Kyōsen Private Middle School Vs Kishiyamoto Middle School; Third Quarter

「Nara Preliminaries, Day 4, Block A and B, Round 4: Finals.」

The game continued on with Kishiyamoto having the possession of the ball this time. Itou is still being tightly guarded by Izuki and they are currently down by 4 points after the first minute of the game.

Since Izuki wouldn't let up in his defense, Itou called for help through eye contact and signals. The one who came to help is Shoichi who set a screen on Izuki's right. This gave Itou the chance to take a mid range jump shot, adding another 2 points to their score.

Next possession, Seiji inbounded the ball, it being received by Izuki who ran to cross the half court line. After Seiji passed by him, Izuki passed the ball to him immediately. Seiji was then picked up by Shoichi just a few feet beyond the three point arc, waiting for Seiji to make his move.

Seiji took his time dribbling the ball for a few seconds before his eyes suddenly glowed slightly. Just when he backed out a single step while dribbling, Seiji caught the ball into his hands and shot a long two-pointer. Shoichi wasn't able to do anything as Seiji just shot the ball without any forewarning.

This is a shot that Seiji learned from watching tons of video clips and IBA action. It's called as the 'dribble freeze' or a freeze move off the dribble. The defender wouldn't be able to react to you as they thought you were just thinking about your next move or something, as you are dribbling the ball while standing in an upright position. Then, just when they least expect it, you will suddenly go into your shooting motion right after the ball is within your grasp.

Like what happened to Shoichi, he wasn't able to react at all as he just stood there in his position like a statue. This is a very difficult shot to make as you have to do a lot of practice in order to make this shot feel like it's in rhythm rather than not. If the shot is not in rhythm, you'll more likely to miss rather than make such shots.

The game went on with Kishiyamoto having the ball possession. This time, Shoichi managed to score a point when he switched defenders with Itou after a pick and roll attempt by the two of them. Due to the mismatch, Shoichi scored with a 13 footer midrange jumper.

When Izuki got his hands on the ball, he activated his 「Eagle Eye」 and searched for a free teammate. He wanted to pass the ball to Akagi but Hanagata is guarding him tightly. That's when he saw Seiji break free from his defender.

With a bounce pass, Izuki passed the ball to Seiji while Seiji drew defenders towards him by driving towards the paint. When he saw Hanagata divert his attention on him for a split second, Seiji passed the ball to Akagi with a bounce pass that went in between Hanagata's legs.

Hanagata could no longer do anything as Akagi took off and dunked the ball onto the basket.

"HAHHH!"

*BAM*

"Tsk. Shouldn't have let my guard down."

The whole game continued on like that, with both teams going back and forth, with some players missing shots because they are either contested shots or difficult shots to make. Neither team's defense is letting up so the game's pace is quite slow.

By the end of the first 10 minutes of the game, the score went from 10-6 to 34-26. Kyōsen got the lead because of Izuki's and Seiji's steals and some great defensive stops by Akagi and Wakamatsu.

Kyōsen relied more on Seiji this quarter as he scored 22 points of the team's 34 points. His stats this quarter is 22 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, and 2 steals. In Kishiyamoto, Hanagata is leading his team with a score of 10 points.

※・※・※・※

During the second quarter, the game became even more heated as Wakamatsu, Hanagata, Hayakawa, and Akagi fought for rebounds. Many players missed their shots as they repeatedly tried to take contested shots.

Izuki made use of Seiji, Kogure, and Wakamatsu more often rather than Akagi since Akagi is really well guarded by Hanagata. Akagi only became free when Hanagata would get distracted by Seiji or Wakamatsu who's trying to drive towards the paint. That's when they would pass the ball to Akagi for a dunk.

Akagi would sometimes be able to brute force his way towards the rim but that's getting shut down too because of Hayakawa who would try to sneakily steal the ball from his hands when he try to dribble. Even though Akagi is getting shut down by Hanagata in offense, he is the one shutting down Hanagata in terms of rebounds.

