AND ONE!
Weekly round-up for our English-speaking fans by David Hein.
Week 12 - March 18th 2014
Bamberg lose again in Berlin, stay even in loss column with Bayern
Brose Baskets Bamberg once again came back from the German capital with a defeat as they lost 70-58 to Alba Berlin on Saturday to see their 10-game winning streak come to an end. Despite losing the preview of the semi-final showdown at the Beko BBL Top Four on March 29, Brose did not lose ground in the standings as leaders Bayern Munich also lost – at the FRAPORT SKYLINERS.
Bamberg have a chance to return to their winning ways – and remain undefeated at home in the Beko BBL – on Saturday March 22 when MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg come to brose ARENA at 8 p.m.
Bamberg came into the Berlin game with a six-game losing streak at Berlin’s O2 World, where Alba earlier in the week had knocked off Banco di Sardegna Sassari to book their berth in the Eurocup quarter-finals. In the league, Berlin had lost three of their last four games – albeit all four contests on the road.
Bamberg starts with three guards
Brose head coach Chris Fleming started the game with three guards – Jared Jordan, John Goldsberry and Anton Gavel – alongside Elias Harris and Maik Zirbes. Berlin jumped ahead early 14-10 and then used a 7-0 run to open a 21-12 lead. Rakim Sanders came off the bench to hit a three-ball to slow Berlin, who were up 23-15 after one quarter.
Berlin pushed the lead to double digits to open the second quarter and three straight baskets by Jan Jagla had Berlin up 34-22. Alba continually took advantage of offensive rebounds to help build the lead. Sanders’ three-point play trimmed the margin back to 34-27 but a David Logan long ball had Bamberg down 43-28. Jamar Smith’s basket ended a 3:43 minute basket-less stretch but Logan hit at the buzzer as Brose trailed 45-31 at the break.
Bamberg worked harder on defense in the third quarter but couldn’t produce much offensively as they didn’t score until Gavel’s free throws at the 7:30 minute mark. Bamberg’s first basket came more than a minute later, and Brose’s second – and last – basket of the third came from D’Or Fischer to make it 49-38. Bamberg went scoreless in the final 4:19 of the quarter and were down 56-39 after 30 minutes.
A three-ball by Sanders had the gap down to 58-47 with about seven minutes left. Sanders scored Brose’s next four points and assisted to Fischer to cut the deficit to 60-53 with 2:19 left to play. But Berlin stepped up and Logan’s three-ball with 1:02 minutes to play left Bamberg down 65-54. Brose would not get closer than nine points the rest of the way.
Sanders led the way with 19 points, seven rebounds and three steals while Gavel had 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Fischer chipped in eight points, six rebounds and three blocks for Bamberg, who made just 12-of-24 free throws (50 percent) and just 39 percent from the field including 4-of-22 (18 percent) from long range.
“Everybody needs to look at themselves in the mirror”
“It wasn’t a very pretty game. I really thought we would play a tough game and we didn’t see that at all in the first 20 minutes. We didn’t show the readiness to do what was needed to play a game like this on a big stage like this – and there is no bigger stage in the BBL. The quality yes, but not the readiness,” said Fleming.
Bamberg dropped to 20-4 in the standings to remain in second place – ahead of Berlin with an 18-7 record. Brose remained even in the loss column with Bayern Munich, who lost at Fraport Skyliners to fall to 22-4.
“Everybody needs to look at themselves in the mirror and think about where it goes from here. We have a bunch of these kinds of games down the stretch. Everybody needs to know that the others are going to be there to battle, whether they have a good or a bad day,” said Fleming.
Gavel said the team wasn’t thinking ahead to the cup semi against Berlin in two weeks.
“We wanted to win this game. It’s too easy to just say that we wanted to beat them in two weeks. We wanted to win this game but it didn’t work out because Alba Berlin pretty much dominated the game from the beginning,” said Gavel.
“We always are confident. Everybody was writing us off last season and we proved them wrong.”
Bamberg GM Wolfgang Heyder said Berlin just wanted it more than his team.
“You have to say that Berlin were much hungrier, they fought for every ball and got a lot of rebounds. We couldn’t get into the game at all,” said Heyder.
“In the second half we held our own and defended respectably. But it’s tough to come back against a team that is hot and defended well the entire game. The game could have been closer if we had made some more of our free throws.”
Foto: camera 4 / Andreas Knopf
Alle Nachrichten