Pack-Line Defence
Aone's standing vertical reach was higher and more explosive than Fushimi's Center, so he reached the ball in the air far before Fushimi's Center.
The ball went to Kaitani, who waited on the spot for Shun to come to him to get the ball, the rest of the team and Fushimi ran to Fushimi's side for the first play.
Shun got to Kaitani and received the ball from him. Shun held the ball and whispered to Kaitani.
Shun: "Get ready to relay a pass to Mibuchi-san. I will signal the sign for him to get free, so pass the ball the moment he's away from his mark."
Kaitani nodded and ran ahead, Shun followed at a sedated pace.
Shun raised his hand and signaled Mibuchi to run free.
Mibuchi, who saw the sign started to move around, trying to make space between him and his defender.
Yuki also saw the sign, so he decided to help Mibuchi lose his mark by screening his defender.
Mibuchi saw that and moved so that his defender would get caught in the screen.
Mibuchi's defender didn't see the screen coming and stopped before he would collide with Yuki.
Fushimi's PF: "Shit!"
Shun, who saw that moved, increased his speed and threw the ball to Kaitani while in transition.
Kaitani received the ball and relayed it to Mibuchi, who jumped for a long-range two.
Coach Koetsuji, who was on the sideline, clapped at the excellent teamwork displayed by the team.
Coach: "Nicely done."
The ball went into the basket without any problems, and Tokiwadai scored the first points of the game.
Mibuchi turned to Yuki and praised him for the screen.
Mibuchi: "That was excellent timing and decision on the screen, Yuki-chan. Keep it up."
The ball was now with Fushimi. Fushimi's shooting guard inbounded the ball to the point guard.
Fushimi's point guard raised his hand with his index finger up.
Fushimi's PG: "Don't mind it; it was only one play. Let's score back."
Fushimi's coach saw Tokiwadai's defense and commented grimly.
Fushimi's Coach: "Ah, this is bad. Tokiwadai's defense is bad for us."
The players who sat on the bench looked at their coach. One of them asked.
Bench Player: "What do you mean, coach?"
Fushimi's coach sighed and explained.
Fushimi's Coach: "Middle School basketball don't play full-court defense. A full-court defense is too tiring for Middle School players.
All of the teams deployed a version of half-court defense or even further below."
He pointed at Tokiwadai's defense and explained.
Fushimi's Coach: "Look at Tokiwadai's players, four of them are inside the three-point arc, and the last player stays outside."
He picked up a small basketball-court board and explained it through it.
Fushimi's Coach: "Tokiwadai's defense is what you call a pack-line defense.
It was essentially, four players creating a perimeter of the radius 5 meters (~16 feet) from the basket, one player would be outside."
He put four player-markers in a semi-circle and put one player-marker outside the line of defense.
Fushimi's Coach: "Just like a man-to-man defense, each player is assigned a mark to guard, but in pack-line defense, they don't stick to the mark and stay inside the area they have created."
He pointed at the one player outside the defensive area.
Fushimi's Coach: "You only move out if your mark has the ball."
A sports journalist in the stands commended Tokiwadai's defense.
Journalist A: "A pack-line defense, a commendable defensive strategy from Tokiwadai."
He had a companion journalist, and he asked his friend.
Journalist B: "What do you mean?"
Journalist A smiled and said.
Journalist A: "A pack-line defense is an excellent choice for middle school basketball. It's only weakness is three-point shooters.
See that, all the players are concentrated on the inside, if the other team has good outside shooters, then they would be able to score on the team, but on the other hand, middle schoolers who usually have a poorer outside shooting skills, this is a great defense."
Journalist B looked at his co-worker and asked.
Journalist B: "Wouldn't a simple man-to-man defense do the same thing, why this pack-line defense."
Journalist A laughed explained.
Journalist A: "Unlike a man-to-man defense, where the defense is essentially a one-to-one defense, but a pack-line defense lets your team put more people on the player with the ball.
Plus, it is a good practice for youth basketball teams, the ever-popular zone defense instills bad habits in young players. They become lazy by staying in one area, whereas pack-defense makes you follow your man."
[A/N: An link to an article on Pack-defense will be posted in the comments.]
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On the court, Fushimi's point guard passed the ball to the center.
Yuki immediately moved out to defend him, Aone remained in the post to defend if they did penetrate.
The whole team shifted towards the left, where the center was coming from.
This was the power of pack-line defense, the players would move and crowd the area, and unless you were good at shooting threes on the spot, it took great skill, or innovative teamwork to break the defense.
Fushimi's center tried to move in but wasn't able to break in, so they went with the planned pass course.
He passed to the small forward, whose object was to get the ball to the power forward.
But the pass from the small forward was intercepted as Aone leaped and put a hand on the ball.
The bench cheered at Aone's leap and steal.
The ball became a free ball, and Shun got to it first.
He picked the ball and yelled while throwing the ball.
Shun: "Kaitani!"
Kaitani, who had taken off when Aone had touched the ball, looked back and saw the ball coming to him.
He smiled as he caught the long pass and said.
Kaitani: "Got it! Alright."
Kaitani ran to the basket and put in a layup with no defense because of the fast break.
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Tokiwadai's pack-line defense was a bane to an inside team like Fushimi. By the end of the first-quarter, Fushimi was down by nine points.
Shun had yet to score once, but he was leading the team in assists and steals.
Shun didn't need to score against Fushimi, so he held back and focused on defense and support.
Tokiwadai entered into the second-quarter with the momentum on their side.