Basketball: Ulm flexes its muscles

Strong performance against Ludwigsburg, compulsory exercise against Würzburg. But because of further corona cases, the question arises of where and when a cup winner should be determined

The team is gradually gaining momentum. Won on Saturday Ratiopharm Ulm In the cup, at least at this level, surprisingly 92:72 against Ludwigsburg and showed by far the best performance in this still young basketball season. On Sunday, the Ulm team won a hard-fought 80:75 win against Würzburg to. The decision as to whether that was enough to move into the top four was made late on Sunday evening in the game Ludwigsburg against Bamberg (not finished at the time of going to press). The final tournament will be played somewhere and at some point – if at all.

In the meantime, it’s not just at Alba Berlin, but also in Bayreuth and Bonn positive corona tests were given, the teams were sent to quarantine. Six preliminary round games have to be made up for, and that with an already very tight schedule. The pandemic will certainly determine and confuse this to a certain extent in the future. It can therefore at least not be ruled out that no cup winner can be determined at the end and the games in the preliminary round are only part of the preparation for the season under competitive conditions.

If that were the case, then at least the Ulm team made good use of this opportunity. Even if no Ludwigsburg team has presented itself as weakly as the one on Saturday in the Ratiopharm Arena for years, the Ulm performance was worthy of all honor. That of the entire team, but especially that of Dylan Osetkowski, who scored 18 points and did not allow himself a single miss from the field. Also noteworthy were the clear 35:21 superiority of the tournament organizer in the rebound, the 24 direct basket assists and the strong three-way quota of more than 40 percent. The Ludwigsburg giants, after all runners-up last season, didn’t stand a chance in front of just 600 spectators. Your trainer John Patrick had to acknowledge: “Ulm was more aggressive than us and deserved to win. “

The Sunday game was by no means so one-sided, somewhat surprising. After the two opening defeats against Ludwigsburg and Bamberg, the Würzburg team had no chance of reaching the top four anyway. But they defended themselves violently and did not pour anything. Ulm quickly led double digits in the first quarter, but only went into the second part of the game with a 22:15 lead, and in that it was really tough. Which was also due to the fact that Dylan Osetkowski was called to the bench early because of a probably not too serious injury to his calf and stayed there until the end – and the fact that the Ulm team did not even have between the first and the second game this weekend Had a 20 hour break. After all, they took a 36:28 lead into the third quarter, in which, however, almost nothing worked anymore. At the end of this period, Würzburg was actually ahead with 52:51 and it was only in the last quarter that coach Jaka Lakovic’s protégés gradually found their way back on track. But they didn’t put the lid on until the last minute: When the score was 75:75, Aric Holman first grabbed the offensive rebound and stuffed the ball with a lot of will into the basket. It was followed by a wild and difficult threesome by Troy Caupain five seconds from time.

Osetkowski (18), Petrucelli (15), Caupain (13), Obst (13), Philipps (11), Günther (11), Holman (6), Heckmann (5), Wilkins, Landers, Diallo.

Petrucelli (19), Holman (17), Philipps (12), Caupain (10), Obst (9), Heckmann (4), Osetkowski (3), Günther (2), Landers (2), Wilkins (2), Diallo.

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