Rekindling the dream of becoming a star

Chapter 18: Scoring Battle
The pace of the game was very fast. Not to mention the technical level, just looking at the offensive and defensive intensity of the two teams was top-notch.

There was frequent physical contact, the referee's penalties were lenient, and physical fighting in the paint was serious. Chen Fang could see it clearly from the stands at the baseline.

Nanyang No. 1 High School is indeed the No. high school in Nanyang. There is no weak player in any of the five positions. They suppressed the Affiliated High School for half a quarter, and the score gap widened by ten points.

"Chen Fang, did you see that? This is Nanyang No. 1 Middle School." Yue Gang was not proud of the bet, but his face was solemn.

"They are even stronger this year!" Yang Shan looked frustrated.

Chen Fang didn't respond. In fact, to see how strong a team is, you can tell after just a few minutes on the field.

Whether the player's shooting posture is standard, dribbling with his left or right hand, and the speed of assisting defense can all be used as judging criteria.

Nanyang No. 1 Middle School is undoubtedly such a team. Their strength is very average, so under the leadership of Bai Ye, they can immediately gain an advantage.

This is the style of a strong team.

"Beep!" The Affiliated High School took the initiative to apply for a timeout.

"We need to make adjustments, otherwise the first quarter will be a mess," Yang Shan explained.

"The Affiliated High School has to show its best skills in the first quarter. This game is going to be very exciting." Yue Gang sighed.

"Special skill?" Chen Fang was puzzled.

"Leading the defense throughout the court, marking like a mad dog."

"Captain Chen, is what they are doing very similar to what we are practicing now?" Yang Shan asked a question.

"It's very different. The reason why defense is tiring is because you are on the passive side. Your movement is being mobilized by the opponent, and you can't adjust your physical strength on your own." Chen Fang shook his head: "If we can play a three-quarter small ball, then the leading defense will be out of energy in one and a half quarters at most."

"By the way, how long can the attached middle school last?"

"I saw it like this in the second half," Yue Gang replied.

"The training intensity at the affiliated high school is very high, and their coaches must be strict." Chen Fang guessed.

"You're not bad either!" Yue Gang joked. Seeing Chen Fang speechless, he immediately became serious: "Indeed, Coach Zhang from the Affiliated High School is a teacher in their school. He is very strict and authoritative."

As they were talking, the referee blew the whistle to signal the end of the timeout, and Chen Fang watched Yan Zhen walk onto the court.

It feels really wonderful to be able to predict certain things that are about to happen. Chen Fang suddenly felt a little excited.

"Huh, no one is marking him throughout the entire court?" Yue Gang was puzzled as soon as the game started.

The Affiliated High School attacked the frontcourt with the ball. Yan Zhen got the ball. He dribbled very slowly, making the defender's center of gravity very low. Suddenly, he made a simple change of direction and went straight to the basket.

When facing the backup defender, a lob shot, the arc of the basketball is higher than the hollow rim of the backboard.

"This throw is good." Yang Shan shouted immediately.

Yan Zhen’s signature weapon, I didn’t expect that he would slip away in high school.

No. 1 Middle School made a quick serve, Bai Ye rushed to the front court with the ball, dribbled past two people and scored the ball, causing a foul.

“andone!” the audience cheered.

A very strong response ball.

After the free throw was made, one could still vaguely hear Bai Ye pointing and saying something to Yan Zhen.

The Affiliated High School slowly advanced across half court. After several passes, Yan Zhen ran into an open space and, under the cover of his teammates, made a three-point jump shot without hesitation.

hit!

"Good shot!" The spectators in Dongsheng's stands cheered almost at the same time. They had a deep resentment towards No. 1 Middle School.

A stronger response ball.

"Is No. 8 in conflict with Bai Ye?" Yang Shan asked.

Before he finished speaking, Yan Zhenxian pointed at Bai Ye, then raised his index finger to his mouth and made a gesture to shut up.

"Woo!" A burst of boos suddenly came from the surrounding stands. Bai Ye indeed had a lot of fans.

"It's obvious that the two of them are competing against each other. Haha, this game is interesting." Yue Gang laughed.

The conflict was laid out in the open, so neither side pretended. Yan Zhen rushed out directly to defend Bai Ye alone.

Bai Ye made continuous crotch movements, shook off Yan Zhen, rushed into the three-point line, and made a quick stop jump shot, but was blocked by Yan Zhen who came back.

