AND ONE!

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

Week 10 - November 26th 2013

After “unacceptable” showing in Strasbourg, shaken-up Bamberg get job done in Beko BBL

Brose Baskets Bamberg put together an “unacceptable” performance in losing at Strasbourg 83-72 in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague to diminish their chances of advancing to the Top 16. After a couple of roster moves, Bamberg returned to their winning ways in the Beko BBL, but just barely, in holding off TBB Trier 94-88.

The up-coming week promises two difficult encounters. Brose first return to the Euroleague stage on Thursday November 28 when they host Real Madrid, who are undefeated at 6-0 with a winning margin of 28.7 points. Bamberg then make the long trip to northern Germany to take on second-placed EWE Baskets Oldenburg on Sunday December 1.

But things will be different for head coach Chris Fleming and his team as they saw the season debut of power forward Novica Velickovic. The Serbian’s return to the court meant the end for Damir Markota, who the club released with immediate effect. Brose also went out during the week and signed veteran center D’Or Fischer to solidify some of the team’s problems in the low post offensively and defensively.

Bamberg went into the Strasbourg game hoping to snap a two-game losing streak facing the winless French side, which they beat 84-70 in Week Two. But the loss drops Brose to 2-4 in fifth place in Group B behind Anadolu Efes Istanbul (3-3) and Zalgiris Kaunas (2-4) and just one game up on Strasbourg (1-5) in the hunt for the final two Top 16 slots. Bamberg’s 11-point deficit at least gave them the tie-breaker over the French side.

Just like in the first game, Brose struggled early with Strasbourg’s French international center Alexis Ajinca, who scored six points in helping the hosts to a 10-4 lead. Anton Gavel hit a three and Philipp Neumann scored two baskets to even the game at 14-14 before another Gavel three gave Bamberg the lead 17-14 after one quarter.

After a Casey Jacobsen trey, Jamar Smith scored to give Bamberg their first lead 19-17. Strasbourg responded with an 8-1 run for a 25-20 lead, but Brose punched right back with an 8-0 run for a three-point cushion. Smith would knock down a triple to increase the advantage to 37-32. But a late Strasbourg three left the game even at 37-37 at the break.

Sharrod Ford gave Bamberg their final lead at 43-41 before Strasbourg essentially decided the game. Ajinca scored six points and Ricardo Greer nailed two three-balls in a 16-0 run for a 57-43 Strasbourg advantage. The deficit would grow to 15 points 60-45 before Bamberg got it back to 62-52 after three quarters.

Bamberg watched as Strasbourg nailed back-to-back three-pointers and the margin was up to 18 points, 72-54 with five minutes left. The main goal for Brose the rest of the way was to get the deficit below 14. And they did that with Smith’s last minute three-pointer to trim it to 11 points.

Zack Wright led Bamberg with 13 points while Smith scored 10 points and Gavel added nine points, four rebounds and five assists. Velickovic scored two points with one rebound in 3:29 minutes in his season debut.

“The performance in the third quarter was absolutely unacceptable. Unacceptable for a Brose team, unacceptable for what we have worked for in the last few years, definitely unacceptable for the 200 fans that travelled here during the week to support us,” said Fleming after the loss.

“I wish I had a better explanation. But there will be consequences. Something has to change. We can lose games, but we cannot lose games without fighting. And that happened.”

He added: “I don’t know if there was a bigger moment for me as coach where I have been so disappointed with the performance of our team.”

One consequence was the club releasing Markota – who was expendable with Velickovic’s return and was due to leave in late December. Bamberg also went out and signed until the end of the season Fischer, a 32-year-old center who has played in Poland, Germany, Belgium, Israel, Spain and Ukraine. He reached the Euroleague Final Four in 2011 with Real Madrid.

“It’s well known that we have had problems this season rebounding and getting shots in the post. We believe that D’or can strengthen us both offensively and defensively with his experience and complement quite well the players we have on the squad,” Fleming said.

Fischer was not yet eligible to play for Bamberg against Trier but Velickovic did start in his Beko BBL debut, scoring or assisting on Brose’s first six points. The game was tight throughout the first quarter with Trier leading 10-8 until Jacobsen hit seven straight points for a 15-10 lead. Maik Zirbes scored to increase the gap to 19-13. Trier would pull to within 21-20 before trailing 23-20 after one quarter.

Bamberg upped the margin to 25-20 but Trier nailed two triples to move back ahead 25-28. Velickovic, Smith and Jacobsen all hit from long range in a 10-2 answer run. And the lead was double-digits at 45-35. Trier would cut the gap at halftime to 47-41 with two threes in the final stages of the first half.

Trier would not go away and knotted the game at 55-55 before Ford collected a three-ball and two baskets to increase the gap to 64-57. And Bamberg led 72-62 after three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, Brose would push the lead to 13 points, 79-66, with less than eight minutes to play. But Jermaine Bucknor drained back-to-back triples in a 14-2 Trier run to make it 81-80 with three minutes to play. Brose would push the lead out to 87-81 but a three-ball from Trevon Hughes made it a one-possession game, 89-86, with 29 seconds left. Bamberg kept their cool down the stretch with Gavel and Jacobsen making five straight free throws to secure the win.

Smith and Ford both scored 17 points off the bench for Bamberg while Gavel had 16 points and Jacobsen added 14 points. Velickovic chipped in seven points, seven rebounds and two assists in 17 minutes of action.

“Nole (Velickovic) was back. It was nice to have him back after three months of not playing. I think Sharrod played a really good fourth quarter for us. Those are the positives that we will take away,” said Jacobsen.

“I feel good after two and a half months out watching every game. My place is on the court so I am happy about that,” said Velickovic after his debut.

“We did some good things especially at the end of the game to win it offensively. Defensively, we have to do more,” said Fleming, whose team notched their sixth straight win to jump to 8-2 for third place behind 9-1 Bayern Munich and 8-1 Oldenburg.

“It’s one of those things where we’re glad that we got the win but we’re not happy with how we got the win and we still have a lot to work on,” added Jacobsen.

“The result was a win but certainly that wasn’t our best game. We gave up 88 points at home. That is obviously something that’s going to be a lot worse if we do the same thing against Real Madrid.”

We will find out on Thursday.

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