And One!
Weekly roundup for our English-speaking fans by David Hein.
Week 21 - May 21st 2013
Champs bounced in first round by Artland; future uncertain
Crashing out of the Beko BBL playoffs in the first round was not the way Brose Baskets Bamberg had envisioned their 2013-14 season ending. But the four-time reigning champions now must deal with the reality that Artland Dragons beat them 3-1 in their best-of-five series, with Bamberg losing two games at the brose ARENA. The future is up in the air as club’s supervisory board decides on what will happen next with the club.
After evening the series with Artland at 1-1 with a victory in Quakenbrück to reclaim home court advantage, Bamberg let a second home game slip away, losing Game Three 77-75 at brose ARENA. Brose failed to hold a 10-point fourth quarter lead in Game Three as Artland’s David Holston scored 13 points in the last 5:32 minutes of the game.
Sharrod Ford hit two threes as Bamberg opened an early 10-4 lead. It was down to 12-10 when an Anton Gavel trey started a 7-0 run to make it 19-10. Artland followed with seven straight points of their own, resulting in a Brose timeout. Karsten Tadda and Casey Jacobsen answered with three-balls but Artland’s Chad Topper nailed two from downtown as well to knot the game at 25-25. Jacobsen scored at the buzzer to give Bamberg a 27-25 lead after one quarter.
Elias Harris scored two baskets in a 6-0 start to the second for a 33-25 cushion and the Bamberg defense held Artland scoreless for the first five minutes of the second quarter. Artland rushed back to within 33-32 but Jared Jordan, Maik Zirbes and Jamar Smith pushed the margin to 39-32 and Brose led 43-37 at halftime.
Brose opened their first 10-point lead with Ford’s basket to make it 47-37. Artland scored the next six points but Rakim Sanders completed a three-point play and Jordan nailed a long ball as the lead was up to 59-49. After three quarters, the champs led 64-57.
No stopping Holston
Zirbes split two free throws to give Bamberg a 69-59 lead with eight minutes to play, and the margin was still 71-62 when the offense collapsed. In the final five minutes, Brose came up with just two free throws, missing their last nine shots. Holston nailed back-to-back threes to make it 73-68 and after a Jordan turnover, Holston drained a third three to tie the game 75-75 with 56 seconds left. Jacobsen missed his shot with 36 seconds to play and then after two Artland free throws, Gavel missed his three-point attempt at the buzzer.
Ford led the way with 14 points while Sanders and D’Or Fischer both had 12 points in the loss.
“We had a number of chances where we could pull away and we played good basketball. Then we lost the concentration, especially down the stretch. Offensively, we didn’t move very well and we took some bad shots,” said Fleming.
“We talked all day and night about getting your arm up on Holston and he scores 13 points on us in the fourth quarter. They totally deserved to win. We played with fire and got burnt.”
Jordan said afterwards that the team missed their chance to finish off the Dragons. “We had it in our hands when we were up 10 points. We should have stepped on them and put them away but we didn’t and let them hang around and they’re a good team,” said the point guard.
“It was a matter that some of our players were not athletic enough. I think Artland’s better athleticism decided the game. We weren’t able to control the rebounding. There were a lot of easy rebounds that we lost. And then Holston really shot the ball well. But we really wanted to make him dribble and not shoot. And we couldn’t do that,” added Bamberg GM Wolfgang Heyder.
Do-or-die in Quakenbrück
That meant Game Four in Quakenbrück on Sunday May 18 was do-or-die for Bamberg.
Ford’s three gave Bamberg their first lead at 5-3 before Artland reeled off five points. Fischer would score two baskets to give Brose back the lead 13-12. The game was back and forth all quarter with four lead changes and five ties before Holston’s three-pointer for a 22-19 Dragons lead after one quarter.
Holston started the second with another long ball but Bamberg fought back to within 25-24. Artland’s diminutive playmaker nailed two more treys in opening up a 31-24 cushion. After not scoring a basket for three-and-a-half minutes, the Bamberg defense worked hard and kept Dragons scoreless for nearly two minutes and a Jacobsen triple and a Sanders free throw trimmed the gap to 36-35. Artland were up 39-35 at the break.
Jordan’s three trimmed the gap to 42-40 early in the third quarter. After Artland pushed the lead back to 48-42, Harris nailed a three-ball and Sanders converted a three-point play to keep Brose within three points. Bamberg finally knotted the game at 53-53 on a John Goldsberry long ball. But Artland nailed another long ball and Holston made three free throws after getting fouled on a try as Dragons led 63-57 after three quarters.
Holston opened the fourth with yet another three-pointer and the Dragons margin was 71-63 with six minutes to play. Fischer and Gavel scored to cut the game to 71-67 with four minutes remaining. But after an Artland timeout, Bamberg allowed Lawrence Hill to hit back-to-back threes for a 77-67 lead with three minutes to play. Brose couldn’t hit threes to get back into game and Artland increased the margin to 83-69 with 1:10 minutes remaining to decide the game and the series.
“I think the series is pretty easy to sum up. In Games One and Three, we led in the fourth quarter with the ball in the last minute and both times we committed a turnover and they hit a three-pointer. You do that once in a series you can get away with it. In the end, we did that twice and you can’t win like that. And you have to accept that you didn’t deserve it,” said Fleming.
Fischer scored 15 points in the loss while Gavel had 12 points, Jacobsen 11 and Sanders 10.
The team will definitely be switched up drastically next season with a number of the core players likely leaving. And Fleming said he’s disappointed they couldn’t go out on top.
“After four titles in a row, it really hurts losing those core guys, John Goldsberry is leaving, I can imagine Casey too maybe. Anton and Karsten will probably be leaving. I was hoping they would end their time together with one more title. They really would have deserved it. It’s too bad that we couldn’t get it done.”
Regarding questions about his own future, Fleming said: “I still have two years left on my contract and intend on fulfilling it. Others will make that decision.”
Goodbye to Goldsberry and Jacobsen
Game Four in Artland turned out to be last game with Bamberg for long-time veterans John Goldsberry and Casey Jacobsen.
Goldsberry has been with Bamberg since 2008 after having played for coach Fleming with Artland Dragons while Jacobsen has played with Brose since 2009. They combined to help Bamberg to four straight Beko BBL crowns from 2010 to 2013 as well as three consecutive German Cup titles from 2010 to 2012.
Thanks to John and Casey for years of great leadership and success.
U16 team losses at Young Dragons in JBBL final
Artland got the best of Bamberg at the youth level as well as Young Dragons Quakenbrück beat Bamberg farm team TSV Tröster Breitengüßbach 68-60 in the final of the U16 JBBL. Noah Kamden scored 21 points and Nicolas Wolf added 13 points and 10 rebounds for Breitengüßbach but they could not stop Dragons’s Isaiah Hartenstein as the JBBL league MVP collected 22 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks in the title game in Quakenbrück. Breitengüßbach reached the final by knocking off Team Bonn/Rhöndorf 74-57 in the semi-finals. Kamden had 24 points and seven rebounds in the semis while Wolf collected 23 points and nine rebounds.