NBA: This flower path is a bit strong.

"Beep", with the referee's whistle, the game begins.

At the same time, this is also the last game of this Kanagawa selection tournament.

The game will start with a jump ball and will determine who will be Kanagawa Prefecture's top center.

The main center of the Xiangbei basketball team, Takenori Akagi, nicknamed "Gorilla", is the spiritual pillar of the team.

He possessed outstanding leadership qualities, lofty ideals, and a level of caution that he never let down until the very last moment.

His strong mental strength allows him to perform at his best even when injured. In addition, he has solid basic skills under the basket and has a sense of scoring under the basket that ordinary centers do not have! (Admitted by Yuzumi himself)

His shortcomings are that he is as rigid as a warrior, too idealistic and selfish, and his offensive methods are limited, especially when away from the basket.

Ryonan basketball team's main center Jun Uozumi, nicknamed "Monkey Boss" and the "Big Black Pillar" of the Ryonan team!

(Kanagawa is the best cook among basketball players, and the best basketball player among chefs.)

One of the best centers in the prefecture who can compete with Akagi of Shohoku. He is the tallest (high school player) in the prefecture and has a huge physique.

He has amazing perseverance and resilience, astonishing self-esteem, and physical gifts but no basketball talent. However, after his "awakening", his basketball IQ is incredibly high, and his weaknesses of hot-tempered and impulsive personality have also been improved.

His defensive ability is amazing, especially under the basket, and he can think of the team at critical moments.

The disadvantage is the lack of offensive agility. Also, like Akagi, his scoring method is limited.

All along, judging from personal performance and external evaluation, Akagi has been better than Uozumi in the past two years.

Since the start of this Kanagawa selection competition, both of them have performed very well.

But these two have never officially fought each other, so it is difficult for the judges and the audience to make a comparison!

On the court, as the referee blew the whistle:

"Hey!"

"ah!"

Akagi and Uozumi both jumped up, fighting for the basketball in mid-air.

"Snapped".

The jumping heights of both sides were at the same level, but Uozumi, who was full of fighting spirit, used his slightly superior strength to push against Akagi and hit the basketball to the side where Yoshitaka Fukuda was.

However, due to Akagi's strong interference, the ball deviated from Fukuda Yoshitaka's direction and fell in mid-air.

For a while, Xiangbei and Ryonan started fighting for the floor ball.

In the end, it was the shortest and most agile player, Miyagi Ryouta, who took the ball, and Shohoku took the lead in launching the first round of attack.

"From the perspective of upper body strength, Yuzumi is slightly better."

Sugiyama Shouta muttered to himself.

Tanaoka Shigeka turned from a coach to a commentator, explaining the situation in detail:

"Akagi Takenori, 197cm, 90kg; Uozumi Jun, 202cm, 90kg; they are both captains of the basketball team, and they are about the same height and weight, and they are equally ugly! But judging from the jump ball just now, our Uozumi is slightly better than Akagi."

"For a long time, Uozumi's reputation has not been as good as Akagi's. In his second year of high school, he was even shut out by Akagi. But this year, I firmly believe that Uozumi has all the factors to defeat Akagi!"

In the first round of the confrontation, Xiangbei indeed focused on Akagi in the inside line.

After getting the ball in the interior, Akagi used his strength to push Yuzumi, as if to prove that his strength disadvantage in the jump ball just now was just an accident.

He actively lowered his center of gravity and used the strength of his entire back to squeeze the fish to gain space to turn around.

Of course, Yuzumi would not give up easily. In order to avoid being called for a foul, he even opened his arms, stomped his feet heavily on the floor, and straightened his chest to withstand Akagi's huge force. The two of them competed with each other in the penalty area.

"Great!"

Hanagata and Takasago spoke at the same time:

“They are just two monsters.”

Fortunately, there is no three-second setting in the penalty zone yet. The two people in the penalty zone are evenly matched in strength but the winner has not yet been determined.

Yuzumi interrupted with a fierce voice:

"Just give up on this idea, Akagi. I will definitely stop you this time."

After hearing what Yuzumi said, Akagi did not answer, but took advantage of this gap to force himself to half turn around, and attacked with Yuzumi's force, imitating Hanamichi's hook attack technique, and with a stiff wrist, he barely threw the ball into the basket.

Although the posture was not good-looking, because it was close to the basket, the basketball still bumped against the basket and staggered into the basket.

In this regard, Kazuo Karasawa commented:

"Akagi's offensive methods are a bit rough, but in terms of lower body strength, he is better than Yuzuki."

Ryonan was on offense, and his teammates passed the ball to Yuzumi under the basket, hoping that he could return the favor to Akagi.

