center for Hanabira requested the coach to get back into the game, Coach Yoshida almost said yes but Hideki told him to hold it in more so he can have more minutes in the fourth quarter. Both coach and player agreed to this and saw that Hideki can still hold on for one more quarter.

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Back to the game, the third quarter started and Hanabira has the ball, Hideki again got the ball and now Nebuya is the one guarding him. Nebuya got near, at least 2 steps, behindthe three point and was covering for Hideki's drive. What he didn't take into account for was the thing Hideki did in front of him, pull up for a three, and what's agonizing was that it got in with a swish.

So in the third quarter Hideki used this to his advantage and it was fairly successful, if Nebuya got closer to him he will breeze through Nebuya and score from there, either a mid-range or a layup or a dunk.

Seeing he was outmatched, Nebuya proceeded to use his muscles more and outpower Hideki more, which yielded more success, except for those that Hideki was able to block. 

The third quarter ended with a score of 65 to 56 with Hanabira now having more leeway in terms of score gap.

Now in the fourth quarter, the team saw that Hideki is now showing signs of tiredness too and elected to sub in their Center in the fourth quarter to alleviate Hideki's duties on both ends of the floor. 

But the defensive assignment for Nishiyama didn't change and let Nebuya guard Hideki until the game ends, so ther Power Forward will be the one guarding the rookie Center, this is so they can outlast Hideki and try to win the game from there.

But that didn't happen.

The quarter starts and he saw that Nebuya is guarding him. So Hideki told Renji that he'll have the ball from the top of the key and play from there, basically be the team's point guard again, and outspeed Nebuya, which is an effective strategy.

As Hideki got the ball, he signalled his Center to screen for him and they executed a perfect pick and roll and as both Nishiyama players got in front of Hideki's face, Hideki threw the ball for an alley oop to their Center, who was able to lay it in. 

The game got out of hand with this last strategy as they were not able to stop Hideki's offence or his teammates from scoring easy points.

The quarter ended with the score of 100 to 76, as Hideki again showcased his superb talent.

Hideki's stats were:

Points  45

Rebounds 17

Assist  15

Steals  7

Blocks  12