The appearance of the Meteor Jam broke the balance between Aomine and Kagami.

Seirin began to close the gap!

That should have been a good thing, but hearing the entire audience call it "Tendou's Meteor Jam" left Alex Garcia, the original creator, feeling slightly upset.

Even the other coaches around Tokyo thought so too.

"Unbelievable, Kagami managed to copy Tendou's Meteor Jam!" Harasawa Katsunori's expression grew serious. Anything related to Tendou was now considered a big problem.

But Aomine wasn't without a solution.

After losing to Kirisaki Daiichi in the Nationals, he'd been preparing meticulously for revenge in the Winter Cup. Every single move of Tendou's had been replayed countless times in his mind—including, of course, the Meteor Jam.

Aomine didn't have the Six Eyes nor the Emperor Eye, nor did anyone on his team. His solution was simple yet effective: stick to Kagami tightly, leaving him no room to jump.

As expected, Kagami was unable to score again with the Meteor Jam afterward, although he did gain some other advantages.

The match fell into a stalemate once again.

However—

"There's still over one quarter left in the game. Neither player's Zone can last until the end."

"In other words, the final result will still depend on teamwork."

Kirisaki Daiichi players believed that neither Kagami nor Aomine possessed Tendou's ability to crush an opponent single-handedly. Once they exited the Zone, the deciding factor would be the performance of the other players.

Yet Tendou confidently stated, "The winner has already been decided."

"Huh? Why?"

Not everything required a reason.

In moments of intense competition, the team with greater unity and spirit rarely lost.

"If you insist on a reason," Tendou explained lightly, "it'd probably be their sheer desire to win."

Since Kuroko chose to use the "Misdirection Overflow," Seirin's morale had peaked and had not dropped even for a moment.

If Tōō Academy had maintained their dominance, the situation might have been different. But with the match so closely contested, the team with stronger resolve usually emerged victorious.

Besides, in the anime, Seirin won.

As expected—

Entering the latter half of the fourth quarter, Kagami slowly took control. First, he scored against Aomine, then blocked him defensively.

And then...

Seirin won. In the final nine seconds, Seirin staged an unbelievable reversal.

At that point, Tōō had nearly no chance of losing. With a three-point lead, all they had to do was defend the three-point line to secure victory.

However, Seirin inexplicably gave up a three-pointer to tie, instead stubbornly going for a two-pointer inside. Even more bizarrely, Tōō stubbornly defended against the two-pointer, as if they were tied instead of ahead by three.

Finally, after Tōō's baffling choice, Kagami assisted Kiyoshi Teppei, who scored while drawing a foul from Wakamatsu.

Then Seirin intentionally missed the free throw, grabbed the rebound, and scored again to beat Tōō at the buzzer.

This incredibly dramatic ending stunned everyone watching.

Tōō, who should've had a guaranteed victory, somehow managed to lose spectacularly.

"Why on earth did they do that in the end…?"

Seto Kentaro couldn't understand at all.

It was just two points. Why did Tōō act as if the two points were life or death?

If they'd simply guarded against the three-pointer, Seirin would've had to foul, giving Tōō free throws and maintaining their three-point advantage.

Even taking a huge step back—fine, guard the two points—but why commit a foul and gift a 2+1 opportunity at such a critical moment?

Wasn't avoiding fouls in clutch situations basic basketball logic?

With his IQ of 160, Seto concluded that the only scenario allowing Seirin to win was precisely what had just happened—something with less than a five-percent probability.

"Did you predict this too, Tendou?"

They began to suspect Tendou knew everything beforehand.

If Tōō had lost normally, they wouldn't question it, as the opponent was indeed strong. But losing in such a ridiculous way made Seto wonder if the entire Tōō squad had lost their minds.

"What nonsense."

Honestly, when Tendou first saw this in the anime, even he found it absurd. It felt more like forced dramatization, giving Kuroko the final dramatic assist to beat Tōō.

But either way, Seirin won, and a win was a win.

"Let's head out. The teams advancing from this group are Shūtoku and Seirin."

With the match concluded, Seirin's players celebrated their hard-earned victory joyfully.

Tendou didn't linger and was the first to leave the stadium.

...

Three days later.

The Winter Cup regional qualifiers concluded.

Unsurprisingly, Seirin secured their ticket to the Winter Cup along with Shūtoku and Kirisaki Daiichi.

An amusing scene occurred in the final round-robin match between Seirin and Shūtoku—they ended with a 105:105 tie.

With no overtime played, basketball fans witnessed the second-ever handshake ending.

Although both teams had already qualified, and the result didn't change the overall standings, a tie in basketball was still incredibly strange.

...

In the real world, viewers began mocking the anime's storyline.

『What the heck? Can someone explain the Winter Cup rules? Why can a tie even happen?』

『Probably because both Seirin and Shūtoku already qualified, so there was no point in continuing?』

『How is it meaningless? Don't they still need to decide seedings for Nationals? It makes a huge difference!』

『I feel they're deliberately weakening Seirin. Kagami didn't even enter the Zone this game.』

『Weakened? Tendou repeatedly said Seirin's lineup was strong. Then why end in a pointless draw?』

『Why? Because the production team can't control Tendou. He says whatever he wants.』

『As an Aomine fan, I'm pissed. Seirin beats Tōō in such an absurd way and then ties with Shūtoku. Aren't Aomine and Tōō clearly stronger?』

『Exactly! That buzzer-beater was ridiculous. Instead of taking a safe three-pointer, they gamble on a risky rebound to force a buzzer-beating two? Wasn't this just forcing extra spotlight onto Kuroko?』

『I've realized whenever the plot moves away from Tendou and back to the original Seirin storyline, everything becomes ridiculous and melodramatic.』

Viewers reacted negatively for good reason—the last two episodes were filled with controversial developments.

Casual viewers might not notice, but basketball fans criticized heavily.

After watching the latest episode, FanGeGe expressed concern during his live stream, "At this rate, won't they eventually use plot armor to defeat Tendou too?"