The first years participate in a street basketball tournament, with Kiyoshi subbing in for Kawahara. They run into Seiho and learn that only the top eight teams from the Inter-High can participate in the Winter Cup heats. Seiho loses to a team with a member from Yosen, Himuro Tatsuya, whom Kagami knows from America. Tatsuya introduced Kagami to basketball, and they became close friends to the point of calling each other brothers and wearing matching rings. However their rivalry led to a misunderstanding between them, and Tatsuya bet his ring on their next game. Meanwhile, Riko tells the 2nd years the results of the Inter High: First Rakuzan, Second Touou, Third Yosen. With the members of the Generation of Miracles benched during semi-finals and finals. As the tip-off begins between Tatsuya's team and Seirin, Murasakibara Atsushi, another member of the Generation of Miracles, from Yosen High, shows up.

The street ball game gets called off due to heavy rain. Meanwhile, Momoi reveals that Aomine did not play in the Inter-High finals due to injuries that led her to request the coach to drop him to the bench. She also revealed the reasons why Murasakibara and Seijūrō Akashi from Rakuzan High, did not play as well. Later on, Kuroko shows Momoi his newest technique which if it is refined well, no one can ever stop him.

The Winter Cup preliminaries gets under way, with the newly-looked Seirin taking on Josei High. This marks the official return for center, 'Iron Heart' Kiyoshi Teppei since recovering from his leg injury. Although Kagami gets less involved due to him being double teamed, with Kiyoshi's unpredictable play and rebounds being the main focuses, Seirin gets even better in terms of offense and defense. Seirin takes control of the whole match, winning it by the score of 108-61. However, the next few qualifying matches might just get tougher for Seirin.

Seirin first takes on Senshinkan High, who the former has lost twice to in the past 2 years. Seirin takes the game 78-61. Shutoku also took their first game 123-51 against Kirisaki Daiichi, which the first string players did not even play, and instead are watching the Seirin game, confident of winning the next 2 games. Kiyoshi meets Hanamiya Makoto from Kirisaki Daiichi, also one of the Uncrowned Kings. In their previous match-up, Kiyoshi got injured because of Hanamiya. Seirin-Shutoku match is up next. Midorima keeps on getting blocked by Kagami. It is revealed that Midorima wants to tire Kagami by making Kagami jump to block when Midorima is about to shoot. With no score yet, who will strike first blood? Who will win the Kagami-Midorima match-up?

Scoreline is 25-16, when Seirin is still leading. Kagami showed his improvement by power jumping twice in a row to stop Midorima's fake and shoot. To guard against the fakes, Seirin employs double teaming of Kagami and Kiyoshi against Midorima, leaving the inside wide open. Kuroko sits out because his misdirection is useless against Takao's hawk eye. The game proceeds with Seirin's fast run-and-gun gameplay to stay ahead of the game but Shutoku follows close behind. Second half starts with Seirin still leading 45-43. When the game develops into a point match and Shutoku's offense power leaves Seirin's far behind, will Kuroko be able to turn the tables with his new drive as the match goes in favour of Shūtoku?

With Kuroko on the court, Seirin's team spirit has never been higher. Using his new invisible drive he is able to successfully take on Midorima. Using the same approach on Takao, the two teams are tied after a Hyūga 3 pointer. After a fierce battle, it all comes down to 2 free throws from Kiyoshi (caused by Midorima fouling him). He scored one of his shots, but his legs didn't hold out on the second. It hits the rim of the hoop, but luckily Kagami catches the rebound. In the final seconds of the match, Kagami and Midorima are engaged in an aerial battle. Will Kagami score, or does Mimorima have enough strength to stop the dunk?

Due to the rush of the matches, there is no overtime, hence the match ends with a tie at 104 apiece. On the other side, Kirisaki Daiichi defeated Senshinkhan 108-70, but it is said that the former won with unfair measures. Outside the locker room, Kagami overheard the fiery conversation between Hyuga and Kiyoshi and then at night, he asked Hyuga more about it. It was actually Kiyoshi's final chance of playing high school basketball, despite only being in his 2nd year. Flashback to 1 year ago, the story goes on about the formation of Seirin's basketball club, Hyuga's real feelings about basketball in high school and Kiyoshi's determination to set up the basketball club.

Hyuga officially joins the basketball team, and so does Riko. They win their first matches and entered the final match against Kirisaki Daiichi and Hanamiya Makoto, a Crownless General like Kiyoshi. In one of the last plays Hanamiya purposely injures Kiyoshi's leg. Seirin lose the subsequent matches and are eliminated from the Nationals. Hyuga is determined to lead the team next year to be the best in Japan, which currently they are on course to be, and Kirisaki Daiichi is next in Seirin's way.

Up next is Seirin against Kirisaki Daiichi. As usual, Kirisaki Daiichi plays dirty, on offense and defense, trying to injure the opposing players. However, Kiyoshi still pushes on and gets his spirit really burned up, but while he's fired up Hyuga can't seem make any of his 3-pointers. Will Seirin get over this extremely rough matchup?

Seirin leads by 5 points going into the 2nd half, and Kirisaki Daiichi executes their trap, in which Hanamiya gets his steals with 100% accuracy, and Seirin just has fallen under this trap. Kuroko suggests the team to take a gamble of trust in each other in order to break free of this trap. Will Seirin get their ticket to the Winter Cup?

