Tokyo Nationals Qualifiers Part 4

Just like the previous qualifier matches Hanabira won against Sakura Middle School and moved deeper into the qualifiers while Sakura had their season ended.

Now Hanabira's opponents are Hikari Middle School, a school famous for emulating the 7 second or less offense from the Pheonix Suns in the NBA. Their fast-paced offense took their previous opponents past their limits and was unable to keep up with Hikari's fast and precise decision making. 

While resting, Hanabira were going through their defensive plans on stopping Hikari Middle School and Hideki himself took it to the extra mile and researched about their tendencies as a team.

On the match itself, Hanabira was able to stop Hikari's explosive offense, having learned their lesson from their previous match's experience, and force the Hikari team to follow their slower pace for the first two quarters, which ended with Hanabira on a good lead after the first 2 quarters.

The first quarter ended with 20 to 15. Hanabira in the lead

The second quarter ended with 43 to 32. Hanabira again in the lead. 

In the halftime break Coach Yoshida told the team that the game will ramp up in the 2nd half and Hikari Middle School, as he told the team they will also ramp up their offense to try play at Hikari's pace, he lastly told the team "If you think you're tired, give me the signal so I can give you rest by subbing out or a timeout." The players nodded, especially Hideki.

The 3rd quarter started and as the coaches told Hanabira, they promptly fastened the pace and at first Hanabira was shocked with Hikari's fast paced offense and was unable to make them miss some of their shots, this lead to Hanabira's lead cutting into a 1 possession game into the fourth quarter. As the third quarter ended in 70 to 67.

On the fourth quarter, Hanabira got the wheels back and steered the game back into their favor even though if the game was still in high pace, due to one suggestion made by Hideki.

On the small inter quarter break Hideki told Yoshida "Coach, I think in order for usto be able to react to their fast paced offense, let me be the center and have Daiki-senpai in the game as the Power Forward. We sacrifice a little bit of size for more speed." Yoshida, has to think fast and luckily he did and told the team "Astute observation Hideki, but we'll retain you at Power Forward and have Daiki go Center for more strength down low, and you help him in sticky situations."

Everybody nodded and Coach Suzuki told the team "With Daiki in, the scoring down low will halt at first but we can use our speed to our advantage and score more fast break points with this lineup."

This change in lineup made drastic changes in the game's flow, this was the moment where the game's flow was in Hanabira's. As Yoshida said, inside scoring was not compromised and Hanabira was able to have more points than Hikari in the last quarter.

The game ended with 110 to 98. Hanabira won and advanced deeper into the qualifying tournament.

Next game was a lucky team that made it this deep into the qualifying tournament, which is Tsubasa Middle School. They were able to surprise teams with their above average offense, however unlike the previous teams Tsubasa Middle School faced Hanabira came in prepared and was able to squash Tsubasa Middle School, the bonus here is that the bench mob unit played from 2nd quarter to the 4th quarter after a big gap was created by the starters, this was monumental as the starters also need rest.

The game ended in 90 to 50 with Hanabira winning the game in a landslide.

The last team that Hanabira will face before the Semi Finals is Sora Middle School. Another defensive team like Hanabira Middle Shool. With that school's motto took literally by the team and employed taller players to eliminate shots. 

However, Hanabira is still averaging the tallest players in this Nationals qualifying block, and Sora is a close second due to their point guard's natural height for a point guard, but beware, he is also a menace in defense. 

This game was attended by numerous schools and small time media personnel as this was the most interesting match of the qualifiers, including the future semi-final and finals matches. As this was dubbed the "Dog Fight" of the Tokyo National Qualifiers. People had high expectation in the match as both teams will claw their points in the scoreboard.

The match's first quarter ended as most people predicted, 9 to 8 in favor of Sora Middle School. 

In the second quarter, it was the same result, 18 to 16 in favor of Sora Middle School again.

In the third quarter the game slowed down once more and finished with the score of 25 to 21 in favor of Sora. Unlike what some people may think, this is still a winnable game for Hanabira.

The fourth quarter got really gritty and both teams has yet to pass the 30 point mark, but Sora is nearing it with 29 while Hanabira is still at 26 points. As soon as Sora got past the 30 point mark with 4 minutes remaining, Assistant Coach Suzuki called for a timeout and looked at Hideki and told him "I think it's time to make you into the team's temporary Point Guard, thei point guard's harassing Suzuki too much and we are unable to generate shots, with that we will sub in Haruto Ito again for your outlet passes."

Assistant Suzuki pasued and asked Hideki "Can you do this Hideki-kun" Hideki looked at the opposing bench and said "I will do it coach", Assistant Coach Suzuki smiled and said "Good, now our offense will revolve around Hideki-kun, be sure to set screens for him Benjie and Kobayashi so he can get inside freely. And Ito and Tanaka will rain on threes." Everybody nodded and proceeded to go inside the court.

At the inbound, Sora Middle School players were surprised to see Hideki bringing the ball up to the court, his man told the point guard to switch, however in the midst of talking Hideki rushed in inside and both players chased Hideki, not realizing Tanaka was wide open for a three, which he sunk in. 

As the time got closer to zero, Hanabira overtook the score from Sora and won the game with the brilliance and decision making of Hideki. The game ended with 35 to 31.

After this they shared a very gentlemanly handshake with their opponents who returned the gesture, as it was a fun game and the coaches shared a handshake and they talked about the brilliance of making Hideki the team Point Guard late into the game. 

With this Hanabira Middle School was inch by inch moving closer to their first goal of making it into the Nationals again. 

*Terms / References used:

7 seconds or less - not really a coined term or phrase but is a famous nickname for the Phoenix Suns led by Steve Nash and coached by Mike D'Antoni. They utilize fast possessions per quarter, in seven seconds or less.

The whole VS Hikari match - referenced the Slam Dunk Nationals Match between Shohoku High vs Toyotama High, without the bad boys element.