AND ONE!

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

Week 12 - December 10th 2013

Call them the Comeback Kids! Bamberg fight back to beat Efes and ALBA

Brose Baskets Bamberg were the kings of the comeback this week, putting them in a good position in both the Turkish Airlines Euroleague and the Beko BBL. On December 6, Brose came back from 14 points down at half-time to beat Anadolu Efes Istanbul 89-78 on the road and now have their Top 16 fate in their own hands. In the Beko BBL less than two days later on December 8, Bamberg trailed by 15 points but managed to knock off Alba Berlin 73-69 for their eighth straight victory to improve to 10-2 in the league.

The up-coming week will be another tough Friday-Sunday stretch as Brose play at EA7 Emporio Armani Milan on December 13 in a game that could see Bamberg qualify for the Top 16. Chris Fleming’s team must then travel to ratiopharm ulm on December 15, facing a team that has won three straight games and five of their last six.

“It won’t be easy. We cannot think just because we won in Istanbul that everything will work out in Milan. We really have to prepare and once again it’s a weekend where we have a big BBL game too,” said Bamberg guard Anton Gavel about the up-coming week.

“We really have a lot more confidence than a few weeks ago against Milan. They have a lot of offensive players who are very dangerous with (Keith) Langford and (Alessandro) Gentile. They have a lot of guys who can play one on one and can create their own shots. We need to have patience in the execution of our offense,” said Coach Fleming.

The comebacks were that much more impressive since they were done without Sharrod Ford, who is expected to miss eight weeks after knee surgery.

Still, Fleming’s team will go into this week’s games with added confidence after the two comebacks. The Euroleague comeback improved Brose’s record to 3-5 in Group B, even with Zalgiris Kaunas while Strasbourg are a game behind at 2-6. Efes and Milan are both a game better at 4-4.

Efes took an early lead but Bamberg never let the hosts pull away with four points the biggest cushion in the first quarter, which ended even at 18-18.

Istanbul were able to pull ahead briefly midway through the second quarter 33-25 but Bamberg reeled them back to within 33-30. A 10-2 Efes run pushed the advantage to 43-32 and the hosts shot about 70 percent from the field in the first half and led 50-36 at intermission.

The Efes lead was still 56-43 when Bamberg started getting some defensive stops and went on a 6-0 run. The Istanbul cushion was 64-57 after three quarters.

In the fourth, Efes led 69-60 with under eight minutes left when Bamberg started a monster run. Brose took the lead 73-71 with Gavel’s three-pointer. He nailed another triple and Jamar Smith also was on target from long range as Bamberg used a 23-4 run to take an 83-73 lead and end up winning going away.

Smith led the way with 18 points with four three-pointers while D’Or Fischer and Gavel both scored 13 points, Maik Zirbes had 12 and Novica Velickovic added 11. Rakim Sanders chipped in nine points and seven rebounds while Zack Wright had nine points and seven assists.

“We showed enormous character after an extremely difficult second quarter. They kind of got away from us but the guys kept believing and fighting and in the end absolutely deserved to win,” said Fleming.

“Without a doubt our best game by far,” said general manager Wolfgang Heyder.

“The most important thing is the character that the team showed, trailing by 15 points and coming back like that, never letting up even though they were still up by nine with eight minutes left. It was a team performance.”

Bamberg captain Casey Jacobsen called it the biggest win of the year for the team.

“It was a team effort. Everybody stepped up. I thought we had a pretty good first half even though we were down. They went on a run but we were playing tough and playing good defense. In the second half they started to miss some of those shots they made in the first half and we were right there to take advantage of our opportunities.”

Bamberg really played at a high level energy wise in Istanbul and then faced a tough challenge against a motivated ALBA BERLIN side just 43 hours later in the Beko BBL.

Berlin jumped ahead 11-4 and continually built the lead up to 21-10 before a Smith three-ball cut it back to eight points. The margin was 22-15 after one quarter.

Brose could not keep up in the early stages of the second quarter and watched Berlin extend the lead to 36-21. Jacobsen and Velikovic both knocked down three-balls to help Bamberg get back into the game and Brose trailed just 42-40 at half-time.

Jacobsen tied the game to start the second half but Bamberg could not control the ball as Berlin raced back ahead with a 10-0 run for a 52-42 lead. Gavel and Smith both hit long balls to trim the gap back to 58-52 after three quarters.

Brose continued to get production from a number of players as well as play tough defense as the champs finally took the lead on Gavel’s three-ball with 4:24 remaining to make it 61-59. Sanders’ trey pushed the advantage to 64-61 and he nailed another long ball with 16 seconds left to make it 72-68.

Gavel led Bamberg with 14 points while Smith had 12 points, Zirbes collected 12 points and seven rebounds and Sanders chipped in 10 points.

“I knew from the very beginning that it would be very difficult. It’s tough dealing with a game in Istanbul a day and a half earlier and a trip between that. It really was tough mentally,” said Heyder.

“You really have to tip your hat to the team for how they defended in the last 15 minutes. It was excellent. We made everything difficult for Berlin. So I really have to compliment the team.”

Coach Fleming said the game on Friday in Istanbul really took a lot out of his team.

“But we were extremely focused on Saturday and during the walk through. The guys really prepared well for the game,” said Fleming, whose team is still just one game behind Bayern Munich and now has more space ahead of 8-3 EWE Baskets Oldenburg.

“We really fought hard. And we found a way to make big plays. Rakim’s threes in the end were definitely the difference maker. Our goal as a team has to be to go into games and especially in big games find a passing rhythm. The ball is moving too slowly. And that’s partially because we start our offense too late. That’s not a new problem for us. I’m 100 percent certain that we will get better. We have a lot of potential to improve. We have a lot of quality.”

The quality will be tested once again in tall order this coming week in Milan and Ulm.

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