Kamiya vs. Musashi

-[Tokyo Preliminaries, Day 1, Block A, Round 2.]-

Kamiya Middle School vs. Musashi Middle School.

For the tip-off, both teams positioned themselves along the centre line.

Hiro couldn't notice Sano Kojiro losing the tip-off because he was 188 cm height and the opposition's center was only around 177 cm tall, a difference of eleven centimeters.

And, just as Hiro anticipated, Sano Kojiro easily won the tip-off and transferred the ball to Utada Yuki, who dribbled it past his defender and passed it to Arai Goro, who was near the three-point line, and scored before his mark could fully raise his arm for the block.

Musashi Middle attempted to attack with a rapid break, throwing a long pass, but in a fantastic display of agility, Arai lunged at the ball, collecting it, and driving to the basket, scoring.

The game continued with both teams scoring, but the point differential expanded as Musashi's ball was stolen or blocked, and they were losing a significant number of rebounds.

Hiro's purpose for this game was to disrupt the opposition's teamwork. If their passes were stolen and did not go as planned, they would quit making passes with even the slightest risk.

If the players delayed to pass the ball, the speed of the game would slow and the variety of methods for the ball to go around would be reduced. Players would be more likely to panic and make poor decisions as a result.

Hiro's strategy paid off when, in the later portion of the first half, Musashi's ball movement slowed and the players weren't able to move as freely as they could, resulting in shots like three-pointers even though their target was close enough to touch the ball.

The offensive was on Kamiya's side, and Utada kept the ball moving and chose superb passing timing. Utada began to sink more and more shots from downtown while Sano did a terrific job of grabbing rebounds.

Sano didn't face any resistance from Musashi Middle, so he began to play more in the post. His favourite post move was the front turn, in which he would receive the ball, pivot upfront, and score using his size.

Arai didn't reveal his Heaven shot until now since it wasn't necessary, and he was even having fun by scoring in the paint even though he preferred to get points from the outside.

Arai seems to have taken Hiro's proposal too literally, because while Hiro was busy swiping balls, Arai was busy blocking both inside and outside, and he was all over the place contesting shots.

The first half score was 38-23 in favour of Kamiya Middle, and this was while they were conserving energy and two of their players were not actively attempting to score.

Just as they were about to return, "Excellent effort out there; Arai, your defensive game is on point today, and Hiro, you kid! those steals have significantly shackled Musashi. Now, for the second half, I want you to expand the score differential to the point where there is no prospect of a comeback." The Coach applauded.

The team answered in unison when they heard "Yes, Coach!"

"All right, now go out there and prove your Elite Play!" The Coach issued the order.

"Let's Do It!!" Chiba stated as he patted Hiro on the back.

"mm!! Senpai!" Hiro responded.

...

In the second half, Kamiya shifted gears, with everyone save Hiro going on offensive and scoring with a lot stronger intensity.

Musashi Middle's rebound rate declined even more after the addition of Arai to the offensive.

Utada stopped playing in the paint and began playing from a distance, and Chiba, too, shifted his clean point to offensive.

Hiro abandoned the steal tactic because the damage had already been done and dread had taken root in their hearts, and he took over Arai's task of blocking.

Hiro began slamming layup attempts against the backboards and disputed more than half of the Musashi team's three-point tries, reducing their already poor scoring ability to terrible at best.

"Senpai! Pass all the balls to me!"

"Huh! Okay here!"

Hiro asked Utada to pass all the balls to him in the final five minutes of the game. Hiro honed his rapid spin followed by a layup or hook shot with the Musashi team.

"Huh!?"

"Triple Team! Number 13!" When the Musashi team realised Hiro was scoring in the same sequence every time, they made a last-ditch effort to defend him seriously, even going so far as to triple-team him, but Hiro kept scoring in the same pattern no matter what they did.

"Hahahh! This is so fun!" Hiro was attempting to improve his speed. He wanted to explore how far his reflexes could take him, and by repeating the same pattern each time, he increased his chances of being blocked, which was a great reason to use Speed Explosion.

He wanted to explore how late and fast he could modify his play using Speed Charge.

"What the! What..!"

The end product was astounding. Even though Hiro did not have the opponent's Right of Postponement, Hiro's Speed Impulse allowed him to wait until the last possible time to make a play.

Musashi middle failed to halt Hiro at the end of the game. Any audience in the balcony would have been impressed by the score displayed on the scoreboard.

"Huh? Are you Kidding Me?"

"What..the! Kamiya's Elites are Monsters!"

[91-42]

The game was won by Kamiya with a score of 91-42. Leading by an astonishing score of 49 points.

The other teams in the balcony were stunned, they knew that Kamiya was the country's number, but seeing it in person was another story.

The team cooled off by stretching, and when they were done, a first-year, third-string member approached Hiro.

"Yagami, Fukushima Middle's match is over; they won the game 72-54," stated the First Year Boy.

Hiro responded with a smile, "Thanks Yaguchi, I'll treat you to some food later."

"Why did you send that first-year to see the game, Hiro-Chan?" Arai inquired as he watched Yaguchi talking with Hiro.

"Fukushima is the only school in our block that poses a real threat to us, so I sent him to record the game with the coach's permission," Hiro smiled. in a solemn tone.

"Oh!" Arai was impressed.

"Don't be concerned Bruh! I'll email the video to everyone!" Hiro smiled as he added.

Hiro was overjoyed with his gains today. He was able to put his Speed Charge to the test and acquire a footage of Fukushima's Team.

"I'd go home and view the video to see what the players' current levels are and how much they've all developed Right of Postponement!" Hiro thought to himself.

But he also remembered, that "Basket Ball, isn't a one man Game, Its a Team Sport!" So, what ever he did, he also wanted to become strong together with his teammates.

On the first day of the Tokyo preliminaries, only eight of the twenty-four regular entries and four seeded entries of block A survived.