AND ONE!

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

Week 4 - January 21st 2014

Bamberg move to 2-0 in Eurocup; On road in Top Four; Zirbes, Gavel lose All-Star Game

Brose Baskets Bamberg knocked off Dinamo Banco Di Sardegna Sassari 83-72 to improve to 2-0 in the Eurocup in a week that also saw Bamberg draw a road game against EWE Baskets Oldenburg in the Beko BBL Top Four qualifiers while Anton Gavel and Maik Zirbes lost with Team National in the All-Star Game in Bonn.

The up-coming week has Brose playing at Aykon TED Ankara on Wednesday January 22 in the Eurocup before they start the second half of the Beko BBL regular season at medi bayreuth on Sunday January 26.

Bamberg hosted their first Eurocup Group J game on January 15 against Italian side Sassari. The Serie A club proved very uncomfortable to play against but Brose got the victory thanks to a strong early showing by Anton Gavel and a late boost from Rakim Sanders. For the game, Bamberg made 15 of 27 three-pointers (56 percent) which helped make up for 19 turnovers.

Brose were without Zack Wright as the point guard had to sit with back pain. And Bamberg struggled early to control Sassari’s diminutive playmaker Marques Green as they fell behind 10-4. Head coach Chris Fleming brought in John Goldsberry for Jamar Smith to allow Gavel to move to shooting guard and the offense clicked better. Gavel nailed four three-pointers and had two free throws in a 16-2 Bamberg run to close the first quarter ahead 20-12.

Sanders and Smith added three-balls early in the second quarter as the run extended to 24-2 for a 28-12 lead. Sassari scored the next seven points to cut the lead to single digits but Gavel nailed another long ball and Novica Velickovic also hit from long range as Brose kept the guests at arm’s length. The lead was 47-34 at halftime.

Bamberg couldn’t find any offensive rhythm early in the second half as Sassari scored the first seven points of the third quarter to trim the margin to 47-41. A Sanders free throw with 5:49 left in the quarter was Bamberg’s first point. The lead was down to 48-45 when Bamberg started getting to the free throw line consistently and Gavel pushed the lead back out to 57-47 late in the third. It was 59-53 after 30 minutes.

Bamberg increased the advantage to 67-57 but Fleming’s team let Sassari back into the game and the Italians made it 67-64 midway into the fourth quarter. And the margin was just 72-70 with about three minutes to play when Sanders hit his second three-ball of the quarter. Elias Harris followed with another trey to take a 78-72 lead and the game was decided when Sanders nailed another triple with 1:05 left and an 81-72 cushion.

“Sassari is a very uncomfortable team with very experienced players. They play really well together at a really high pace. We had a lot of respect for how good they are as a team. It didn’t help that we learned just before the game that Zack would not play with back problems,” said Fleming.

“We did a pretty good job making it a half-court game. Sassari is really fast. I think the times where they got away from us were on our turnovers. Otherwise I think we did a pretty good job slowing them down and we found guys to get hot at the right time.”

Gavel led all scorers with 21 points with five three-pointers while Sanders knocked down four long balls for 13 points. Harris added 15, Smith had 11 and Velickovic chipped in 10 points. Maik Zirbes collected nine points and nine rebounds while Goldsberry dished out eight assists.

“We tried to focus on our game and control the tempo. We knew they wanted to run up and down and fast. We just wanted to control what we could control. My teammates found me and had confidence in me and I was just lucky enough to knock them down,” said Sanders.

While only Gavel and Zirbes were at the All-Star Day in Bonn, the whole team was anxiously keeping track of the proceedings as the festivities included the draw for the Beko BBL Top Four qualifiers. And Bamberg will travel to Oldenburg on February 5 in a re-match of the 2013 Beko BBL Finals. The winner will play at the Top Four in Ulm on March 29-30.

“We have to accept what comes. Oldenburg in their new arena with likely 6,000 spectators will be a big challenge which we have to face. We want to get to Ulm, so we have to win,” said Bamberg general manager Wolfgang Heyder.

“We will certainly have to control their two top scorers (Rickey) Paulding and (Julius) Jenkins, who recently played great against Bayern Munich. And of course we are looking forward to our first reunion on the court with Philipp Neumann (on loan to Oldenburg).”

Gavel and Zirbes played a big role in Team National keeping the All-Star Game close but in the end Team International won 121-116. Gavel collected 14 points and seven assists while Zirbes had 14 points and four rebounds.

The other Bamberg connection at All-Star Day was TSV Tröster Breitengüßbach’s Andreas Obst playing in the NBBL All-Star Game, collecting three points and three rebounds for the victorious Team South, a 66-55 winner over Team North.

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