AND ONE!

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

Week 13 - March 25th 2014

Bamberg bounce back, cruise past Ludwigsburg

Brose Baskets Bamberg came up with a great answer to their loss at Alba Berlin by cruising past MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg 96-65 to return to their winning ways in the Beko BBL. 

The good performance comes at just the right time as Bamberg take on ratiopharm ulm at brose ARENA on Wednesday March 26 before heading to Ulm for the Beko BBL Top Four, where they will play Alba Berlin in the semi-finals on Saturday March 29 and then either for the title or third place on Sunday March 30.

Brose came into the Ludwigsburg looking to get back into the winning column after seeing their 10-game winning streak snapped by Berlin. Bamberg also wanted to remain undefeated at home this season in the league against a team in Ludwigsburg which had worked their way into the playoff ranks. 

Captain Casey starts on fire

After sitting out the Berlin game, Brose captain Casey Jacobsen started the game on fire with the game’s first eight points including two three-pointers. Jacobsen’s third three-ball gave him 11 points in the opening minutes and started a 16-0 run, which included two baskets each by Anton Gavel and Maik Zirbes and ended with Sharrod Ford’s three-point play to make it 25-6. A triple by Rakim Sanders increased the margin to 28-8 after one quarter.

The strong Brose defense and efficient Bamberg offense continued in the second quarter as Chris Fleming’s team increased the lead throughout the period. Brose got into the bonus early and scored quite a few free throws besides the team hitting their open shots as well. By the end of the first half, Bamberg were up 59-25 going into the break having more or less already decided the game.

Triples by Elias Harris and Sanders and another score by Sanders increased the cushion to 41 points at 68-27. The advantage reached its peak late in the third with Karsten Tadda nailing a three-ball to make it 76-34. Ludwigsburg were able to cut the gap back down to 81-45 after 30 minutes.

Keaton Grant’s trey to start the fourth trimmed the deficit to 33 points and the guests didn’t get any closer until the final minutes with the final score the closest Ludwigsburg would get the rest of the way.

Bamberg were paced by Sanders, who scored a season-high 22 points, while Gavel had 16 points, Jacobsen finished with 14 and Harris added 13 points. Jared Jordan only scored three points but also had four rebounds, nine assists, three steals and one block while John Goldsberry had two points, three rebounds, six assists and one steal. In total, Brose collected 30 assists while hitting 11-of-18 three-pointers (61 percent) and 57 percent shooting overall. Bamberg did struggle from the free throw line, hitting 19-of-32 for 59 percent.

“This was a lot of fun.” 

“After the loss in Berlin, where we were very reactive, it was important that we set the tone tonight. The guys stepped up tonight in a very important week for us. We are very satisfied. Offensively we moved the ball a lot better than the last couple of weeks,” said Coach Fleming.

“This was a lot of fun. We’re a really talented team and we haven’t had a lot of opportunities to show how capable we are of playing good offense and good defense,” said Jacobsen. “This is one of the most complete games that we’ve played. But we have some more important games coming up and we’re thinking about those. If we play like that defensively, it doesn’t matter if we make or miss shots, we’re going to win the game.”

Gavel was happy about how the team responded after the blow-out defeat in the German capital. “After the Berlin loss, we wanted to show a sign and show that we have to improve ourselves and we did that. The game was basically over at halftime. I think we came up with the right answer,” said the guard. “It would be good if it keeps going like that. We have to prepare for Ulm, and then to the cup.”

 

Alle Nachrichten