AND ONE!

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

Week 11 - December 4th 2013

Bamberg royal for 37 minutes against Real, tough D leads to W in Oldenburg

Brose Baskets Bamberg went through truly an up-and-down week starting with an in-part impressive showing against Real Madrid in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague before suffering an 89-69 loss. That performance was followed up with an outstanding defensive effort in knocking off EWE Baskets Oldenburg 73-59 in northern Germany for their seventh straight win to improve to 9-2 and second place in the Beko BBL.

The up-coming week promises two more highlights. Bamberg face an almost must-win game in the Euroleague on Friday December 6 at Anadolu Efes Istanbul. Brose must turn around and host ALBA BERLIN in the Beko BBL on Sunday December 8.

About the up-coming Efes game, Bamberg head coach Chris Fleming said: “This game is our last chance to have control of our own destiny.” The effort will be made that much more difficult as Sharrod Ford will likely miss the game with a knee injury.

This week showed just how needed the addition of D’Or Fischer was for Fleming’s team. Madrid came into the game having won every game in the Euroleague by at least 19 points, including a 40-point blowout of Brose in Spain earlier this season. But Bamberg showed once again they can step up and play against the greats in the game – giving undefeated Real a tough game for 37 minutes before falling apart and dropping to 2-5 in Group B of the Euroleague. Brose are currently fifth in the group behind Anadolu Efes Istanbul and EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, who are both 4-3; as well as Zalgiris Kaunas at 3-4.

Real went up 4-2 before Anton Gavel scored seven points in an 11-0 Bamberg run to take a 13-4 lead. Madrid slowly started hitting shots but the Brose advantage was still 15-7 midway through the quarter. But Real knotted the contest after one quarter 20-20.

The Spanish giants extended the lead to eight points a number of times in the second quarter and went into the half-time ahead 43-38. The game was still tight at 48-42 before Real used a 12-1 run to open a 60-43 lead with about four minutes left in the third quarter. Bamberg changed their defense to zone and closed the period with the final six points to make it 60-49 going into the fourth.

Real seemed to have an answer for every big Bamberg shot for a while until Brose finally strung together a couple of stops defensively. That combined with a three-pointer and a three-point play by Rakim Sanders cut the deficit to 72-69 with 3:30 left in the game. Bamberg had two possessions with a chance to tie but Sanders turned it over once and then Novica Velickovic missed a three-pointer. That proved to be Bamberg’s last chance as Madrid sprinted out with a 17-0 run over the final three-plus minutes for the 20-point win.

“Losing the last 3:23 with a 17-0 run is very bitter. We fell apart in that stretch and didn’t execute. The game was a lot closer than the final score. But the truth of the game was that they had 89 points and we had 69. So we have to accept that,” said Fleming, who saw Maik Zirbes and Sharrod Ford both score 12 points while Gavel had 11 points. D’Or Fischer had five points and two rebounds in 20 minutes in his debut with the team.

“We got blown out again. If you look at the scoreboard and see the result you would say it was an easy game for Madrid. You cannot take anything positive out of a 20-point loss,” said Gavel.

“It felt like we were in that game. It felt like we were tough. It felt like we had good energy,” said Bamberg captain Casey Jacobsen.

“It’s so disappointing to not finish it off. I know they’re a good team. We respect them, but we thought we could win. And I wanted to win. So we’re disappointed. It would have been an amazing victory for our team. Instead we have a really bad feeling.”

Brose did a good job re-focusing with a huge Beko BBL game at Oldenburg, who were 8-1 going into the game. And Fleming’s men got the job done, thanks mainly to a 12-0 fourth quarter run.

The first quarter was tight throughout and Oldenburg led 15-14 after 10 minutes. The game was a showdown of two strong teams and neither could gain a significant advantage in the second quarter either, with Bamberg using a 7-0 run to take a 32-27 lead, which was 34-31 at the break.

Sanders and Jacobsen knocked down three-balls in an 8-0 run as Brose took the first double-digit lead at 44-33. And Ford’s trey increased the margin to 55-42. The cushion was 57-47 after three quarters.

In the fourth, Nemanja Aleksandrov missed a three-pointer which would have cut the game to four points with five minutes left. But Gavel scored five points to lead a 12-0 surge and decide the game.

Bamberg held EWE Baskets to just 34 percent shooting and Fischer led the way against his old team with 16 points, seven rebounds and five blocks. Sanders added 10 points while five other Bamberg players had at least seven points.

“It certainly wasn’t Real Madrid today. Nothing against Oldenburg, but that’s a different caliber. I think this game stands for itself. We fought hard defensively with a lot of enthusiasm. And you can see that in the result and the statistics,” said Fleming, whose team collected their seventh straight win in jumping to second place.

“D’Or really protected the rim but Karsten (Tadda) and Anton really gave us that defensive energy from the start. We can still get a lot more from this team. Zack (Wright) was really positive today but in general I still think we’re not moving the ball enough. You can tell that with just eight assists.”

Tadda said the team worked hard for 40 minutes, adding: “We did a good job taking away a lot of things that Oldenburg do well. D’Or really did a great job and helped us a lot up front – a lot of rebounds and tip-ins. It was a real team effort. We finished off the game today. We didn’t let Oldenburg back into the game. We have to keep going.”

Fleming said the game was another step towards the team he hopes to be soon.

“Things are moving in a good direction where we can step things up a bit in Istanbul,” said the coach.

In Istanbul and then repeat it at home against Berlin.

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