With Heximon leading the team, the initial tension at Zhuji High School finally eased. His teammates also realized that Tsinghua Affiliated High School was not invincible. Facing Heximon's strong drives, Tsinghua Affiliated High School was equally helpless. It was no different from the opponents Zhuji High School had encountered before…
Although on the next play, Da Zhi, under the double-team of Yan Hui and Feng Chen, used his excellent footwork to successfully make the shot, scoring two more points.
However, Yan Hui also executed a brilliant pass with Heximon. Heximon drove and passed, and Yan Hui didn't attack the basket. Instead, he made a quick stop and a short jump shot, successfully sinking the basketball before Da Zhi could block it!
After Heximon and Yan Hui started scoring, Zhang Zhenpeng, who was on the wing, also couldn't contain his excitement.
After Li Nan hit another outside three-pointer, Zhang Zhenpeng also called for the ball outside the three-point line, wanting to return Li Nan's favor!
However, unfortunately, Zhang Zhenpeng's first three-point attempt bounced off the rim!
Just as Heximon thought the possession would change hands, Zhang Zhenpeng, with his leaping ability, managed to tip the ball away from Da Zhi, who was about to secure it…
Heximon snatched the rebound first, drove into the paint amidst the chaos, and scored two more points with a layup!
On Tsinghua Affiliated High School's side, their main offensive threats were Da Zhi inside and Li Nan outside! Although Jiao Jian, Chen Lei, and Zhang Yun Song were not weak offensively, under the arrangement of head coach Zhang Heli, their main tasks were on the defensive end.
Tsinghua Affiliated High School attempted to put pressure on their opponents simultaneously on both offense and defense, aiming to overwhelm Zhuji High School.
But Zhuji High School's resilience was clearly much stronger than Tsinghua Affiliated High School had imagined.
With Heximon orchestrating from the center, Zhuji High School was not suppressed. Instead, they showed signs of multi-point scoring.
Whenever there were brief scoring droughts, Heximon would directly drive to the basket for points with his individual ability, helping Zhuji High School to stop the bleeding…
After the preliminary rounds and the East District qualifiers, Heximon's abilities in all aspects had been greatly honed. He had a preliminary grasp of the top-tier skills in his mind, and playing at the intensity of the high school league was basically effortless for him…
However, due to the head coach's mindset, Heximon still preferred not to use his individual scoring to replace the team's efforts!
In Heximon's view, basketball has always been a team sport. Zhuji High School reaching the finals of the national tournament was also the result of the entire team's collective effort… Therefore, he wanted his teammates to participate in the final battle and enjoy this hard-earned peak clash…
Da Zhi was strong, but Yan Hui, using his mobility and avoiding direct confrontation with Da Zhi, also played well. At least he wasn't being dominated…
Li Nan's three-pointers were sharp, and Zhang Zhenpeng's three-pointers, after a sluggish start, were also becoming more accurate…
Zhang Zhenpeng, this somewhat chuunibyou teenager, was truly a big-hearted player. The bigger the stage, the better his performance became.
Just like in this final, when Wang Xian and Tang Chenfeng were frequently missing their three-pointers due to pressure, Zhang Zhenpeng unexpectedly performed beyond his usual level, compensating for the firepower his teammates lacked and providing significant help to Heximon in scoring!
At the end of the first quarter, Zhuji High School trailed Tsinghua Affiliated High School by 4 points.
At the end of the second quarter, Zhuji High School trailed Tsinghua Affiliated High School by 3 points.
At the end of the third quarter, Zhuji High School trailed Tsinghua Affiliated High School by 2 points.
…
In the final quarter, Tsinghua Affiliated High School suddenly increased their overall defense, successfully defending Yan Hui's layups and Zhang Zhenpeng's cut-and-layups. On offense, Da Zhi and Li Nan were ruthless. One scored with a strong inside attack, and the other hit a corner three-pointer!
With a 5:0 run, Tsinghua Affiliated High School instantly extended their lead to 7 points!
“The game is over!”
From the stands, old fans who had watched Tsinghua Affiliated High School win the championship in the previous two years made a premature judgment!
Before this, no team had been able to come back from a 7-point deficit in the final quarter against Tsinghua Affiliated High School…
Tsinghua Affiliated High School's strength was not just in one or two positions; there was no weak link among their five players. The center and small forward positions were exceptionally strong, top-tier strong…
Seeing the grim situation, Heximon quickly signaled to San Ye on the sidelines. San Ye immediately requested a timeout from the technical table.
With Tsinghua Affiliated High School gaining momentum on both offense and defense, it was crucial to disrupt their rhythm, and calling a timeout was a simple and effective method.
Gathering his teammates at the sidelines, Heximon saw despair in their eyes. After fighting for three quarters, enduring for three quarters, they had reached the limit of these high school students…
It wasn't that they were afraid to fight or didn't want to fight, but after facing wave after wave of attacks from Da Zhi and Li Nan, they genuinely felt that the gap in strength could no longer be bridged by willpower alone… Moreover, the seasoned Tsinghua Affiliated High School had not made any low-level mistakes up to this point; they were terrifyingly stable…
“Alright! You have all performed exceptionally well! From now on, I hope you will unconditionally trust and support me… You only need to do two things: First, defense, work hard on defense! Second, rebounds, the whole team to crash the boards!”
“What do you mean?”
“Simon is going all out…”
After the timeout, as Heximon brought the ball past half-court, he used Yan Hui's high screen and executed a step-back jumper, a simple, direct, and exceptionally decisive shot that answered Tsinghua Affiliated High School!
On Tsinghua Affiliated High School's side, Da Zhi also began to take over the game, using his advantage in the paint to score with strong drives.
Simultaneously, on defense, head coach Zhang Heli anticipated Heximon's individual play and instructed Chen Lei to assist Zhang Yun Song in double-teaming Heximon, forcing him to pass!
But Heximon did not back down. On the contrary, Heximon used the double-team to his advantage. With a pass from Zhang Zhenpeng, he appeared to be cutting into Tsinghua Affiliated High School's paint. In reality, he used a back cut to shake off Zhang Yun Song's entanglement, caught the ball outside the three-point line, and continued to shoot!
This shot bounced off the rim, but Yan Hui, in his battle with Da Zhi, fought hard and managed to tip the ball out of the paint!
Wang Xian grabbed the first loose ball, then passed it to Heximon on the perimeter. Heximon caught the ball, looked at the basket, faked out the lunging Zhang Yun Song, took a step sideways, and decisively shot a three-pointer! This time, the ball went in smoothly!
After hitting two consecutive three-pointers, Heximon led his team on a 6:2 run, successfully narrowing the gap back to 3 points for Zhuji High School!