Chapter 58: These last four-plus minutes were Seihō's last chance

If they couldn't narrow the point difference to within 2 points and couldn't find a way to handle Teikō's dual cores, they would give up.

Seeing the players looking unwilling, he spoke again, "Don't look like it's already over; you still have 4 minutes left, believe in yourselves, just as I believe in you!"

"Oh!"

"We will definitely win!"

The young men of Seihō instantly had the basketball time of the past ten-plus years, or maybe one or two years, flash through their minds, hypnotizing themselves.

The coach was satisfied with the players' reaction, but sighed in his heart that young people were easy to fool.

In his heart, he actually already felt that there was a high probability they couldn't get past Teikō.

In such a short time, he couldn't find a way to deal with Teikō's dual-core drive.

However, he still had to try; what if it worked?

The game restarted.

As soon as Tendō came up, he found that the opponent's defense had changed again.

Perhaps they felt his destructive power was higher than Nijimura Shūzō's; the point difference Nijimura couldn't pull away, Tendō could.

Therefore, after coming back up, the defender in front of Tendō became two people again.

And Tsugawa Tomoki ran alone in front of Nijimura Shūzō.

"Isn't this clearly telling people that I'm not as good as that guy Tendō?" Nijimura Shūzō saw it and knew Seihō was treating him as a soft persimmon.

Even Buddha would get angry!

As the dignified Teikō captain, could he be looked down upon like this?

So, in a fit of anger, he got angry.

There was no help for it; Nijimura Shūzō found that the bald guy's defense in front of him was really no joke; he could play, just not easily.

Facing Tsugawa Tomoki's death-grip, he could still score by forcing it, but the efficiency would definitely drop by quite a few percentage points.

You really don't know until you fight; it was shocking once he did.

"Has that guy Tendō already become this strong?" Nijimura Shūzō sighed in his heart.

When he first joined the club, although Tendō was very strong, he hadn't reached the point of threatening him.

And now, only a month or two had passed, and he had already walked ahead of him.

"Mataku, you really are an out-and-out monster, Tendō!"

Nijimura Shūzō slapped the basketball hard and then threw it out fiercely.

Out of nowhere, a monster appeared in his field of vision.

When most people didn't notice, Tendō had already cut to the right side of the free-throw line through off-ball movement.

Nijimura Shūzō saw it; this was the manifestation of his basketball IQ.

Being able to see the monster was equivalent to being able to find Tendō.

Tendō's expression remained unchanged; without watching the animation, he didn't know that these B-players had so much inner monologue when playing.

After receiving the pass, he started directly facing the hoop.

His off-ball movement had already shaken off two defenders, and with the help of the monster, he broke through the double-team defense.

At this moment, there was only one Polish center standing in front of him.

He didn't know whether to help defend or not, falling into a dilemma.

Wary of Tendō's passing, he couldn't forget that Murasakibara Atsushi was still standing behind him.

What's more, Tendō's gaze was still fixed on Murasakibara's direction while breaking through, giving the opponent a threat.

"Damn it, I'll fight you!"

In the end, he decided to attack, shouting and moving his body forward.

Almost at the same time, Tendō Keien made a passing motion, his ball-handling hand pushing hard to the left.

The Polish center saw it, cursed under his breath, but could only change his center of gravity and extend his right hand to intercept.

Unexpectedly, just as he made the move, Tendō's left hand slapped hard, the basketball hit the floor and switched to his right hand, and he took the opportunity to make a running layup.

And the tenacious Polish center actually refused to surrender even under such circumstances.

He jumped up regardless, simultaneously retracting the arm that was intercepting the pass, drawing a semi-circle in the air and raising it high to intercept, making a big-loop defensive move.....

A flash of shock crossed Tendō's eyes.

Do these Polish centers all like big loops so much? This couldn't help but remind him of a certain great demon king.

But I'm the one on offense, damn it?!

Swish~

The basketball hit the backboard and went in, the point difference expanded further, reaching double digits.

"Damn it, still can't do it?!"

