Chapter 3
First Face-Off
Prrrrtttt!
As the whistle blew, the game began. The tip-off was between Shinji and Rukawa and since Rukawa was the better jumper, he managed to tap the ball towards Miyagi.
"Fast break!"
As soon as Rukawa landed, he ran towards their goal. Miyagi threaded the needle with a bullet pass between two unsuspecting freshmen. The ball went exactly into the waiting hands of Rukawa. But when he jumped up to do a dunk, Shinji came flying out of nowhere intent on denying Rukawa an easy dunk.
"Oh no you don't!" Shinji shouted.
"Try and stop me," Rukawa glared as he jammed in the ball. Shinji's hand was late and hit Rukawa on the arm. It didn't matter; Rukawa slammed the ball with ease.
"Basket counts! Foul, Red, number 9!" Ayako shouted. He's better than before he left for the All-Japan team, she thought.
"Damn," Shinji breathed as Rukawa stepped up to the free throw line.
"You can't stop him alone," Mitsuoka said as he passed Shinji.
"What's on your mind?"
"Double team?"
"Miyagi's mine, remember that," Kai said as he overheard their discussion.
"Let's do this," Shinji said as they Rukawa sank the free throw.
The other freshman inbounded the ball to Yoshi. He played the point as they pressed forward to the other end.
"Set the pick!" Yoshi shouted.
Miyagi was guarding Yoshi and his eyes never left the face. He had a habit of going into a sort of zone wherein there was only Miyagi and the person he was guarding, in this case, Yoshi. Mitsuoka went beside Miyagi to set a pick for Yoshi. He went right since Mitsuoka prevented Miyagi from following him. As soon as they saw that Miyagi was baited in, he went straight for the left side.
"What!" Miyagi exclaimed.
Yoshi went straight for the basket and pulled up for a jumper from the free throw line. Rukawa jumped to attempt to block him and was nearly successful, had it not been for Yoshi's quick thinking.
"Sorry freshman," Rukawa breathed.
"No, sorry, Rukawa," Yoshi smiled.
What is he talking about? Rukawa thought.
Then, from behind Rukawa, a shadow rose up. It was Shinji. With a flick of the wrist, Yoshi flipped the ball over Rukawa's outstretched fingers and in a smooth motion; Shinji caught the ball and completed the alley-oop.
"Nice throw." Shinji and Mitsuoka high-fived Yoshi.
Damn, Rukawa thought.
"Easy guys!" Miyagi said as he brought the ball down the court. These freshmen just eluded our ace, Miyagi thought to himself. This is going to be good.
When he crossed the half court line, Miyagi saw Rukawa asking for the ball. Want to get even huh? Miyagi laughed to himself. "That's right, show them how we play around here."
The moment Rukawa held the ball in his hands, he was immediately met with a double team by Shinji and Mitsuoka.
"What the!"
"That's it!" Akagi exclaimed as Sakuragi nailed his new shot, the fade-away. "Back down, turn, and step back!"
"Yeah, I can do it!" Sakuragi laughed out loud. "I really am tensai, aren't I Gori? Nyahahahahaha!"
That remains to be seen, Akagi thought. But he really is something…
Akagi began to walk out of the park. "Where are you going?" Sakuragi scratched his head as he picked up the ball.
"There is one place where we can test out your new shots and hopefully see if you're in tiptop condition, which I doubt you are," Akagi slowly said, his back to Sakuragi.
"Umm…where?" Sakuragi asked.
"Shohoku…I heard they are having a pick-up game there…seniors against the freshmen…and from what I hear," Akagi smirked, "Maki's brother is playing there this very moment."
"What? Old man's brother is there? Let's go!"
Sakuragi ran the rest of the way to the gym.
"Blocked!"
The seniors were dumbfounded when Mitsuoka and Shinji both jumped and swatted Rukawa's shot away. This was the story all day; the freshmen were leading by a considerably large margin over the heavily favored, yet strangely overmatched, upper classmen.
"Time out, seniors!" Haruko shouted. Even she was a bit shocked to see the seniors trail by twenty points outright.
"They're really good!" Shiozaki breathed as they huddled during the time-out.
"We can see that, Shio," Yasuda calmly said "They shut down Miyagi, and even their double team has succeeded against Rukawa."
"Quiet!" shouted Miyagi. "We are not going down this easy! It's fifteen seconds to halftime, so we cut their lead to at least below fifteen points! We can do it!"
The whistle blew and the players made their way to the court once more. "Captain," Rukawa said. "Pass me the ball."
"But they'd double team you!"
"I can do it."
"Make sure of that!" Miyagi said as they resumed play with the upper classmen having possession. Yasuda immediately inbounded to Miyagi who made a bullet pass to Rukawa just outside the three point arc. Like a pack of wolves, Mitsuoka and Shinji were instantly on him. Before they could react, Rukawa jumped up and shot a three pointer above the key.
Too fast! Shinji thought.
"Perfect," Coach Anzai smiled.
The ball went in, hitting nothing but net. There was a collective gasp as it was the rare occasions in the game Rukawa managed to shoot an uncontested shot. The freshmen were unfazed and they passed the ball to Shinji. However, Rukawa's hand snuck into the passing lane and he managed a steal which he then converted to a pass to a wide-open Miyagi in the corner. Miyagi heaved the ball and the ball bounced on the rim before trickling down for another three points. The score was now 50 to 36. Shinji grew impatient and heaved the ball to Yoshi but the sloppy pass was intercepted by Miyagi. This time, it was Ryota who passed to Rukawa from the elbow of the arc to make another three pointer with only a second to spare. As the whistle sounded, the shot went sailing in, cutting the deficit to a meager 11 points.
"Nice teamwork!" Kakuta exclaimed as the first half came to an end.
"Teamwork!" a voiced roared from the direction of the doorway. "If you had teamwork, you wouldn't allow first years to push you around!"
It was Akagi and behind him, stepped a familiar red head. It was Sakuragi. "Oh boy," Miyagi laughed. "The tensai is back."
"Let's get this show on the road!" Sakuragi said as he donned one of the senior's uniforms. "Beware first years, nobody messes with the seniors!"
