Slam Dunk

The battle between the combo team and Shohoku has reached its climax, and the one deciding its conclusion is Sakuragi with a Slam Dunk. Though Shohoku has more important things to look forward to, such as the Inter High Tournament.

Fujima starts passing more and shooting less 3 pointers, giving hims teammates more open looks and easy opportunities to score. But is it enough to overcome Shohoku?

The combination team has become even more formidable by adding Sendoh and Fukuda to their lineup, and while Sakuragi is still struggling, Shohoku retains the lead.

Rukawa garnered all the attention with his strong start to the game, but it was Sendoh who soon stole that spotlight when he entered the gym in his fishing clothes.

When a couple of Shoyo players decided to give their goodlucks to Shohoku, Sakuragi comes up with a suggestion; a game against Shoyo and Ryonan!

Sakuragi has been working hard for the past months to improve his basketball skills, but as a result, his shoes have torn. He visits none other than the man that gave him his first shoes.

Haruka decides to reward Sakuragi for his hard practicing by taking him to the festival. Sakuragi sees this as an opportunity to try and get with her, but the process became harder then he had expected.

Sakuragi continues his shooting practice while his team is off at Josei, battling equally with the former eight ranked team without Sakuragi's rebounding prowess.

Anzai decides to incorporate Sakuragi into the Shohoku offense, making him go through rigorous shooting training.

The Sakuragi gang look for jobs in order to collect money to afford train tickets to the national games.

It seems that some of Shohoku's players have more things to worry about other than the fearful opponents at the nationals. Their marks have been poor, and if they don't pass their upcoming tests, they'll be forbidden to play! Akagi decides to take in his teammates and have a study camp at his house.

It's a battle between Mitsui and Rukawa to see who the real ace is for Shohoku.

Understanding Anzai's words, Rukawa immediately makes it his goal to become the best player in Japan, even taking it at a higher level during practice against his own teammates.

Rukawa pleads to Anzai about his decision to play in America, though he rejects the idea. Rukawa is told the emotional story of Yazawa, a person like him who flew over to America in order to face better competition.

Sakuragi goes with Maki to scout out some teams who'll also be heading into the national tournament. One freshman center instantly caught their attention.

Hikiochi's sister desperately wants to interview Sendoh, but when doing so, eavesdropped on the announcement of Uozumi and Ikegami's retirement.

Expectedly, the Shohoku basketball team is all the talk at Shohoku school, and everyone won't leave them alone, especially the school's news reporter Mari.

Kogure's 3 pointer put Shohoku up, but Sendoh wouldn't let his team get defeated so easily.

Kogure spotted up for a 3 pointer. During the ball's journey there to the net, Kogure gets flashbackes of the basketball trials he faced to get to the position he's currently at.

Mitsui collapsed due to exhaustion, and while his lost presence was dire for Shohoku, they remained formidable behind Sakuragi's strong play.

Sendoh's strong offensive play continues to push Ryonan closer to Shohoku, and their defensive stops aren't allowing Shohoku to score any points.

Coach Taoka exploited Shohoku's foul trouble problem, and made good use of it. Shohoku will continue to be in the hot seat if this continues.

The shift of momentum started turning into Ryonan's favour as soon as Uozumi came back with four fouls, making defensive stops and scoring points.

Coach Taoka's patience ran dry as he subbed Uozumi back in to help shoulder some of Sendoh's responsibilities on the court.

Uozumi has to sit out due to his fouls, which causes Akagi to dominate the paint and score easy baskets.

Uozumi gets a flashback of Coach Taoka's promise of bringing him to the national scene, but that promise is looking a little fuzzy with Shohoku dominating.

Sendoh and Rukawa continue to push against each other in the second half, but the highlight of it so far is Uozumi being forced to sit out with four fouls.

With Rukawa and Sendoh at full strength against each other, they've both carried their teams, advancing point by point in hopes of defeating one another.

