AND ONE!
Weekly roundup for our English-speaking fans by David Hein.
Week 3 - October 8th 2013
Brose struggle in win over MBC, lose late at Bayern after comeback
Reigning Beko BBL champions Brose Baskets opened their 2013-14 season with an 86-70 home victory over Mitteldeutscher BC on October 3 and followed it up by putting together a strong comeback against Bayern Munich before finally losing 84-74 on the road on October 6.
Bamberg coach Chris Fleming said he was happy to have won the season-opener and then praised his team after the Bayern game for finally putting together a good half of basketball.
In the first regular season game of the season, Bamberg struggled defensively stopping MBC who used the fifth lead change for an 18-17 advantage. Brose allowed just three points the rest of the quarter in an 11-3 run to take a 28-21 cushion after 10 minutes – thanks to seven points, one offensive rebound and one assist from Jamar Smith in the run.
Bamberg scored the first five points of the second quarter and pushed the lead to 13 points – 41-28. But Fleming’s men could not track Malte Schwarz, who nailed two triples to spark MBC’s 10-2 surge to close the first half and cut Brose’s lead to 45-42.
MBC evened the game 45-45 to start the second half on Djordje Pantelic’s triple. Bamberg were able to open a 57-49 lead before Hrvoje Kovacevic’s three-ball cut the gap to 62-58. Anton Gavel re-established a seven-point gap – 66-59 – as he nailed a jumper at the third quarter buzzer.
In front of a sold-out crowd at Stechert Arena, Brose came strong out defensively in the fourth quarter, forcing three turnovers and using a 10-0 run – with three-pointers by Damir Markota and Gavel – in the first three minutes to grab a 76-59 advantage. MBC would not get closer than 12 points the rest of the way in the 86-70 win.
“It’s good to have won the first game. It’s never easy at home. You have high expectations of yourself,” said Fleming after the game. “But we still need to work on our defensive identity.”
New point guard Zack Wright led Bamberg in scoring with 23 points while Gavel tallied 14 points and Smith added 11 points. Last-minute addition Damir Markota played well in collecting seven points and eight rebounds.
Brose knew however they would have to play better if they wanted to beat Bayern in Munich four days later.
Bamberg – playing without Smith but with John Goldsberry – had trouble dealing with John Bryant and Bryce Taylor in the early going and fell behind 15-6. The deficit was still 21-12 until four straight Brose points. But Heiko Schaffartzik nailed a three-pointer to push the deficit to 24-16 after the first quarter.
An 11-2 Bayern run put Bamberg down 35-18 with six minutes left in the first half. Brose trailed 40-24 two minutes later before finally starting to put together successive defensive stops. Casey Jacobsen’s three-pointer just before the half left Bamberg down 42-33.
The game was now on and Bamberg trimmed the gap to five points on three occasions before two Goldsberry triples brought the champs to within 59-56. And Bamberg trailed just 61-58 after three quarters.
Gavel nailed two three-pointers to tie the game and then give Bamberg a 68-67 lead. A three-ball by Rakim Sanders even had Brose up 72-69 with four minutes to play. Gavel split two free throws with 2:28 to play to make it 73-73 before Nihad Djedovic really hurt Bamberg. The Bosnian knocked down a trey to break the deadlock and then the real back-breaker came with 50 seconds left when Djedovic tossed up a long triple prayer, which banked off the glass and in for a 79-74 Bayern cushion. Gavel subsequently turned the ball over and then Sanders missed a three-pointer and Bamberg had to settle for the 84-74 loss.
“In the end, we were punished for not getting into the game early enough. We needed so much energy to get back into the game, and we did so, but it could have gone either way at the end,” said Brose general manager Wolfgang Heyder.
Coach Fleming was pleased with his team’s showing in the second half.
“We had a very good second half. In the six halves in the last three games (including the Champions Cup and MBC), we’ve only had one good half of basketball. That was a big step forward,” said Fleming. “I am satisfied with how we rose to the challenge.”
Jacobsen led the team with 17 points while Wright had 12 points and Gavel scored 11 points in the loss.
There is no rest of the weary as Brose return to the court on Wednesday October 9 at 7:30 p.m. at home against WALTER Tigers Tübingen.