ACultivator'sCampusLife

Chapter 41 Make to The Final

Because of the limitation of time, this competition adopted a single knockout system from beginning to end. Today was the first day of the competition, and not many students or parents came to watch it. So there were only seniors who cheered for their classes on the playground except for some students in the first and second year of high school.

There were a total of 16 classes in the Senior Grade. These classes were divided into eight groups to confront each other. Today, the competition was held in the open cement field, so several groups were competing at the same time.

Among them, there were not many people watching the match between Class One of the Senior Grade and Class Twelve of the Senior Grade, except for some fans of Han Dong and some students from the two classes. But everyone was generally optimistic about Class Twelve, which was more neatly staffed. People believed that they would eliminate Class One of the Senior Grade, even if Class One had a skillful school team captain, Han Dong.

But what everyone did not expect was that Class One of the Senior Grade unexpectedly scored much higher than Class Twelve of the Senior Grade under Han Dong's heroic performance and the extraordinary performance of the other four, and the score was finally set at 45 to 21.

With the arrival of the second competition day, what was even more unexpected was that the opponent of Class One of the Senior Grade in the second round, Class Five of the Senior Grade, also did not bring much trouble to Class One. So Class One of the Senior Grade unexpectedly stood out among the 16 classes of the whole grade and advanced to the semi-finals.

In these two games, the main five-man team played the full game with full confidence, and Lu Yao and Yu Fei didn't have a chance to join in the contest at all.

However, the next opponent they met was Class Fifteen of the Senior Grade, which was trouble for all the teachers in the Senior Grade. Because this class was specially set for transferred student who paid the expensive tuition fees. Many of them were young students with poor academic performance and were from well-off families.

The reason why the school admitted them was to use their high tuition fees to subsidize those students who had poor families but were excellent in moral and academic attainment. Even if they usually did not take their studies seriously, as long as they did not violate several major prohibitions of the school, skipping classes to go online, partying, playing basketball, and other things would be tolerated by the school. So the athletic performance of many people in this Class was quite good.

When students of Class One learned that the opponent in the semi-final was Class Fifteen, everyone's enthusiasm cooled down a lot. And some people, such as Ma Xiaolin, were making lots of irresponsible and sarcastic remarks.

After school that day, the sky was clear and the semi-finals were held as scheduled.

After the official start of the game, there were still some reasonable arrangements between the offensive and defensive changes between the two sides. Although the momentum of the other people in Class One, except for Han Dong, was a little lower than that of the first two games, they could still maintain the formation of attack and defense in the game.

Until the end of the first half, the score between the two sides was still relatively tied. Class Fifteen of the Senior Grade was temporarily ahead of Class One of the Senior Grade by two points.

Before the second half of the game, Lu Yao and everyone gathered around to discuss countermeasures. When he was cheering on the team, he noticed that a tall guy, who had been standing beside Chu Minghui, ran to Class Fifteen and talked for a long time.

Speaking of this person, other people might not know him, but Lu Yao did. Because during the summer vacation of his second year of high school, this person followed Chu Minghui and they had dinner together. Chu Minghui introduced him, so Lu Yao remembered him very clearly.

This tall guy was called Tang Fa. He was Chu Minghui's distant cousin. It was said that he had been training in a sports school in Xindu, and he seemed to have a professional basketball background. But what Lu Yao did not understand was why this guy was here. Moreover, judging from his posture, the members of Class Fifteen seemed to know him and were obedient to his words because they didn't rebuke him when being reprimanded.

Lu Yao felt that Chu Minghui, who had been silent for a long time, began to do petty actions again. Although he didn't know what it would be, it was definitely related to this basketball game.

"Han Dong, be careful in the second half of the game. I think the other side may play dirty tricks. Pay more attention to everything!" When Han Dong was about to enter the court, Lu Yao stopped and reminded him.

"Well, don't worry. I know!" Han Dong nodded when he saw that Lu Yao was serious.

As expected, as soon as they started the second half, the opponent team made a lot of petty actions. They either poked the Class One's players' bellies with their fingers when they were shooting or vaguely hit the players next to them with their elbows when rebounding.

Being constantly harassed, Hang Dong's hit rate had also dropped significantly. For several rounds, he was not able to score and was counter-attacked.

Besides Han Dong, other people on the court also became obviously impatient, and their movements were a little stiff. For several times, their defenses were led to "two plus one" unnecessary fouls by the opponents.

"Everybody, cheer up! Although the opponents are still in the lead, the score has not been spaced out a lot. Next, everyone passes more balls and runs more..." After Han Dong saw the situation on the court, he called a time-out in time.

After continuing the game, the situation eased a little bit. Han Dong also scored several shots, and the game began to turn around.

When everyone thought they could smooth the nerve a little bit, suddenly a member of the opposing team made a dangerous move. He pushed Jia Hui, a member of Class One of the Senior Grade, to the ground from the air. After Jia Hui fell to the ground, he pretended to step on his ankle unintentionally.

Although he was called for a foul because of this rude action, Jia Hui could not continue to play because of his ankle injury.

