AND ONE!

Weekly round-up for our English-speaking fans by David Hein.

Week 5 - January 28th 2014

Bamberg lose at Ankara, hold on at Bayreuth

Brose Baskets Baskets suffered their first loss in the Eurocup by falling to Aykon TED Ankara 81-68 on the road but bounced back by barely holding off medi bayreuth 69-68 on the road to remain in second place in the Beko BBL. Both games were played without assistant coach James Duncan, who has decided to take a head coaching position in Japan with the BJL League team Fukuoka Rizing.

The up-coming week sees Brose hosting Ankara on Wednesday January 29 in the Eurocup before taking the weekend off in the Beko BBL.

+ Rebounds and turnovers kill Bamberg

Bamberg headed to Turkey for their second road game in the Eurocup Group J against Ankara. Brose were out-rebounded 42-27 and committed 20 turnovers while scoring just nine points in the third quarter in dropping to 2-1 in the group.

Neither team could build a lead bigger than three points in the first eight minutes until Ankara jumped ahead 24-18. Bamberg trailed 27-20 after one quarter.

The Turks scored the first eight points of the second quarter to push the margin to 35-20. Bamberg snapped a nearly six minute scoreless stretch with a triple by John Goldsberry to start a 15-4 run which included long balls from Karsten Tadda and Casey Jacobsen and two baskets from Anton Gavel to bring Brose within 39-35. The gap was still 41-37 at the break.

Bamberg again went nearly six minutes without a point to start the second half and Ankara used a 14-0 surge to go up 55-37. The deficit grew to 62-41 just before the end of the third quarter. All told, Bamberg scored just nine points in the period and trailed 63-46 going into the fourth.

Bamberg could not get closer than 15 points until Jacobsen’s long ball to make it 78-66 with just more than two minutes to play. But Chris Fleming’s team scored just two points the rest of the way in the loss.

“The beginning of the third quarter was a disaster. We let them get ahead by 21 points and then it’s tough to beat a team that has a good run. We had totally different expectations but it’s our own fault that it happened,” said Gavel, who led Brose with 12 points.

Jacobsen and Zack Wright each tallied 11 points in the loss.

+ Just enough to extend winning streak

Bamberg returned to the court – and the road – on Sunday with a game at Bayreuth with their four-game winning streak on the line.

Bayreuth pulled ahead 8-4 but Jacobsen knocked down his third three-pointer to knot it at 10-10. D’Or Fischer pushed Bamberg ahead 17-14 before the hosts regained the lead 20-19. But it was Bamberg ahead after 10 minutes as Jacobsen nailed his fourth straight three-ball for a 25-20 lead.

Brose did a good job maintaining control of the game, moving the ball well and never letting Bayreuth closer than four points at 35-31. Jacobsen drained his fifth straight long ball as the lead was 42-31 at halftime.

Bayreuth scored the first six points of the second half and had the deficit down to 47-46 before an Elias Harris trey and Gavel basket pushed the margin back to six points. It was 53-51 before Bamberg increased the cushion to 59-51. And Bamberg led 59-53 after 30 minutes.

Fischer re-established the eight-point lead to start the fourth quarter and Gavel made it 65-59 with six minutes to play. A Nicolai Simon three-pointer cut the gap to 65-64. Fischer converted back-to-back baskets to make it 69-66 with less than two minutes left.

After Gavel missed two free throws with 44 seconds, Ronnie Burrell made it a one-point game 69-68 with 29 seconds left. Wright missed his attempt with 22 seconds and then Brian Qvale and Burrell both failed to put in attempts close to the basket in the final seconds to secure the Bamberg win.

“On paper, a win is a win of course. But it doesn’t really feel like a victory,” said Harris, whose 14 points were second to Jacobsen’s 16. Fischer collected 12 points, nine rebounds and five blocks while Gavel added nine points and four assists.

“We expected a tight game, but certainly a different second half. I think we moved the ball really well over stretches in the first half. Casey is kind of a measuring stick for our ball movement. The better we move the ball, the more open he is. And you could tell that in the second half. We let them back into the game,” said Fleming, whose team improved to 15-3 – one game behind Bayern Munich and one game ahead of Alba Berlin.

The next chance is on Wednesday January 29 at home in the Eurocup against Ankara.

+ Assistant James Duncan becomes head coach with Japanese team

That will be the third game without assistant coach James Duncan as the 36-year-old Canadian moved to Japan to take over as head coach at the Fukuoka Rizing club in the BJL.

“Of course we are very happy that James, who has been in our program for two years, got this great opportunity to become a head coach in the Japanese first division,” said Heyder about Duncan’s next step.

Duncan himself thanked the club and said leaving Bamberg was not easy.

“I would like to thank Chris Fleming and Wolfgang Heyder for bringing me into the Brose Baskets family two and a half years ago and for now letting me use this opportunity, which came up very surprisingly,” said Duncan.

“This was a difficult decision for many reasons, but the coaching staff and the players understood me and supported me. I invested a lot in the last couple years so it’s not easy for me to go now, but it is a chance for the next step in my career. I will miss everyone in the organization and the fans.”

On behalf of the rest of the club, And One! wishes JD good luck in Japan!

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