Slam Dunk: Sakuragi learned from Kawamura Eiki's experience

Chapter 96 Sendoh and Rukawa Go Crazy

Once Ryonan's triangle offense got going, the entire game became a back-and-forth battle of offense and defense.

Rukawa received the ball on the wing again. Sendoh Akira's defensive center of gravity was extremely low, and his arms were spread out a full circle wider than in the first half. He followed closely with his feet.

Without making any feints, Rukawa pushed off with his right foot and used his speed to tear open Sendoh's defense from the right side.

He cut one step inside the free-throw line, and Ryonan's zone defense quickly contracted as if a switch had been flipped. Jun Uozumi pressed up from under the basket, arms raised high.

Uekusa, who replaced Koshino, abandoned his marking of Miyagi and rushed over from the weak side to cover him, simultaneously covering Rukawa's shooting space with both hands. Adding to the mix, Sendoh, who arrived from behind, formed a triple-team.

Rukawa Kaede came to an abrupt stop, his feet scraping the floor with a sharp screech as he sprang to his feet.

He flicked the ball away before Uozumi and Uekusa's fingers could reach their highest point.

The ball passes through the gap between the two covers and bounces off the backboard into the basket.

Rukawa landed and ran back without expression.

Ryonan attacks. Sendoh dribbles past half-court, stops the ball at the top of the arc, and lobs it to Jun Uozumi, who is in a low position.

The moment the ball left his hand, Sendoh began his off-ball movement. Fukuda Kichou cut from the weak side, with Sakuragi Hanamichi close behind. Fukuda's movement pulled Sakuragi away from his defensive focal point under the basket.

At the same time, Sendoh drove straight to the basket from the top of the arc, with Rukawa right next to him. Near the free-throw line, Sendoh made a sudden stop and reverse run, pushing off with his feet and snapping back to the three-point line.

Rukawa was half a beat off. Uozumi's pass flew to Sendoh's hands almost at the same time, and then Uozumi quickly moved to the high post.

Sendoh receives the ball beyond the three-point line and assumes a shooting stance. This time, Rukawa doesn't jump to block, but instead closes in, using one hand to block the shooting angle and the other to interfere with the dribbling path.

Sendoh didn't force a shot; instead, he passed the ball back to Uozumi, who had moved to the high post, and then started cutting towards the basket again.

Uozumi received the ball and made a turning motion to the left, causing Akagi Takenori's center of gravity to shift for a moment due to this feint.

In that instant, Uozumi passed the ball to the right in the opposite direction. Sendoh ran past Uozumi, and in the brief moment the two brushed past each other, Sendoh caught the ball.

Hand to hand.

Sendoh received the ball and immediately cut to the basket, jumping for a layup.

Akagi reacted too late; he jumped up from behind Sendoh to help defend, slapping the basketball in Sendoh's hands with his large hand.

Goal!

Akagi's hand struck Sendoh's arm.

The referee blew his whistle: "Red number 4, defensive foul. Goal stands, one penalty added."

"Beautiful!" Maki Shinichi couldn't help but exclaim from the stands.

He has barely spoken since the start of the competition.

But seeing this teamwork, he blurted it out involuntarily.

Sendoh and Uozumi's handoff was a seamless sequence, from the pass, Uozumi's feint, the pass to the finish, the entire movement was so fluid that the defenders didn't even have time to react.

Sendoh stepped up to the free throw line and calmly sank the shot.

In the next possession, Shohoku attacked. Rukawa received the ball outside the three-point line. Sendoh's defense was very tight, but this time Rukawa didn't even make a fake move and jumped directly in front of Sendoh.

The body is straight, and the wrist flicks out at the highest point.

The ball flew past Sendoh's fingertips as he blocked the shot, swish. A three-pointer went in.

The screams of Rukawa Kaede's fan club almost lifted the roof off the gymnasium. Dozens of girls kicked their legs in unison, their screams rising eight octaves higher than before.

Sendoh watched Rukawa run back expressionlessly and felt a little embarrassed.

Rukawa Kaede scored over him time and time again. The guy who was as quiet as an invisible person in the first half had already scored several baskets over him in the second half.

In the next Ryonan attack, Sendoh neither lobbed the ball to Uozumi nor watched Fukuda's cut.

He faced Rukawa Kaede at the top of the arc, lowered his center of gravity, took a step forward with his right foot, and then turned around and quickly brushed past Rukawa Kaede's side.

