Chapter 16: The Inter-School Basketball Match (Part 2)

  Lin Xiaoyu sat on the emerald green school bus No. 4 and arrived at Emerald City Experimental Middle School.

  Today is the first day of the inter-school basketball tournament held by Feicui City Experimental Middle School. Fake coach Zhu Cheng led his team to Experimental Middle School.

  It was 4:30 in the afternoon, and students had just finished class. At the entrance, there were constantly students wearing experimental middle school uniforms walking out.

  "Wow, why are there so many beauties in Experimental Middle School? I should have asked my dad to let me come here to study." Yang Tianxiao sighed to Lin Xiaoyu beside him. Although he was talking to Lin Xiaoyu, his gaze was still wandering around.

  Lin Xiaoyu was already in his youth, and he also had a curiosity about the opposite sex. He also took a look at the female students wearing school uniforms at Shiyan Middle School, and found that they were all quite pretty, but compared to Li Jingru and Murong Huimin, these two elegant and refined girls were still far inferior.

  Lin Xiaoyu's gaze was also searching around, he was looking at the girls too, but his intention was different from Yang Tianxiao's. Lin Xiaoyu was trying to find a glimpse of Yan Nan, a female student from Experimental Middle School.

  The campus environment of Experimental Middle School is very good, slightly better than Feicui Fourth Middle School. Because Experimental Middle School is a newly built school, all kinds of facilities in the school are brand new.

  In the center of the gate of Experimental Middle School, there is a circular fountain. In the middle of the uneven water column in the fountain stands a 7-8 meter high steel sculpture of the school emblem of Experimental Middle School. Behind the fountain, about twenty or thirty meters away, is a tall teaching building. The exterior wall of this teaching building is decorated with dark red glazed tiles, which looks particularly striking under the foilage of the lush green campus. There are two spacious school roads that pass by both sides of the teaching building and lead to the back of the teaching building.

  Zhu Chenggong, dressed in a very formal suit, led Lin Xiaoyu and the basketball team members along the right side of the teaching building, and after circling around the teaching building, there was an open sports field.

  In the center of the venue is a green football field surrounded by a brick-red plastic track. To the left of the football field are eight neatly arranged basketball courts. The basketball courts in Experimental Middle School are much better than those in Feicui Fourth. The basketball courts here have blue carpeted floors and the backboards of the hoops are also brand new, transparent glass backboards. Giving people a very dynamic feeling.

  Behind the stadium are two buildings, the tall one on the left with a round roof is a seven-story experimental building, and the shorter square building on the right is the gymnasium of Experimental Middle School.

  Lin Xiaoyu and a group of basketball players followed Zhu Chenggong, the fake basketball coach, into the indoor stadium.

  The gymnasium is now about to hold the opening ceremony of this inter-school basketball game. The interior of the gymnasium is very spacious, with rows of spectator seats on both sides of the court, which can accommodate approximately two thousand people. The top of the court is lit up by many large lamps, making the court extremely bright and magnificent. At this time, a large crowd has gathered on the basketball court in the center of the gymnasium. Most of the people in the crowd are middle school students wearing various colors and styles of school uniforms, and these students are generally very tall, with several shadows over 1.9 meters. There are also many figures of formally dressed adults in the crowd, estimated to be teachers or coaches.

  Lin Xiaoyu and Lin Pingfeng saw several familiar faces in the gym, all of whom were regulars at the "Tengyun" basketball court. They too wore different school uniforms. It seemed that those who came to play at the "Tengyun" court were all top players from various schools. After exchanging greetings with a few acquaintances, Zhu Chengsheng called out for the team members to gather in line.

  Zhu Cheng wore a dark blue suit today, his tall and stout figure was very eye-catching among the adults. Looking at his serious expression and tall stature, those who didn't know thought Zhu Cheng, this fake coach, was a retired coach from some professional team, which also made other coaches pay close attention to him.

  Lin Xiaoyu stood in the basketball team's lineup, surrounded by people who were more than half a head taller than him, making Lin Xiaoyu look extremely small. Lin Xiaoyu listened boredly to the endless nonsense of one leader after another on the rostrum.

  There are 12 secondary schools participating in this inter-school basketball tournament, with 12 boys' teams from primary and secondary schools each, and 8 girls' teams from secondary schools. The competition format is divided into group stages first, with the primary and secondary school boys' teams divided into four groups of three teams each, with the top two teams advancing to the quarterfinals, which will be played in a single-elimination format to determine the champion, runner-up and third place. The girls' teams are divided into two groups, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the knockout stage.

  The game is divided into four quarters, each lasting ten minutes, with a total of forty minutes. If the two teams are tied at the end of the forty-minute playing time, a five-minute overtime period is played. If the score remains tied after the overtime period, the winner is decided by a shootout by players on the field.

  Lin Xiaoyu finally endured the leader's meaningless nonsense on stage and walked out of the gymnasium to the outdoor basketball court.

  Due to the limited venue of Shiyan Middle School, only matches above the top four will be held in the indoor basketball hall. Other matches are held on outdoor basketball courts. Because the group draw has been conducted a few days ago, after the opening ceremony, teams that have matches today started their competition on the basketball court.