"Lu Yao, you replace Jia Hui!" Seeing such a situation, Han Dong had no choice but to arrange Lu Yao to replace Jia Hui.

"Sure, I'm mainly responsible for defense. I'll try to shoot if I have a chance. Continue the game according to the previous plan!" After Lu Yao saw the insidious smile on Chu Minghui's face, he said to Han Dong and other team members.

After Lu Yao came on the stage, although everyone did not find it, Tang Fa still found that the defense of Class One of the Senior Grade had suddenly improved a lot.

Although Lu Yao had deliberately disguised his performance, many instinctive reactions were still much faster than those of others. The opponent wanted to break through, but a small look or movement would be captured by Lu Yao, and he would respond quickly. Several times the other party's seemingly hidden passing lanes had been destroyed by Lu Yao "accidentally".

There was a strong-looking player who was about the same height as Lu Yao. He wanted to create some shooting space for himself through the solid T-word cross-steps to make Lu Yao away from the bottom of the basket step by step. But every time he knocked Lu Yao away a bit, Lu Yao would soon jump in front of him, so he had no choice but to pass the ball.

Gradually, people on and off the court had found something strange about Lu Yao. But no one thought anything else. They thought that it might be because Lu Yao was tall and strong.

"I didn't expect that Class One of the Senior Grade can be so patient. They didn't switch such a master onto the court until now, did they?" Someone was whispering.

"What are you talking about? He has never made a shot since he came on the court. Although he broke his opponent's passes several times, it was obviously pure luck and all by accident. He was easily pushed aside by someone. If it hadn't been for his height and large defensive area, he would have been defeated by the other side!" A student who seemed to know a lot about basketball retorted immediately.

...

"Cousin, your classmate is kind of interesting!" After watching it for a long time, Tang Fa said to Chu Minghui.

"What do you mean?" Although Chu Minghui was also good at playing basketball, he was still not as knowledgeable as his cousin who had a professional basketball background. Thus, he did not realize the real meaning of what Tang Fa said for a moment.

"Haven't you noticed that every time he broke the ball at the right time? And he seems to be easily pushed away every time, but he can always jump on the opponent again when the other side was ready to jump up while avoiding fouls? It's really interesting!" Tang Fa explained to Chu Minghui.

"What do you mean?" Chu Minghui suddenly seemed to understand it and looked at Tang Fa in surprise.

Tang Fa said nothing but looked at Chu Minghui with a smile and nodded.

Chu Minghui was not stupid either. When Tang Fa said this, he was telling Chu Minghui that Lu Yao was pretending to be weak while his capabilities were great.

"Let's go, cousin. The previous plan has been completed. Tomorrow, it's up to your performance. I hope you can revenge for me on the enemy. Even if you can't cripple him, you must make him uncomfortable!" After watching it for a while, Chu Minghui saw that the whole situation had tilted towards a more favorable situation for Class One of the Senior Grade because of Lu Yao's "accidental hits". He knew that Lu Yao had taken the bait. The left was for him, the plan maker, to decide when to reel in the rod. He turned away with Tang Fa.

When he left, he didn't forget to take a look at Lin Jiayi. When he saw Lin Jiayi smiled at Lu Yao from time to time, Chu Minghui secretly swore, "He overrates his abilities!"

"Don't worry, cousin. I dare not say anything else. However, about basketball, in this little No.1 High School of Shuangta City, even if he is a master, he has to keep a low profile because of me." Tang Fa said confidently, "Watch my performance tomorrow!"

...

"Victory belongs to Class One of the Senior Grade! Class One of the Senior Grade is the champion!"

With the whistle at the end of the game, Class One of the Senior Grade defeated the opponent by a narrow margin of five points and was qualified for the final. The cheerleaders of Class One of the Senior Grade instantly released all their enthusiasm and shouted such slogans.

Han Dong made several key breakthroughs and shootings in the last minutes, which completely killed the game. So in the eyes of everyone, he was the well-deserved MVP in this game. Thus, as soon as he left the field, many students came to lift him up and greet him like a hero.

Lu Yao and Lin Jiayi stood at the back of the crowd. After Lu Yao left the field, Lin Jiayi, as usual, handed him a bottle of water that had been prepared in advance.

"Here you are. You're really good!" Lin Jiayi said.

"Oh, it's all thanks to Han Dong's excellent performance that we can turn defeat into victory. I was just running around!" Lu Yao said casually after taking a sip of the water.

"You successfully stole eight times and successfully protected the three-second zone for ten minutes, making the other side not score even a point in this area. Although you haven't made a single shot, it doesn't cover up your meritorious service. Lu Yao, am I right?" Lin Jiayi looked at Lu Yao and said with a smile.

"I can't hide anything from you!" Pretending to be helpless, Lu Yao spread out his hands and smiled at Lin Jiayi.

After what happened yesterday, Lu Yao knew that Lin Jiayi had been silently keeping a record of his performance off the court. So nothing could be hidden from this clever girl, and Lu Yao did not find any excuse to prevaricate.