He Ximeng was very satisfied with his teammates' performance. The game, which was originally expected to be tough, became much easier due to the outstanding play of Yan Hui and Zhang Zhenpeng.
Yan Hui scored a game-high 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Zhang Zhenpeng had 17 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal. The two players accounted for nearly half of Zhuji Middle School's scoring, allowing He Ximeng to focus on organizing the offense without exerting too much energy on scoring.
Of course, He Ximeng's "Tian Ji's Horse Strategy" at the end of the first quarter was the most fatal blow to Weifang No. 1 Middle School!
That 10:2 run directly broke the even game and helped Zhuji Middle School establish a nearly 10-point lead.
In the subsequent three quarters, although Weifang No. 1 Middle School, under Gong Xiaobin's leadership, managed to narrow the gap to 4 points, under He Ximeng's control, Zhuji Middle School quickly widened the lead again, giving Weifang No. 1 Middle School no chance to make a comeback.
Throughout the entire game, although He Ximeng only scored 11 points, he dished out 10 assists and had 5 steals. Most of his skill points were concentrated on organization and defense...
"Zhuji Middle School has a point guard who is excellent at passing but can't shoot, a specialist with unbalanced skills..."
This was the overall impression of He Ximeng from the other four teams in the audience after the game.
He Ximeng didn't care about these comments.
Anyway, Zhuji Middle School won 74:66, beating Weifang No. 1 Middle School by 8 points. As long as the team could win, He Ximeng didn't mind his stats being a little lower. After all, the tougher games were still ahead...
He Ximeng controlled the team's offensive rhythm. If he wanted to, couldn't he find opportunities to boost his stats?
The morning games concluded.
Zhuji Middle School's victory over Weifang No. 1 Middle School was considered a significant upset.
Although Zhuji Middle School had defeated Huipu Middle School in the preliminary rounds this year to win the Zhejiang regional championship, most people believed that Huipu Middle School had gone easy in the finals...
Zhuji Middle School had not reached the East Zone finals for several years, while Weifang No. 1 Middle School had been a regular in the East Zone finals for the past two years. In last year's competition, Weifang No. 1 Middle School had even reached the East Zone top four as the second seed, and was widely recognized as a strong team in the East Zone, second only to Nanjing No. 9 Middle School and Huipu Middle School, and on par with Shanghai Nanmo.
Unexpectedly, such a strong Weifang No. 1 Middle School was suppressed by Zhuji Middle School throughout the entire game, which truly surprised everyone.
After this game, those who had underestimated Zhuji Middle School quickly changed their tune and began praising this dark horse for its unlimited potential!
Zhuji Middle School defeating Weifang No. 1 Middle School, Nanmo Middle School's big win over Wuxi Furen, and Hefei No. 1 Middle School's narrow victory over Wuhan No. 6 Middle School were the results of the A group on the first morning.
In group B, Nanjing No. 9 Middle School defeated Fudan Middle School convincingly, Huipu Middle School defeated Qingdao No. 67 Middle School convincingly, and Wuhan No. 2 Middle School narrowly defeated Suzhou Experimental.
Compared to group A, the situation in group B was indeed clearer.
Nanjing No. 9 Middle School and Huipu Middle School were a notch above the rest. The other teams basically had no chance to compete for tickets with these two powerhouses.
The only suspense was probably who would take the first place in the group stage between Nanjing No. 9 Middle School and Huipu Middle School.
After the lunch break, the afternoon games continued.
Zhuji Middle School was the first to play, and their opponent was Hefei No. 1 Middle School, led by Guo Aotian.
Hefei No. 1 Middle School had come from behind to narrowly defeat their opponent in the morning game against Wuhan No. 6 Middle School, and their morale was very high.
Before the game began, Guo Aotian, the team's core player, issued a strong warning to his matchup, Zhang Zhenpeng: "I know you guys are good at the Tian Ji's Horse Strategy... but we're not Weifang No. 1 Middle School, we won't fall for your trick..."
Guo Aotian, standing at 1.95 meters tall and weighing 90 kilograms, played power forward and small forward, similar to Zhang Zhenpeng.
"Hmph, do you think you've seen our full hand?" Zhang Zhenpeng didn't take the top player of the Anhui high school league seriously. "Let me just say, even if we play you with our cards face up, you won't have a chance. Moreover, what you think you've seen isn't our full hand at all..."
Guo Aotian refused to believe Zhang Zhenpeng's words, thinking he was just bragging and talking trash.
In this game, He Ximeng continued to use the same strategy against Hefei No. 1 Middle School as he did against Weifang No. 1 Middle School, letting Zhang Zhenpeng and Yan Hui start to wear them down, and then He Ximeng would come on to make a decisive push...
At the beginning of the game, Guo Aotian indeed fought evenly with Yan Hui and Zhang Zhenpeng with his individual ability.
After all, Hefei No. 1 Middle School was the champion of the Anhui region, and Zhuji Middle School didn't expect to defeat them without He Ximeng playing.
More than half of the first quarter had passed, and Zhuji Middle School initiated adjustments.
Hefei No. 1 Middle School was actually prepared. When Zhang Zhenpeng and Yan Hui left the court and He Ximeng came on with the reserve lineup, they did not substitute out their core player Guo Aotian. The head coach's intention was good, wanting to use Guo Aotian's status as a core player to help Hefei No. 1 Middle School withstand He Ximeng's attack.
However, what he didn't anticipate was that Zhuji Middle School had fielded a completely new lineup, and He Ximeng's strength on both offense and defense was far greater than he had expected...
He Ximeng's new lineup had Feng Chen playing center, Huangfu Yanlin at power forward, Fu Xinyuan at small forward, and Ming Hanfei at shooting guard. He benched the two reserve centers, Qin Rui and Zhu Ningzhen, made Zhuji Middle School's lineup smaller, accelerated the offense, chasing Hefei No. 1 Middle School for fast breaks, and in defense, they attempted a full-court press to force Hefei No. 1 Middle School into passing errors, denying them the opportunity to play a steady half-court offense...
"This, isn't this Huipu Middle School's style of play?"
In the stands, Gong Xiaobin of Weifang No. 1 Middle School and Liu Wei of Nanmo Middle School immediately recognized it. As team captains, they had played against Huipu Middle School many times over the years and were naturally familiar with Huipu Middle School's two signature tactics: fast breaks and full-court press.
"Captain, are these Zhuji Middle School and Huipu Middle School in the same city?"
"As far as I know, they are not... Zhuji Middle School is in Shaoxing City, and Huipu Middle School is in Taizhou City..."
"Then why are the styles of these two teams so similar?"
"It's probably imitation? Huipu is too strong, and there are more than one or two teams nationwide that want to learn and imitate their style of play. However, many are only similar in appearance but not in spirit, and very few teams can truly grasp the essence of these two tactics..."
"Could it be that Zhuji Middle School's current head coach was originally Huipu Middle School's assistant coach? I heard that Huipu Middle School's white-haired head coach is very formidable..."
"This possibility is not zero..."