"Roar!" Even from such a distance, Chen Fang could hear Yan Zhen's angry roar with his head raised.

Bai Ye seemed a little confused as well, and communicated with the referee, saying that he had hit the ball with his hands. The referee patiently explained that looking at the action, it seemed that he was saying that the ball player and player were one, so it was not a foul.

No. 1 Middle School served the ball from the sideline. Bai Ye ran to the sideline to get the ball, then waved his arms to signal everyone to get out of the way.

Bai Ye wants to play against No. 8 and teach him a lesson.

Everyone was thinking this, and the whole place suddenly fell silent.

"It's time to deal with No. 8. The king is angry!" Yang Shan said to himself excitedly, his tone full of solidarity.

Chen Fang's heart was also stirred. This football game made his blood boil.

Bai Ye stood one meter outside the wing, Yan Zhen was stuck on the three-point line, and the two confronted each other.

With a dragging step, a quick step to the opposite side and a turn of the hip, Bai Ye, who had swung half a body length away, paused. When Yan Zhen moved sideways, he made a cross change of direction and swayed back to his original position.

Shot, three-pointer.

"Swish!" Because of the silence, Chen Fang, who was far away at the bottom line of the other half of the court, could hear the sound of the ball hitting the net.

"Yeah!" The whole audience cheered loudly, and many teenagers stood up, making all kinds of strange noises and waving their arms.

Bai Ye stepped back, looked at Yan Zhen, and slowly shook his head, his face full of disdain.

Killing someone and destroying their heart would probably cause most people to immediately lose their mindset and their will to shatter.

But Chen Fang knew clearly that Yan Zhen was definitely not one of them.

Thinking back to that time, Chen Fang used all his efforts to call out Yan Zhen, and he was forced to eat five times on his head, but he did not lose his momentum and fought back more fiercely. Sure enough, the Affiliated High School rushed to the frontcourt, and Yan Zhen made an empty cut and actually backed up the inside line of No. 1 High School, and made a turnaround jump shot, keeping the score tight.

"This number 8 is really strong. Damn, who is this and where did he come from!" Many people were amazed, and Chen Fang could hear similar discussions.

No. 1 Middle School reached the Affiliated Middle School's half court. Bai Ye worked alone and made a quick stop jump shot, but unfortunately he missed, causing the entire audience to wail.

The Affiliated High School grabbed the basket and took off directly from three lines to the half court of No. 1 High School. Yan Zhen attracted the attention of two people from No. 1 High School and passed the ball to his teammate on the other side, who scored a rebound.

"Ah, the Affiliated High School has caught up with the points!" Someone reacted very quickly and shouted.

I looked up at the electronic scoreboard hanging high above the podium on the left, and it showed that Nanyang High School Affiliated to Nanyang 17:25.

“Only eight points.”

Before he finished speaking, there was a cry of surprise from the stands. Looking inside the court, Bai Ye's shot missed and was dunked by No. 8 who made a fast break. He leaped into the air and dunked the ball with both hands.

"Wow!!!" Because Dongsheng was sitting at the back half of No. 1 Middle School, they had the most direct view of the dunk and felt it the fastest. Immediately, a group of people jumped up and cheered along with the students from the Affiliated Middle School who occupied most of the stands in the distance.

The students in the stands on both sides also started to make a noise. Fans are fans, but after all, they are not from their own school. Everyone is happy to see No. 1 Middle School being beaten.

Yan Zhen's dunk ignited the atmosphere of the entire stadium.

Everyone began to realize that the Affiliated High School was not just there for the formality, they were determined to fight to the death with the No. 1 High School.

"Beep!" No. 1 Middle School also called for a timeout. A middle-aged man stood up and started scolding the players who had just left the court. Even Bai Ye was scolded.

"Huang Yuanshan, this man is very strict." Yue Gang whispered to Chen Fang.

Huang Yuanshan, whom Chen Fang knew.

That year, the city basketball team was going to participate in the provincial league and asked this person to be the team leader. Chen Fang withdrew after playing a training match. There was no other reason. This person was very authoritarian and would deal with you if you didn't obey him.

For this reason, Chen Fang was banned by the system. Later, even when Wang Yuan became the chairman of the Basketball Association, it was of no use. Nanyang's number one star could not even bring glory to the city.

