Semi-Final

After the rest period between the two matches ended, the Tokiwadai team, led by the coach and Atsushi, went to the hall where they will play.

Announcer: Now for the semi-final match of Group A between the Tokiwadai Middle School team and the Aikawa Middle School team, please both teams enter the stadium.

Then after the two teams entered the stadium, the referee spoke

Referee: Both teams line up to report.

Then team center Aikawa and Atsushi went to report

Then after releasing the ball from the referee's hand up, Atsushi and the other center jumped and Atsushi took the ball and passed it to Ishida and then returned to the defense as usual, as there is no reason for him to interfere and participate in the attack because the team is not strong enough for him to take action.

After Ishida received the ball, he started dribbling to the right and then passed to Mibuchi, who jumped to shoot when he found that Leo screened him and prevented the Mibuchi defender from stopping him from shooting. Then the first quarter continued like this, with Mibuchi continuing to shoot from the outside and Leo and Takeda scoring from the inside when someone clicked on the center of Aikawa's team.

In this quarter, takeda demonstrated his ability to submerge and push defenders with his own strength ، Leo grabbed a lot of rebounds and Ishida has shown excellent vision, passing accuracy, critical timing and excellent dribbling that prove he is an excellent player.

they all showed what it means to be the current champion of the tournament.

After the end of the first quarter, with a score of 30-0, and emphasizing Atsushi's defensive ability, the two teams rested a little, and then the second quarter began with Aikawa's possession of the ball and their attempt to push the match into a speed battle, as they continued to pass quickly among themselves and wanted to penetrate Atsushi's defense with this, but Atsushi suddenly appeared between the supposed player To receive the pass and the ball and stole it from him and sent it in a beam to the hand of Mibuchi who was looking at him and then jumped after receiving the ball and the shot where all this happened in a few seconds and at an amazing speed as the Aikawa team did not respond to what happened.

When that happend the audience issued loud cheers as this high level game they did not even see, but the speed of stealing the pass, passing and shooting in seconds was enough to shock anyone.

Then the second quarter continued in the same vein, where Atsushi appears between passes and steals them and passes them to Mibuchi. At the end of the second quarter, Aikawa team tried to make a double team on Mibuchi to stop his shots, but Atsushi then transferred his passes to Takeda and Leo, who both scored from inside.

Then the second quarter ended, and in the break between the two parts of the match, Atsushi saw the Taiko players watching from the stands and turned to his teammates and spoke

Atsushi: Well guys, the Teiko players are watching us from the stands ، From what I can see already, Nijimura Shuzhu has ceded his position as captain to Akashi Seijuro, who is clearly from his seat at the front of the team, and therefore Nijimura probably won't play much in matches as the coach probably thinks that the years The first is enough and he will start to rely on Aomine as a force forward a lot and Haizaki as a small striker so you won't see Nijimura much and from what I see the entire Teiko team is getting arrogant as they don't put anyone in their eyes after their easy victories and therefore I think they have a year at most until they start playing solo and not looking In the interest of the team, but only in winning .

Mibuchi: I see that too. When players start to look at themselves and win in any way they can and leave team play, the team will collapse completely.

Ishida: Because their talent is good and they were praised a lot and even played as key players in the team, so they thought that they were distinguished from others and began to look at others with contempt. So if they didn't wake up, the Teiko basketball team would collapse completely even if they won all the championships and the players would stop improving and their talent would be wasted .

Leo: the problem lies in their team coach and his assistant, as from what I heard from one of the players in our third series that he has a friend in the second series in Teiko , He said that the coach is declining in health and will stop coaching the team at the end of this season, so his assistant will manage the team instead of him and from what I know The assistant coach has a slightly weak personality and is affected by the words of the principal, so they will most likely turn the team into machines to win only without taking into account the feelings of the players .

Atsushi: Well, it's not our business. Everyone is old enough to know what's best for him and his team. We play basketball to enjoy the sport and win as a team , not just win, and neglect the team play of the team.

This is a team sport, not an individual sport.

Then, after Atsushi finished speaking, the referee whistled, declaring the end of the rest period and the beginning of the third quarter of the match, which started with the ball in the possession of Tokiwadai team.

Then Ishida received the ball and started dribbling and advancing and after rushing to the three-point line he faked the jump to shoot and passed to Mibuchi when his defender fell into it and Mibuchi jumped and shot scoring three easy points .

The match continued in this way, as the third quarter ended with Tokiwadai team advancing 50-0. After the rest, the match continued in the last quarter, where the coach took out Takeda, Leo and Ishida, and entered the third year players in their place. The team advanced and there was no return for Aikawa team, and after Tokiwadai team continued to score , playing in a comfortable way , putting pressure on the Aikawa team and narrowing their playing space, the match ended with the Tokiwadai team winning 75-0.

After resting a bit and changing their clothes, they returned to watching Shōei's match under Atsushi's suggestion. He wanted to see Shōei's players on the field and see how they play as they are the one`s who will play against them in the finals.

The match was in the third quarter, and Shōei School team was ahead of the team opposing them with a score of 42-31. The match was good and the opposing team was good in attack, but it`s defense was not very good.

The match continues, and shoei's team continues to pressure the opponent, stealing his passes and recording from the inside, as Kiyoshi continued to press the center of the opposing team and control the rebounding balls.

Where Kiyoshi's vice claw is good at getting rebounds and his right of delay is also good at making opponents unpredictable as it is possible at the last moment instead of passing to make a shot.

Atsushi: From what I see now that Kiyoshi and Nakamura are the most players you should be wary of.

If Kiyoshi passes the ball to Nakamura Taichi at the three-point line, Taichi becomes dangerous Because of his speed and dribbling skill, so to control Taichi we must cut his passes completely from Kiyoshi.

Leo: Leave Taichi to me as I will keep pressing him and trying to cut his passes

Takeda said, "Leave Kiyoshi to me. I'll try to limit his passing options and make him pass to Taichi a lot so that Leo San can deal with him."

Atsushi: Well, I'll leave them to you, and Ishida-san and Mibuchi I want you to support them.

And I want Mibuchi in particular to focus on scoreing , and if you find it difficult, show your sky shot, but don't use it too much so that they don't get used to it and discover its way.

Mibuchi : it`s ok i will do it if it`s necessary.

Then after the game which shoei won as expected , the team returned to the school by thier bus and after making arrangements to rest tomorrow everyone left for their homes to rest today and then they will talk tomorrow at school .