AND ONE!

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

Week 3 - January 14th 2014

Bamberg open Eurocup with road win, pull away late from Ludwigsburg

Brose Baskets Bamberg had a good week as they opened their Eurocup campaign with a comfortable 86-67 victory at BCM Gravelines Dunkerque and followed that up by pulling away late for a road 80-69 win against MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg.

After taking on Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari in the Eurocup at home on Wednesday January 15, most of the Brose team will have the weekend off with the Beko BBL All-Star Day being played in Bonn on Saturday January 18.

About the game against Sassari, Brose head coach Chris Fleming said: “In a group with just six games, all of them are really important. I don’t know if it’s a final to decide the winner of the group, but it’s important if we want to win the group. They are probably the best offensive team we have played against other than Real Madrid. We really need to get back in transition defense and rebound well. We need to control the tempo with our offense too.”

After getting bounced from the Euroleague, Brose headed to the Eurocup and they started their play in Group J on January 8. Bamberg came up with 28 assists in shooting 55 percent in beating Gravelines 86-67. D’Or Fischer led the way with 20 points while Zack Wright had 17 points and nine assists, Elias Harris scored 12 points and Rakim Sanders added 19.

Gravelines jumped ahead 9-5 before Brose went on a 7-0 run to take a 12-9 lead. The advantage grew to 17-11 after a Casey Jacobsen trey and the guests were ahead 21-16 after one quarter.

Harris started the second quarter with a three-ball and Wright pushed the lead to 12 points at 28-16. The French team trimmed the deficit to 32-25 but Karsten Tadda nailed a trey to re-establish a double-digit lead. And Bamberg closed the half on a 10-2 run to lead 48-31 at the break.

Jacobsen hit another triple to start the second half and Anton Gavel made it a 22-point lead at 53-31. Gravelines would chip away at the cushion and get it down to 14 points at 62-48. After three quarters the margin was 67-50.

Bamberg finished strong, not allowing Gravelines get any closer than 16 points the rest of the way and pushing it back to 22 points in the final minute.

“It was the first step in a new competition. It’s always good to get a road win and we handled business tonight,” said Fischer.

“Slowly but surely we’re finding ourselves as a team. The last couple months have been a lot of changes with D’Or and me. But we are finding ourselves and that shows on the scoreboard. It’s pretty balanced. We defend well as a team and I think we’re on a good path,” said Harris.

And Fleming added: “We still have things that we need to improve on. We defended really well … I think the 28 assists on offense sends a clear message. We moved the ball really well. We still have some mistakes which we cannot afford to make. But there are fewer and fewer of those.”

Bamberg returned to the Beko BBL with a road game at Ludwigsburg, having won three in a row. A late run gave Brose the 80-69 win and Fleming’s team a 14-3 record in second place – one game behind Bayern Munich and one game ahead of Alba Berlin.

Bamberg went ahead 12-5 before Ludwigsburg used an 8-1 run to knot the game at 13-13. The hosts went up but the game was even after one quarter at 23-23 thanks to Jamar Smith’s three-ball just before the buzzer.

The game went back and forth in the second quarter and Brose were leading 43-40 at the break. Neither team could break free in the third quarter and Ludwigsburg led 58-56 after 30 minutes.

The lead changed hands 14 times and it was tied 17 times by the time Bamberg lead 70-67 in the waning minutes of the game. Ludwigsburg’s Coby Karl and Keaton Grant both fouled out as Bamberg used a 12-0 run to finish off the road win.

Gavel and Wright both scored 24 points while Fischer added 10 points and seven rebounds in the win.

“We didn’t want to lose here. They played great for 36 minutes but I think our experience paid off in the end … We are very confident. We know that we are always the favorites. Everyone plays more than 100 percent against us so we know we have to fight until the end. But we are also experienced enough to know how to win close games in the end,” said Gavel.

“They played us tough and stuck with us until the end. We had to grind it out. It was a difficult game. I give respect to them because they played us hard,” said Wright.

“Even in the German league, you can’t take a night off. Everybody’s coming after you and playing their best game against us. It was a grind-it-out win and I’m just happy with got it.”

Wright and most of his teammates will get a week off after their Eurocup game against Sassari. Maik Zirbes and Gavel however will be in Bonn starting for Team National in the All-Star Game while Andreas Obst from TSV Tröster Breitengüßbach will be appearing in the NBBL All-Star Game.

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