Bai Ye went straight to the bench to drink water. Huang Yuanshan continued to call out names and scold them one by one. The timeout ended in a mess. After No. 1 Middle School came on the court, the situation did not improve. The Affiliated Middle School rushed to grab two frontcourt rebounds, and finally Yan Zhen made a layup.

The score difference came to 4 points.

Huang Yuanshan was so angry that he was yelling on the bench. Chen Fang found it funny and was afraid that he would call for another timeout to vent his anger.

He suddenly felt that fighting No. 1 was really a process of stacking buffs. Today he had one more reason. It was worth it to be able to piss off this old stubborn man.

There was a sudden cheer from the stands. Bai Ye finally scored a point with a tough layup and a high rebound.

Looking back, the Affiliated High School rushed forward quickly, and the First High School immediately surrounded them in the midfield. However, the Affiliated High School passed the ball very quickly and passed it to Yan Zhen in two moves. The latter also scored a layup and once again narrowed the score.

Yue Gang suddenly asked Chen Fang: "This is very similar to what we are practicing now."

"Well, that's basically it, but they are staged, we are full court, and we have many more tactics, not just fast breaks."

"It seems to be quite effective." Yang Shan also agreed.

"The coach of the Affiliated High School does have some skills. He took advantage of the chaos at No. 1 Middle School and started a melee mode, trying to speed up the pace and not let No. 1 Middle School slow down to think about the problem." Chen Fang analyzed.

In the remaining time of the second quarter, the two teams began to stalemate, and the score difference kept fluctuating around 6 points. The scoring on the Affiliated High School side was concentrated on Yan Zhen, while Bai Ye from No. High School scored almost half of the team's points.

It was obvious that the two of them were really trying their best.

At halftime, the score remained at Nanyang Affiliated High School 32:36 Nanyang No. High School.

Each player's data is clearly written on the personal data sheet under the scoreboard.

Bai Ye scored 20 points and Yan Zhen scored 15 points, but the latter also had three assists and four rebounds.

It was truly a battle of scoring among the stars.

"Yang Shan, take a few people with you to buy some water. Here's the money." Yue Gang took out a hundred-yuan bill.

Yang Shan stood up, called a few people, and walked around the edge. After a while, he came back with three boxes of water. Everyone was very orderly and sat there waiting for the line to distribute water.

Chen Fang and his friends drank the drinks brought in plastic bags, which felt very cold to the touch, and they knew they were being given special treatment.

"Thank you." After saying thank you and taking a sip, he heard a commotion.

It turned out that a group of girls in high school uniforms came to the entrance of the stadium. Some boys started whistling, but the girl in the lead remained calm and even gave them a sharp middle finger from a distance.

Her aggressive behavior immediately caused a bigger commotion. Many teenagers stood up and shouted something at the girl. Chen Fang also noticed it and was quite shocked: "This girl is so tall!"

Yue Gang also looked over and laughed when he heard it: "Nanyang Five Golden Flowers, what do you think! Wu Zi, Nanyang's number one leg, she is a sophomore in high school and is already 178cm tall."

"He's indeed taller. Even without shoes he's taller than Captain Chen." Yang Shan also joked.

Chen Fang smiled and looked at her a few more times. Girls with long legs are especially easy to conquer men, and I don't know what kind of sentiment this is caused by.

The Affiliated High School occupied the opposite end of the stands. When they saw them coming, they gave up the first row and stood at the back of the stands.

The girls also began to take out cheering props from their luggage bags, and soon, a beautiful scenery appeared at the affiliated high school.

"It feels so good! The Affiliated High School actually has a trump card, the beautiful cheerleaders. They are going to beat No. 1 High School in the second half!" Xue Chong screamed in the back row.

"Do we have it in Dongsheng?" Chen Fang thought of it and asked Captain Yue.

Captain Yue had an embarrassed expression, chuckled and didn't answer.

"How is that possible? We haven't made it to the quarterfinals in two years. We are too embarrassed to tell the school about it." Yang Shan explained on behalf of the captain.

"Do it this year?" Chen Fang asked with a smile.

"Once we make it to the semi-finals, I'll talk to the school about it." Yue Gang agreed.

"After all, our style of play requires off-court encouragement." Chen Fang expressed his thoughts.

Yue Gang thought about it and felt that it made sense, so he promised again: "I will apply to Director Zhou, who is in charge of the Sports Department."

As we were talking, the whistle for the second half of the game was blown.

"Here we go!" The teenagers cheered up. The outcome of this game was now in suspense.

(End of this chapter)