Just like before, the two wrestled under the basket. But soon, Yuzumi moved sideways at a relatively fast pace, bypassed Akagi, and jumped under the basket to shoot.

But it must be said that Akagi's defensive ability is definitely better than his offensive ability.

(When Akagi fought Hanamichi, Mugure said this)

Even though he was thrown away, Akagi quickly ran over and interfered with Yuzumi's shot.

The moment the basketball was shot, Yuzumi knew that the ball was off target.

So after he landed, he was prepared immediately, jumped up again quickly, and scored the ball with his right hand.

After landing again, Yuzumi roared at Akagi:

"Akagi, let's settle our grudge today!"

"Great! Yuzumi."

"Captain, come on, defeat Akagi!"

There was a burst of cheering voices coming from the Ryonan bench.

Akagi did not comment on Yuzumi's provocation. If he could completely defeat Yuzumi on both offense and defense like he did last year, he would not mind fighting Yuzumi one-on-one until the end of the game.

But it was obvious that after the two offensive and defensive duels just now, Akagi was not completely sure that he could absolutely suppress Yuzumi.

In addition, with Coach Anzai not around, he still had to shoulder the responsibility of leading the team to victory, so he had already given up on a one-on-one duel with Yuzumi, but he still said unforgivingly:

"Humph! That's exactly what I want. I will fight you in my own way!"

Yuzumi, who returned to defend, thought carefully about what Akagi had just said, and thought to himself:

"Akagi, you have finally let go of your self-centered burden and admitted that Shohoku is not a team that will lose if they defeat you. Compared to you who were good at both offense and defense before, the Akagi who is now focused on winning is the opponent that I, Yuzumi, truly recognize!"

It was the first time that Jun Uozumi, who had awakened the [Side Dish Philosophy], was so happy. He was happy to compete with the even more powerful and invincible Akagi.

"Then let's each fight in our own way!"

Next, both sides continued to play the ball around their own centers.

On the Ryonan side, Jun Uozumi fully played his role in low-post support. By restraining Akagi, he continuously passed the ball to Yoshitaka Fukuda, Sendoh and Ryumasa Oda who cut into the inside. From time to time, he would grab offensive rebounds and launch secondary attacks under the basket with his height advantage.

As for Xiangbei, Akagi pulled Yuzumi out of the inside and completely released Mitsui's outside firepower by setting a pick-and-roll for him. At the same time, he vacated the inside to facilitate Hanamichi and Rukawa's attack. After the pick-and-roll, Akagi would also quickly run back and cut into the basket to attack the basket according to the situation.

They have two centers, one sometimes has a strong second-chance tip-in, and sometimes shows amazing passing skills; the other sometimes pulls up to the high post to assist, and sometimes runs pick-and-roll.

Although the methods were different, there was no doubt that both of them activated the team flexibly in their own unique ways, and organized the offense of the two teams in a very methodical manner, allowing the audience to enjoy a delicious positional attack and defense battle.

At this time, Kazuo Karasawa in the stands said to Shota Sugiyama:

"These two big guys are both promising center prospects. They also have a clear understanding of their own tactical positioning. We can get in touch with them after the game."

Although Kazuo Karasawa spoke very reservedly, one could see from his eyes that he appreciated the qualities displayed by Akagi and Uozumi in this game.

The first half was already halfway through, with the score at 23:24. Shohoku had a slight advantage of one point, but the ball was in the hands of Ryonan.

Sendoh on the court signaled to the referee and called a timeout.

"What? It was Sendoh who requested the timeout! What about Coach Tagora?"

The audience turned their attention to Shigeka Tanabe, and discovered that this coach in light green work clothes had sat in the guest commentary seat at some point.

Seeing him cross his arms and not saying a word to his team that requested a timeout, the quick-witted audience finally realized:

"Coach Tanaoka is not going to give any guidance to the Ryonan team. Is it because of Coach Anzai?"

The tall coach who was most familiar with "Tanaka Ali" in the stands said seriously:

"What a big deal, Mr. Tanaka! Are you preparing for the national competition?"

On the other side, Fujima also looked at Sendoh and Miyagi and said:

"Akagi and Uozumi can only be regarded as the tactical focus of the two teams at the beginning. It is impossible for them to continue attacking like this!"

"Then it's up to the two teams' on-court commanders. For Ryonan, Sendoh has already called a timeout. It looks like they're going to change their tactics! From this point of view, although Shohoku's Miyagi is a top-notch point guard in the county, he is at a disadvantage compared to Sendoh in terms of actual combat experience and personal strength."

……