AND ONE!

Weekly roundup for our English-speaking fans by David Hein.

Week 14 - April 2nd 2014

After Berlin loss, Bamberg beat Bayern for third place at German Cup

Brose Baskets Bamberg went to Ulm following a mid-week 87-63 win over ratiopharm ulm with the hope of capturing their fourth German Cup in the last five years. But the Beko BBL TOP FOUR started with an 83-67 loss to eventual champions ALBA BERLIN in the semi-finals before Chris Fleming’s team bounced back for a 79-73 victory over Bayern Munich in the game for third place.

The weekend had a casualty as well as with emotional leader Anton Gavel going down with a knee injury during the second half of the Berlin game and the guard will miss at least two weeks. The first of those weeks is a big one as Brose travel to Frankfurt to take on FRAPORT SKYLINERS on Wednesday April 2 and then play at Phoenix Hagen on Saturday April 5. If Bamberg win both games they would actually temporarily pull ahead of Munich, who don’t play until Sunday April 6 and would reclaim first place with a win at Ulm.

Still undefeated at home – one-half game behind Bayern

Bamberg’s Beko BBL game against Ulm was re-scheduled for March 26 and the four-time reigning champs used the opportunity to pull closer to evening their record with league leaders Bayern Munich, who are 23-4 while Bamberg improved to 22-4. Maik Zirbes had 17 points and eight rebounds and Jamar Smith scored 16 points while Rakim Sanders and Sharrod Ford both added 13 points and seven rebounds.

Ulm jumped ahead 10-3 and the advantage grew to 17-8 and even 19-10 in the first quarter. Sanders nailed a three-ball and another score to cut the deficit to 19-15 after 10 minutes.

Ford opened the second quarter with a trey and D’Or Fischer gave Bamberg the lead 20-19. Ulm finally scored after three minutes and reclaimed the lead. Brose fell behind again by seven points, 35-28. But they were back to within 38-36 at halftime.

Sanders and Ford nailed threes early in the third and a three-point play by Zirbes gave Bamberg a 59-51 lead. And Brose closed the quarter with the final five points to lead 65-55.

Smith took over the offense in the fourth quarter with two three-pointers and a free throw as Bamberg increased the margin to 74-57. The defense held Ulm to one basket in a 5:31 minute stretch as Bamberg used a 15-2 run to open an 80-59 advantage with four minutes left. And Smith nailed one more trey to increase the gap to 16 points as Bamberg eased to victory.

“We realized in the second half that we need defense to win big games. And then we had a better rhythm offensively as well,” said general manager Wolfgang Heyder.

“When we really needed stops, everybody locked in and played hard on defense. It’s a big win. We looked at it as a TOP FOUR game,” said Smith.

Brose fail to show up against Berlin

Bamberg didn’t play at the same level as a team against Berlin in the TOP FOUR semis on Saturday though. Gavel poured in 18 points while Smith and Fischer both added 12 points. But Sanders scored just two points on 1-of-7 shooting, Ford hit for three points and Elias Harris went scoreless.

“From our point of view it was a clearly deserved defeat,” said Fleming afterwards.

“We didn’t have the energy needed in such a game like this. Defensively we were okay in the first half, but offensively we struggled to execute our game plan. In the second half it was much of the same. We didn’t do very much of anything in the fourth quarter. We need to do a much better job controlling the small details that make up this game.”

He continued: “We’re still looking for a way that we can fit better together and have more responsibility for one another. Some don’t want to do that it seems and some of the young guys don’t know how to do that yet.”

Berlin jumped ahead 5-0 before Bamberg evened it at 7-7. The game remained close and Fischer’s four points gave Bamberg a 20-18 lead. But David Logan’s triple gave Berlin a 21-20 lead after one quarter.

Brose struggled to get anything going offensively, scoring their first point on a Gavel free throw after 5:26 minutes of action. Gavel gave Bamberg their first basket on a three-ball with 2:17 left in the first half – though Brose were trailing just 30-26 at that point. Gavel scored another basket and made three free throws and then knocked down a tough jumper at the halftime buzzer as Bamberg were even 36-36 with Berlin at the break.

Brose went scoreless for the first two minutes of the second half as Berlin built a five-point lead. It was up to six before Smith knocked down a trey to bring it to two at 52-50. Bamberg watched Berlin go on a 7-0 run for a 61-52 lead, which was down to 61-55 after three quarters.

Berlin scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to open a 69-55 cushion and the deficit was 17 points – 76-59 – with three minutes left. Bamberg tried one more time to get back into the game with an 8-0 run to make it 76-67 with 1:08 minutes remaining. But Akeem Vargas nailed a three-ball and Bamberg would not score the rest of the way.

Sanders, Bamberg bounce back vs Bayern

In the game for third place, Gavel and captain Casey Jacobsen did not play and Bayern jumped ahead 9-2. Bamberg responded with a 10-0 run for a 12-9 lead. Bayern answered with a 6-0 surge for the lead and Munich led 16-15 after one quarter.

Neither team could pull away in the second period with both teams leading by three points at times. Bamberg led 35-34 at halftime.

Bayern went back ahead early in the third quarter and remained ahead, unable to move further away until a 6-0 run gave Munich a 60-53 advantage. Harris nailed a three-ball just before the buzzer to trim the deficit to 60-56 after three quarters.

Bamberg saw Munich push the lead to 62-56 before Sanders and Harris sandwiched three-balls around two Fischer baskets as Brose moved ahead 66-64. Leading 72-69, Bamberg watched Munich grab three straight offensive rebounds before Sanders finally corralled a defensive rebound and then nailed a three-ball at the other end for a 75-71 lead. Fischer added a big basket with 58 seconds to go to maintain a four-point cushion and John Goldsberry’s two free throws with 34 seconds left iced the game.

Sanders bounced back from the poor semi-final performance with 25 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals while Fischer had 14 points and Zirbes scored 12 points.

“We competed a lot better tonight. We still have a long way to go but we played well as a team in the second half and got the job done. It wasn’t pretty but we did what we needed to do, especially as a team,” said Fleming.

“I have rarely seen a game for third place that was such a battle and intensive. So we are happy to shake off the loss a little bit. It’s only a weak consolation. But with two important road games coming up it was important that we get the win,” added Heyder.

Foto: Daniel Löb

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