Seirin managed to break free of Kirisaki Daiichi's 'spider web'. However, the game is still not over with Hanamiya having another card up his sleeves. Will Seirin still get their berth at the Winter Cup or is it over for them?

After the winter cup prelimenaries, Seirin had their rest at a hotspring. At the same time, Tōō Academy is there, it's a surprise for them that they will fight in the first round. Will Seirin be nervous or they will be filled with excitement?

Before the Winter Cup starts, Akashi summons the rest of the Generation of Miracles, along with Kuroko. Kagami also joins in and it is a bad first meeting between Akashi and Kagami. The highly anticipated match between Seirin and Tōō Academy starts, and who will take the advantage?

Seirin managed to keep on pace with Tōō Academy. However, things just don't go right when Kuroko has both his moves being stopped consecutively by Aomine. How will Seirin come back to the game?

Kagami managed to hold Aomine and put Seirin close to Tōō Academy. Only down by 2, Seirin seemed to be able to keep in pace. However, another crisis would soon happen. How will this hinder Seirin's chances of winning the rematch?

Imayoshi is able to immobilise Kuroko, and Sakurai manages to stop Hyuga's Barrier Jumper, both actions being instructed by Momoi. Aomine goes past Kagami and makes a 360 spin dunk at the same time. All 5 Touou players are now able to see Kuroko. However, this actually leads to a trap set by Kuroko, when Izuki goes past Imayoshi with a Vanishing Drive, something the crowd thought only Kuroko can pull off, and scores. Hyuga also managed to bypass Sakurai with a Vanishing Drive too, and scored. The revelation of Misdirection Overflow has pulled Seirin to within single digit difference. However, Imayoshi scores a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to put Touou's lead to 11, ending the 3rd quarter. Before timeout expires, Aomine did not pay attention as the rest of the players return to the court. 4th quarter starts, and Seirin starts off with Hyuga combining his Barrier Jumper and Kuroko's Misdirection Overflow to avoid Sakurai's quick defense and scores a 3-pointer, putting the difference back to 8. The real Aomine will reveal himself soon, so how will Seirin cope with the Aomine even more stronger than they have faced in the first half?

At this stage, stopping the stronger Aomine has become the priority for Seirin, if not the latter will lose the game. After slowing getting back into the game, Seirin suddenly could not stop the Aomine who has entered the Zone. However, Kagami has managed to stop Aomine and what will the battle of the aces be like?

An intense battle between the Aces of their teams, Aomine and Kagami, begins. Both never give in to each other and blocked the shots of each other. The other players on the court are very amazed at the battle of the Aces in the Zone, which makes their focus and reaction speed to be at their maximums. Kagami goes to drive past Aomine and scores a basket, to cut Tōō's lead to just 3, 95-98, with 41.5 seconds left. In the next possession for Tōō, Aomine found it difficult to drive past Kagami, but he quickly goes for a Formless Shot.

After the tough and close win over Tōō, the Seirin team decides to find a place to rest and rejuvenate. With no places to go due to various reasons, Kagami offers the team an invitation to his house. After a restful night for the team, they find Alexander Garcia, Kagami's master in basketball, sleeping in Kagami's house. The Seirin team, along with Alex, went to watch the Winter Cup match between Onita and Shutoku, with the latter taking the win easily, and Midorima caught Alex's attention.

While the match between Seirin and Nakamiya South progresses, at Touou Academy's library, Imayoshi and Susa discussed about Seirin's possibility of winning the match while studying. Seirin indeed are in a difficult situation of beating Nakamiya South. Imayoshi said that Seirin have not given their 120% like what the players did against Touou, and they may have gotten a little overconfident as they have defeated Tōō.

Still unable to score against Murasakibara and the Yōsen team, Seirin resorted to Kuroko taking shots, and they are back on track in the game. However, Himuro has not played his ball yet, so will Seirin be prepared for it?

Aomine thinks that Himuro is good, although the latter had never appeared in a tournament in Japan. Back to the match, Himuro executes a superb fake on Kagami, then smoothly transitions to take a jump shot, to which Kagami and Hyuga cannot react to it. Before the match, Himuro said to Murasakibara that he wants to crush Kagami, and that being brothers with him is getting in his way to be the better basketball player.

With Murasakibara finally appearing on the offensive side, Seirin is slowly losing hope of having the chance to win against Yōsen and move onto the Finals. With the help of the Vice-captain, Fukui, Murasakibara catches the ball and dunks it, causing the hoop to break and collide with the ground, even further diminishing the hope of Seirin.

As the match continues in the fourth quarter, Yōsen keeps on maintaining its lead and with Kiyoshi out, the Seirin players face tough times scoring any points. Seirin starts to use the same full court 2-3 man-to-man defense like what Yosen uses, but Himuro and Murasakibara are easily able to overcome it. However, Kagami's spirit to win gets him into the Zone once again.After some time in the Zone, Seirin cuts down the lead to four points.

In the last minute of the fourth quarter, Murasakibara enters the Zone. However, Kagami had so much spirit to win that he exceeded his limits and used meteor jam, his new shot that he can use only in the Zone. He jammed the ball in, scoring the final point. However, Atsushi still had determination and went for his shot. However, Murasakibara could not jump and Kuroko blocked his shot, handing victory over to Seirin. Murasakibara broke down after the game, revealing that he actually loves basketball, which enabled him to enter the Zone. Kuroko also tells Kagami to reconcile with Himuro, which he does.