Rukawa Kaede's defensive footwork kept up, but after Sendoh cut into the paint, he stopped abruptly and jumped to meet Akagi's lunge for a block, his body leaning slightly backward in the air and his wrist flicking.

The ball hits the backboard and goes into the basket.

The two then went on a rampage, with Sendoh and Rukawa engaging in a one-on-one battle. They went back and forth, neither willing to give in. Rukawa pulled up for a shot over Sendoh's head, and in the next round, Sendoh spun around and gracefully slotted the ball into the net.

Rukawa cut into the paint and attempted a layup over Uozumi, while Sendoh received the ball outside the three-point line, faked a shot, and immediately fired.

Pull-up jumpers, fadeaways, drives to the basket for dunks, and pull-up three-pointers—the two players' dazzling offensive and defensive battles captivated the entire stadium audience.

The gasps from the stands came in waves, and even the drummer of the Ryonan cheerleading team forgot to play his drum and craned his neck to look at the field.

Sakuragi Hanamichi stood on the weak side baseline for several rounds, looking utterly displeased.

Since the start of the second half, he hasn't even touched the ball. Once the ball is passed to Rukawa, he can't pass it out again.

He looked at Rukawa Kaede, then at Sendoh, then back at Rukawa Kaede, the veins under his red buzz cut bulging out one by one.

He was about to yell at Rukawa when a roar from the sidelines came even faster.

"Sendoh! What are you doing! Are you playing house like a child?"

On the sidelines, Shigeru Taoka's face turned a deep red as he roared at Sendoh's position.

Sendoh froze for half a second at the shout, then turned to look at the furious Coach Taoka on the sidelines. His lips twitched, and his arrogance visibly subsided.

He took a deep breath, glanced back at Uozumi and Fukuda, and raised one hand to indicate that it was his fault.

Ryonan's offensive strategy has switched back to the triangle offense.

Sendoh stopped competing with Rukawa, dribbled the ball across half-court, and lobbed it to Uozumi for a pass. Fukuda cut to the basket, pulling Sakuragi away, and the ball circulated steadily among the three, looking for a weakness in Shohoku's defense to score.

Alternatively, he could use Uekusa to bring Miyagi over for a screen. Once the screen is set, Sendoh switches onto Miyagi and pulls up for a jump shot over the 168cm tall Miyagi. The ball goes in.

The triangle offense's stability and the pick-and-roll mismatch against Miyagi are indeed more consistent in scoring than one-on-one battles with Rukawa, and they also save energy.

On the other hand, Rukawa Kaede continued to rely on his individual skills to score, but each time he scored, he was surrounded and exhausted. His scoring efficiency was gradually outpaced by Ryonan's methodical team offense.

The numbers on the timer kept jumping.

In the 9th minute of the second half, Sendoh once again used Uekusa's screen to switch onto Miyagi, dribbled the ball into the basket, and jumped to lay up against Miyagi's defense.

The referee's whistle blew: "Red number 7, defensive foul. Goal stands, one penalty."

Kogure Kiminobu glanced down at the statistics in his hand on the sidelines; Miyagi had committed his fourth foul.

He suddenly stood up, took two steps forward, cupped his hands around his mouth, and yelled at the field, "Miyagi! Watch your foul count!"

You committed four fouls! Four fouls!

Yasuda, standing on the bench, bobbed his Adam's apple and asked, "Kogure-senpai, should we make a substitution? Let me go up and replace Miyagi?"

Kogure turned his head to look at the scoreboard.

With Sendoh's free throw going in, Shohoku was now down by 11 points.

He was silent for a moment, then shook his head. "No. We're down by 11 points now, it's a crucial moment, Miyagi can't fall."

On the field, Rukawa Kaede paused slightly upon hearing Kogure's shout.

He looked up at the scoreboard. Shohoku was down by 11 points.

He paused for a moment. At the start of the second half, they were only 4 points behind; now they were 11. He kept sinking basket after basket in his one-on-one duel with Sendoh, putting everything else aside.

Now he saw it: in those rounds where he and Sendoh were locked in a standoff, Ryonan had quietly, point by point, widened the gap again.

Sweat dripped from the ends of his black hair, and he stood there, his chest heaving. The numbers on the red scoreboard made his eyes narrow slightly.

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