Seihō failed to narrow the point difference back to a 1-ball gap, instead trailing Teikō by 14 points, 57:43.

It wasn't an unrecoverable score; in later basketball, let alone 14 points, even 24 points could be overturned to win.

But in current basketball, team offense leaned toward positional play, and a 14-point gap wasn't that easy to chase.

Especially since Seihō wasn't a team known for three-pointers; playing 2 points by 2 points, they needed to make 7 successful defensive stops while also seizing opportunities themselves.

This difficulty was too high!

What's more, there was a potential crisis threatening them.

Teikō's players had already started to adapt to their ancient martial arts.

Such a discovery shocked the people of Seihō.

In the past, when they played against other teams, adapting to their ancient martial arts took an entire game's time.

At least they had to wait until the fourth quarter to get familiar with it, but by then the game's result was already doomed.

And today.

In just two quarters of game time, those first-years from Teikō had gradually gotten used to their movements and were no longer easily misled by their feints.

"What kind of monsters are these." Seihō's head coach gritted his teeth secretly, then sighed helplessly.

Little did he know, the reason Teikō could adapt to Seihō's ancient martial arts so quickly, besides Tendō and the others indeed being gifted, was something else.

Most importantly, they had the most outstanding intelligence-gathering expert.

Momoi Satsuki wasn't just good-looking!

Of course, Seihō's head coach wouldn't think this had anything to do with that cute little girl who got along well with the players.

Just a basketball club manager, what's so strange about that?

Their basketball club had one too; at most, Teikō's manager's chest muscles were much more developed than theirs?

The game entered the halftime break.

Seihō's players were all dejected when they left the court.

This wouldn't do.

The little old man clapped his hands hard, "Don't look so dispirited; we aren't finished this year yet. We'll take revenge on Teikō when we get to the national tournament."

"So, keep your spirits up for the next two games; next time, there will be no way out!"

After a dose of Seihō-brand chicken soup, the players reignited their fighting spirit.

This game let them see how big the gap between them and Teikō was.

However, it hadn't reached the point where they couldn't play, so naturally, there wouldn't be any drama of giving up because they couldn't see hope of winning.

It was only 14 points; if they worked hard, it wasn't impossible to catch up.

There was still some time before the national tournament, and they could definitely sprint one more time.

Next time they met, they would definitely cut Teikō down!

Thinking of this, the young men of Seihō all looked toward Teikō with eyes burning.

This manga plot naturally made Tendō feel ashamed.

And so, when the game reached the second half, the audience discovered that Seihō had raised the white flag.

The five players on the court were all young substitute players who had difficulty getting playing time in the group stage.

Although the team's morale was already very low, after all, they were prepared to lose, but the game had to continue.

In combat sports, if the gap in strength between the two sides was too large, there might be a 10-second KO situation.

This was actually a relief for the weak.

At least he could die peacefully.

But ball sports couldn't do that; no matter how miserably you were devastated, you had to endure until the game time ran out.

Seihō's substitutes couldn't help but look up at the timer.

Damn it, why has only 4 minutes been played in the third quarter.......

Their path of pain hadn't finished yet.

Shirogane Gōzō naturally wouldn't swing his butcher knife at an opponent who had lost their fighting spirit, and he substituted Tendō and the others out early.

But the problem was, Teikō's substitutes were the former first-string players......

Those third-year players, although they accepted the fate of being substitutes for the team's victory and the championship, this didn't mean they would be indifferent when they had a chance to perform.

After this year, they would be moving up to high school and had to plan a good future for themselves.

If they didn't perform well now, I'm afraid opportunities would be even rarer in the future.

"I don't want my junior high career to end so hastily." Yamanaka Yūta looked at Tendō, who had run off to tease Riko after returning to the bench, and shook his head helplessly.

Thanks to this brat, every game Teikō played this year was packed with people.

There would always be a few high school basketball club coaches appearing.

According to his observation, Tōō's Harasawa Katsunori and Shūtoku's Nakatani Jinryō had appeared at Teikō's games at least three times.