Hanagata just couldn't get that timing of boxing out Akagi and instead, he would get boxed out by Akagi. Sometimes, Hayakawa would get the offensive rebound because of his explosive jumps but Kyōsen still have the lead since Kishiyamoto is having a hard time converting those offensive rebounds into points.

Kishiyamoto's team play is also starting to crumble due to Seiji starting to intercept most of their passing course. Seiji is already getting used to the information that his 「Eagle Eye」 is providing so, paired with his fast learning capabilities, Seiji more or less memorized most of Kishiyamoto's pass course.

Seiji became a literal all-rounder as he is all over the place; defending, scoring, setting up some screens, and coordinating with Izuki in order to make offensive plays. Kishiyamoto players just think that he is literally all over the court right now.

Even though it is like that, Kyōsen's lead didn't exceed 20 points. Probably because he isn't used to shooting midrange shots, Kogure has been missing a lot of shots. Most of their shot attempts came from him so this is the primary reason why Kyōsen's lead didn't go up that much.

Watching Kogure miss a lot of his shots, Chu Lin immediately regretted imposing himself on his players. It seems that he got a little too impulsive and asked his players something unreasonable when he lost his cool upon remembering that old coot from the other team.

On the bright side, this condition that he set revealed some of his team's weakness. Akagi doesn't know how to utilize the post moves that he taught him except brute forcing his way to the rim. This is probably the effect of having an ability focused on brute force.

Wakamatsu still doesn't know how to properly box out an opponent for a rebound. Kogure is weak in terms of mid range shots. While Izuki needs to learn how to drive to the basket with his dribbles in order to draw in defenders and make his teammates free.

After this match, Chu Lin decided to train his players more on the things they lack. This includes Hyuuga and Fukuda because of their poor defense.

※・※・※・※

During the second half of the game, all of the players except Seiji showed signs of fatigue. This affected their performance for sure but they still have a lot of gas remaining in their tank so, even though their efficiency took a hit, the hustle still continued.

However, during this second half, Kyōsen definitely have the upper hand due to them having Seiji in their team. However, Kishiyamoto started to rotate between their players, giving all of them time to take a rest. On Kyōsen's side, Seiji played as the point guard once again and let his teammates take a rest.

After Chu Lin realized his mistake, he removed his condition and told his players to play like usual. This led to the newly subbed in Hyuuga, along with Seiji, to rain down three-pointers upon the enemies. Both of them attempted a total of 18 three-pointers and sank 13 of them.

Seiji attempted 8 three-pointers and sank in all of them. Hyuuga attempted 10 three-pointers and sank in half of them. While Izuki shot only 3 three-pointers and sank two of them, only missing one. All in all, the three of them contributed 45 points to their total score.

If during the first half of the game, the game is quite close, with the score of 59-42, in favor of Kyōsen, Kyōsen left Kishiyamoto in the dust during the second have. The score became a whopping 144-92. Hanagata and the crew definitely tried their best to catch up but Seiji, Hyuuga, and Izuki's threes are just too overwhelming.

*prrrt*

"Everybody line up!"

With the referee's call, every players on the court lined up in front of the centerline.

"Kyōsen Junior High wins with a score of 144-92! Bow!"

"""Thank you for the game!"""

This marks the end of the game between Kyōsen Private Middle School and Kishiyamoto Middle School.

※・※・※・※

「Arisugawa Seiji's Stats」

(76 points, 26 rebounds, 22 assists, 2 blocks, and 29 steals)

To be continued…

[A/N¹: Well, there goes the plan of making a whole four chapter series for this matchup. Got one too many jobs everyday so… yeah. I didn't have the time to think about the whole scenario. I apologize if you guys got hyped because of it. I'll compensate you guys with a four chapter match between these two teams during Seiji's second year.]

[A/N²: It's quite hard to juggle between working and this so do bear with the inconsistent chapter release(If I do become inconsistent). Peace out!]