  Lin Xiaoyu sat on the sidelines watching Lin Pingfeng warm up on the court. Today, the high school basketball team of Feicui Fourth had a match, and their opponent was said to be a tough one.

  The outdoor basketball court of Experimental Middle School is much better than that of Feicui No. 4. The sky blue plastic carpet, the white edge line of the court, the emerald green basketball frame, the transparent organic glass basketball board, the red basket with red and white striped net, and the orange basketball flying in the air from time to time. With the players wearing jerseys on the court, they form a very dynamic and beautiful picture of youth.

  Lin Pingfeng's opponent was very strong, and although Lin Pingfeng had excellent ball skills, he lacked teammates who could cooperate with him seamlessly. As a result, Lin Pingfeng often had to rely on himself to hold the ball and score alone, which made their offense appear somewhat pale and powerless against the opponent's multi-point attack. Soon, the Feicui Fourth Middle School basketball team was left trailing by over ten points.

  Lin Pingfeng saw that his team's momentum was not right and signaled to Zhu Chenggong, the fake coach outside the court, to call a timeout.

  Zhu Cheng was still a bit knowledgeable about basketball, and he felt a little nervous when he saw that the team's momentum wasn't right. When he saw Lin Pingfeng, the captain he had appointed, gesture to him to pause, Zhu Cheng learned from those famous NBA coaches and walked to the referee's scoring table with a full air of authority and made a pause gesture.

  Zhu Cheng's action fell into the eyes of the opposing team's coach, and the young physical education teacher wearing glasses thought that Zhu Cheng, who seemed to be a retired professional basketball player with a majestic demeanor, was about to start deploying some special tactics. His heart tightened involuntarily, and he hurriedly called his players over to begin discussing some deployments.

  Zhu successfully called the players on the field to his side, said some empty words like "playing well, be serious, pay attention to defense, and attack decisively" and then let the players sit down to rest.

  Lin Pingfeng had a good understanding of the fake coach's level and didn't expect him to come up with any useful tactical deployments. He sat in the front row of the spectator seats, picked up a mineral water bottle and took a few sips.

  Lin Xiaoyu, who was sitting in the back seat, patted his shoulder and whispered: "Feng Ge, next time you attack them on their left side, there is a big gap on their left route, especially their number five center, with very large movements, has already committed two fouls. Make him foul and ask him to leave the court, so they will lose an important scoring point and their defense will also be affected."

  Lin Pingfeng turned around and looked at Lin Xiaoyu, he also vaguely felt that the opponent's left route was a weakness on the court, but not as certain as Lin Xiaoyu. He looked at Lin Xiaoyu's face, which still had a hint of childishness, and was slightly surprised by Lin Xiaoyu's basketball perception.

  Lin Pingfeng returned to the court, and he decisively went to the left route under the basket according to Lin Xiaoyu's method. This method seemed to be very effective. When the opposing coach with glasses found that Lin Pingfeng was going to make his team's center foul, wanting to remind the center to pay attention to his movements, the center had already received his fourth foul of the game.

  This game was one where a player would be disqualified after committing five fouls, so the bespectacled coach had no choice but to reluctantly substitute out the center he had entrusted with heavy responsibility ahead of schedule.

  After the opponent lost a strong inside player, Feicui Fourth Middle School's basketball team gradually reversed the score under Lin Pingfeng's leadership. With no height support from the opponent, the other four players of Feicui Fourth Middle School also showed their good basketball skills, and the scoring points of Feicui Fourth Middle School began to explode one after another. When the opponent was forced to put back the center who had already committed four fouls, Feicui Fourth Middle School was leading by more than ten points.

  The center, who returned to the court again, seemed a bit hesitant due to foul trouble, while four of the five players on the Emerald team had already found their rhythm, so the game quickly became one-sided. Lin Pingfeng and his high school basketball teammates also won their first match.

  Lin Pingfeng looked at Lin Xiaoyu, who was excitedly celebrating the victory in the audience seats after the final whistle of the referee, and felt very grateful to this little boy who seemed to have a lot of basketball talent that people couldn't see through. If it wasn't for him giving himself a firm opinion, this game might not have been so well played.

  When the final whistle sounded, the opposing coach with glasses also took a look at his opponent's calm and composed coach, thinking: "The level of professional coaches is indeed different. This coach called a timeout and immediately turned around the momentum of his players on the court, and was able to accurately identify the weaknesses of his own team. It seems that the gap between him and me is huge. I lost this game with conviction."

  The bespectacled coach walked over and shook hands with Zhu Chenggong, the fake coach, saying sincerely: "Your coaching level makes me convinced."

  Zhu Cheng said with a humble face: "It's nothing, it's all because my students performed well and we won by luck." Zhu Cheng was already overjoyed in his heart, thinking that the principal's celebratory dinner tonight would definitely not be missed. But Zhu Cheng's face still had that steady expression.

  Lin Xiaoyu congratulated Lin Pingfeng and the other seniors of the basketball team who had won the victory, and then followed the big crowd of people from the basketball team to walk out of the stadium with great enthusiasm.

  Suddenly, a voice sounded behind Lin Xiaoyu: "Xiaoyu, wait."

  (PS: Got tickets? Help me out and top it up! Thanks!)