Wilhelmsburg. Hamburg Towers clearly lost the game against Slask Worclaw on matchday six of the 7DAYS EuroCup group stage with 87:71 (18:14, 47:33, 67:50). The Hamburg Towers tried defensively to put their stamp on the game from the start. But despite all their efforts, the Polish hosts initially took the lead, also because Kodi Justice, who had only converted around 20 percent of his distance throws in the season so far, sprinkled two threes in the opening minutes. Since there was no rhythm on the offensive, head coach Pedro Calles changed early.
After seven minutes Maik Kotsar made the connection with four points in a row, Max DiLeo compensated. In the last 90 seconds of the first section only Slask Wroclaw scored. And the start of the second quarter also belonged to the hosts, who increased their lead to seven points after two more long-range goals. After being rejoined by Maik Kotsar, the Towers had several chances to turn the game around – but instead of a turnaround, the mistakes increased. Contracts awarded and losses in a row let the mortgage grow to 12 points.
Then Seth Hinrichs took heart and sprinkled seven points in a row. Because Slask continued to be unusually accurate from beyond the 6.75-meter line, Wilhelmsburg could not take advantage of the lack of Poland’s top performer Cyril Langevine and the four early fouls of his center colleague Martin Meiers until the break. In addition to a plus in rebounding (21 WKS, 16 HAM) and hit rates (44.4% WKS, 38.8% HAM), the home side also presented themselves much more aggressively. Accordingly, the gap at the break grew to 14 points.
The start of the second half then went much more to the Wilhelmsburg’s taste. With two ball wins, good rebound behavior and three successful finishes, Pedro Calles’ team did not silence the 1327 Polish fans, but Slask Wroclaw took a break. After the interruption, the Hamburg pressure phase seemed to subside, but Maik Kotsar with a strong hustle play and Caleb Homesley with a threesome pushed the deficit into the single digits.
After another three from Homesley, the Towers were on six points. Then the momentum was completely lost. While the Wilhelmsburger acted hastily, the Poles found their rhythm from the first half and were back with 15 points only two minutes after the connection – a buzzerbeater even brought a 17-point deficit at the end of the third quarter. In the final quarter, the mortgage grew to 26 points, and the Hamburg Towers were unable to catch up again. Thanks to top scorer Seth Hinrichs and Max DiLeo, a little cosmetic result was achieved in the final minutes, but nothing changed about the clear defeat on matchday six.
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