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墨書 Inktalez
Shangguan Leinuo received the ball and charged straight towards the front court. I thought he was going to drive to the basket, so I positioned myself in front of him. Unexpectedly, he made a quick move to the top of the arc, stepped back, and took a jump shot. Instinctively, I jumped to defend, but as he released the ball, I accidentally hit his arm while trying to block it. Immediately, the referee's whistle blew mercilessly. The ball traced a beautiful arc in the air before spinning several times on the rim and finally swishing through the net. Shangguan Leinuo scored a +1 right in front of me!
That shot was truly lucky; Lady Luck was on his side. Frustrated, I walked back to the defensive end to wait for support. Shangguan Leinuo stepped up to the free-throw line. He received the ball from the referee and shot it directly—swish! 6884, our deficit was back to sixteen points. The frantic scoring chase in the third quarter had turned futile. After we inbounded, I slowly brought the ball up court and passed it to A Fei. A Fei took a three-pointer from the corner and made it—7184. After their inbound, Shangguan Leinuo threw a high pass to Ying Ben, who hit a mid-range jumper. Then we inbounded again; I passed to Ouyang, who drove past Xiao Li and took another three-pointer—still good... We were pushing for fast breaks, but the gap remained over ten points. With three minutes left in the game, we trailed 8899 by eleven points. Teacher Qiu hardly called any timeouts, but their coach called one, and we walked off the court.
"Coach, why didn't you call a timeout to adjust?" As soon as I stepped off the court, I asked Teacher Qiu. He picked up the tactical board and said, "What you’re playing now is exactly what I wanted to see. I don’t want my strategies to become your constraints. You’ve grasped my tactical system; giving you some freedom isn’t necessarily a bad thing." After hearing this from Teacher Qiu, I didn’t want to argue further, but I still felt that this was an irresponsible attitude from him. As a coach, he should convey the most important and effective concepts to us instead of pushing us aside; I couldn’t understand his approach.
After the timeout ended, we returned to the court. I hadn’t really absorbed Teacher Qiu's tactics earlier. After we inbounded, I drove straight into their paint. When I got to the basket and saw Shangguan Leinuo in front of me, I didn’t hesitate; I charged right into him and took my shot. The ball bounced off the rim; my shoulder had knocked into Shangguan Leinuo's chest, nearly knocking him down. The referee’s whistle blew, indicating that it was an offensive foul on me for charging. "How is that not a blocking foul on him?" I argued with the referee as A Fei and Ouyang rushed over to pull me back. The referee signaled for me to be quiet or risk being ejected; thankfully, I managed to keep my cool and shut my mouth—otherwise, that would have been my fifth foul! With that in mind, I couldn’t afford any reckless moves on defense.
I could only watch as Shangguan Leinuo stepped up to the free-throw line. His shooting touch was smooth as he calmly sank both shots—8810; our deficit against Experiment Three had suddenly widened to fifteen points with just two and a half minutes left in the game. Our defeat seemed inevitable; what remained of the game naturally turned into garbage time. After we inbounded again, I organized our offense; even though defeat was certain, we had to go down fighting! After bringing the ball up to the top of the arc, I passed it to Ouyang, who hit a three-pointer from forty-five degrees—9110; still far from closing the gap. I noticed that their bench had already started celebrating their victory early.
After their inbound play began running down the clock, no miracle occurred; we ultimately lost 97110 on their home court and suffered our most painful defeat in two seasons. Experiment Three continued their push toward the finals; if they advanced this time, they would further etch their team’s glorious history: reaching the City High League finals for three consecutive years and challenging for city championships for three straight times—becoming the first team in league history to achieve such success. When we entered the Locker Room, there were no heart-wrenching cries; instead, after showering, we calmly changed clothes. As we walked out of Experiment Three’s gymnasium, students were just getting out of class; some classmates gathered around me and A Fei, asking questions about our experiences at last year’s Street Basketball Championship. We had no mood left to explain anything and silently boarded the school bus.
Once on board, A Fei pulled tightly on his Eagle necklace; I even noticed his fist trembling. However, I was too drained to comfort him. Sitting by my usual window seat with my head resting against the glass, I reflected on how we had been trampled by their home team at this unfamiliar school. This time we lost because of Shangguan Leinuo alone—he truly activated his entire team as an all-around Point Guard. He delivered 14 assists and 7 steals throughout the game—that said enough—and he also scored 6 points himself. Next Saturday would be our rematch against Experiment Three at home; honestly, I didn’t know how we would face our classmates and fans if we suffered another crushing defeat there. We didn’t want to repeat last year’s mistakes—we really didn’t…
When we arrived at school after getting off the bus with my head down low during our last study period since it was quite empty inside. We walked into our classroom with backpacks and sat down quietly. Xia Ying hurriedly asked about how things went in the game. With my head downcast, I simply muttered “lost” before resting it on my desk. Understanding my mood well enough not to press further, Xia Ying dropped her questions altogether. This time we lost thoroughly—we held nothing back in showcasing our strength but still fell short against “Light of the Son”’s relentless assault—fair play.
After school let out at noon, A Fei, Shuai Dong, Pang Hao, and I went to get lunch at the cafeteria. Just as we found a spot and sat down, someone covered my eyes with their hands. “Guess who I am?” A girl pretended her voice was strange; my first thought was Xia Ying, but then reconsidering made it unlikely since she knew how upset I was during class—oh wait! It must be her… “Situ Yanan, stop messing around! I'm not in a good mood right now,” I replied calmly as those hands finally released me: “Haha! Brother Jie, you’re amazing! You guessed it right!” Situ Yanan came around and sat with us.
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