Everyone was confused on Rukawa's performance so far, scoring only two points. Though it became apparent in the second half; he saved up his energy for the second half in order to prevent what had happened to him during the final minutes against Kainan!

Ryonan's offense was concentrated around Fukuda, who has been constantly defeating Sakuragi. He was forced to sit out, sulking to himself of being beaten fair and square. While Sakuragi was defeated, Shohoku wasn't, as Mitsui's three pointers pulled his team back within range of Ryonan.

It seems that things are back to normal psychologically for Shohoku as Sakuragi wasn't as raged as expected by his friends, and Akagi finally solved some internal problems. The true match is about to start.

In order to make Akagi come back to his senses, Sakuragi pulls off his cocky routine that more than motivates him back into playing normally.

Something appears to be wrong with Akagi; after getting knocked down by Uozumi, he started playing horribly. Kogure was forced to call a timeout in order to straighten things out.

Due to Fukuda's terrible defense and Sakuragi's equally atrocious offense, Taoka thought it'd be a harmless idea to match Fukuda up with him. However, it seems that the entire gym was in for a surprise as Sakuragi showed off his jumper.

One of the more exciting matches in the tournament is about to start, as it's Ryonan vs. Shohoku. Though people have already been speculating Shohoku's chances of a victory, as their coach is absent, resting himself in the hospital.

Shohoku's representatives rush to Anzai's aid, and are surprised at how efficiently Sakuragi acquired a doctor. Meanwhile, Kainan was too strong for Ryonan and Sendoh to handle. They'll have to do better now that they're up against Shohoku.

Due to Uozumi being fouled out, and Fukuda being a terrible defensive player, Sendoh was forced to carry Ryonan on his shoulders all by himself. Though for Shohoku, greater events have become more of a priority.

Sendoh is the entire pillar that's pushing his team forward right now, but the tables turn when Uozumo decides to argue a call from the referee.

The anticipated match up between two of the best teams in the region commences. One of the biggest surprises was how Sendoh was handling point guard duties, and was doing an efficient job of it with Ryonan getting a head start against Kainan.

Akagi really wants Sakuragi to become part of their offense, so he trains him for three days straight on his shooting. To his surprise, Sakuragi was pretty enthusiastic about it.

Sakuragi's new haircut was the news of the school the next day. During practice, he decided to work twice as hard in order to prevent another mistake like that happening again. When Mitsui was the one guarding Sakuragi, all of his weaknesses and shortcomings started showing.

Sakuragi is in an emotional hangover after the events of the previous match, so in order to come to himself, he decides to change his appearance.

The last ten seconds of the game are approaching, and Shohoku is only down by four. The one who'll decide this match will be Sakuragi.

Shohoku and Kainan refuse to give up on each other with the match going back and forth like a see saw.

Anzai formulated a plan to destroy Kainan's formidable backcourt combo of Jin and Maki by playing zone defense, and their offense started crumbling. Sakuragi, when shooting from the free throw line, decided to shoot it differently by throwing up a granny shot.

Akagi coming back in for Shohoku seemed like they would be in great position to win, but Maki displayed to everyone why he's the best player in the region, giving Jin a ton of open looks for three pointers.

Rukawa's strong performance made it seem like Shohoku has a chance of winning, but what got everyone's attention was when Akagi came back from the locker room.

Sakuragi did a pretty good job of filling in for Akagi, though it was Rukawa who pushed Shohoku into a fierce comeback against Kainan. He single handedly brought Shohoku back within five points.

Shohoku isn't about to let their chances slip away against Kainan, however, things quickly changed when Akagi injured his ankle, forcing Sakuragi to take over his spot as center.

Takato seemed to have devised the perfect plan to counter-attack against Sakuragi, which is sending in the extremely small and weak Miyamasu. In an unbelievable turn around, the plan worked in which Sakuragi was horrible embarassed, allowing Kainan to widen the gap. Rukawa however, seems to be heating up.