AND ONE!

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

Week 7 - November 5th 2013

 

Bamberg finally win at Euroleague buzzer, Brose notch third straight in BBL

The buzzer-beater basketball gods finally smiled upon Brose Baskets Bamberg in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague as Casey Jacobsen’s last second three-pointer gave Bamberg an 88-86 victory over Anadolu Efes. And Chris Fleming’s troops followed up the big game with their third straight win in the Beko BBL by beating Rasta Vechta 79-62.

The up-coming week for Bamberg starts on Thursday, November 7 with a Euroleague showdown with EA7 Emporio Armani Milan. The Beko BBL champs then take on New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig in the German league on Sunday, November 10.

Bamberg faithful have suffered through some major last-second heartbreak over the years in the Euroleague. That changed on Friday, November 1 with Jacobsen’s game-winner against Efes with 1.3 seconds to play.

“After a lot of close losses over the last few years here at Brose Arena, it feels really, really good to get a win at the buzzer,” said Jacobsen, who led all scorers with 23 points on seven three-pointers.

“It was an important game for us. If we want to have any chance of advancing to the Top 16 of the Euroleague, these are the types of games we need to have.”

The victory improved Bamberg’s record to 2-1 in Group B of the Euroleague.

“It was great that Casey had the ball in his hands at the end. He is a guy that deserves more than any other to win this buzzer beater after a couple of bad ones that we have seen in the last couple of years. So I feel good about that win,” added Coach Fleming.

Bamberg jumped out to a 16-6 lead but watched Efes go on an 11-0 run to lead 17-16. The guests still led the game 24-23 after one quarter.

The second quarter was even for a while until a 6-0 Anadolu run opened a 44-38 cushion, which was extended to 51-44 at half-time.

Efes continued their hot play and pushed the lead to 14 points, 66-52, halfway through the third quarter. Jacobsen then hit a long three just before the shot clock buzzer and Sharrod Ford blocked Dusko Savanovic at the other end to spark a Bamberg run.

Jacobsen nailed another triple and Brose were helped by great work at both ends by Ford as they took the lead 70-68 on Zack Wright’s free throws at the end of the quarter.

The surge went on early in the fourth for a 72-68 lead – a 20-2 run in total. Efes were back ahead 77-76 when Anton Gavel made three free throws and then a three-ball. Ford and Maik Zirbes worked hard on the offensive glass and then Zirbes knocked down a long jumper for an 84-77 lead with two minutes to play.

After Kostas Vasileiadis scored seven straight points to even the game, Zirbes split two foul shots with 59 seconds for an 85-84 Brose lead. Gavel turned the ball over with 26 seconds left and Jamon Gordon hit an off-balance left-handed jumper with 6.8 seconds remaining for an 86-85 Efes lead. On the final Bamberg possession, Jamar Smith got the ball and found the captain on the right wing and Jacobsen nailed the triple for the win.

“It was certainly our best game of the season. A big compliment to the team after coming back from 14 points down,” said Bamberg general manager Wolfgang Heyder.

Gavel had 17 points, Smith hit for 14 while Ford and Zirbes combined for 16 points and 16 rebounds.

Two days later, Bamberg were back in action in the Beko BBL at promoted side Rasta Vechta. Ford excelled with 18 points and 12 rebounds while Smith tallied 17 points and Gavel hit for 14 points in a 79-62 victory on the road.

“We took care of business today,” said Ford, who set season highs in points and rebounds in the game.

“We just had to play hard. Keep it simple, make the game easy, not make it so tough on ourselves. Make the easy play, and I think we pretty much did that today.”

Coach Fleming said the game was a step in the right direction.

“We had lacked consistency in the previous road games. We had that over long stretches. We still have to cut down on our mistakes,” said the coach, whose team notched their third straight road win and climbed to 5-2 in the BBL for fifth place.

Bamberg trailed in the Rasta Dome 8-7 when they went on an 8-0 run for a 15-8 advantage, which was 19-17 after one quarter. Brose used a 9-0 second quarter run to open a double-digit lead 33-23. And the guests were ahead 47-38 at halftime.

A 7-0 Bamberg surge early in the third quarter pushed the cushion to 14 points, 54-40 with eight minutes left in the period. Vechta punched back with an 11-0 run over 5:27 minutes to pull within 54-51. But Brose were up 60-53 after three quarters.

Vechta refused to go away without one more fight and were still as close as 64-58 with seven minutes to play. But a 10-2 run over the next 5:21 minutes gave Bamberg a 74-60 lead with two minutes left and decided the game.

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