Just before 5 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, Joshua Obiesie was sitting next to a basket, his back against the gang. Micah Downs sat next to him, and the two of them were trying to digest what they had just experienced. They looked pretty dumbfounded from the laundry, and their facial expressions probably exposed their emotional life at that moment: pure disappointment. With 68:89 (38:45), basketball Bundesliga team s.Oliver Würzburg lost against the favorite Brose Bamberg on the second match day of the cup competition. The former series champion – like the Baskets – has seen a major upheaval in the squad. But also a bigger budget. And therefore also other demands. The result probably reflects the difference pretty well.
Baskets trainer Denis Wucherer congratulated Bamberg on the “well-deserved victory, even if it didn’t necessarily need a 20-point difference”. Realistic people who regularly watch the basketball circus are not really surprised by the result – although Usurer is also right. The reason why Obiesie and Downs, their teammates and their coach were a little grieved and also angry was due to the fact that the Würzburg team could keep up with the Upper Franconians for at least 26 and a half minutes. At 67:78 in the first cup game last Sunday against Ludwigsburg, the Würzburg team were on par with the favorites for a good 30 minutes. On Saturday against Bamberg it was 26 minutes and 28 seconds.
After a long and courageous performance in the first half, the Baskets turned the 38:45 break delay in less than three thanks to a very passionate start of the third period and an 11: 2 run in which Obiesie also ran at full speed Minutes into a 49:47 lead. From then on they even expanded to six points (56:50). After Bamberg’s new coach Johan Roijakkers had taken his third break, however, the disaster for the Würzburg took its course.
With a 12-0 run, in which the Italian international Michele Vitali – the most accurate thrower of the encounter with a total of 21 points – achieved special merits, the Upper Franconians regained the lead (62:56) they had at the beginning of the Expanded the final section: 20: 0, 14 points ahead almost seven minutes before the end of the month. The baskets remained without a basket for six minutes and 49 seconds. The game was decided relatively early in the final quarter. “We just have to do a better job at the end of the game,” said new signing Zach Smith, Würzburg’s most accurate target with 15 points. “So it’s back to the training hall so that we can do better in the future. Tomorrow’s game against Ulm will help us with that. The more we play together, the better our team chemistry gets.
“We have to manage to develop a tactical understanding at some point, especially on the defensive, with which we can be competitive in a game like this well into the fourth quarter and play for victory.”
Baskets-Trainer Denis Wucherer–
“In the third quarter you saw how we have to play if we want to be successful in the league,” said Wucherer. “Unfortunately, the players who were sitting on the bench in the front row during this phase and were able to watch, somehow didn’t notice it.” Especially Downs and Tyson Ward, Cameron Hunt and Mark Ogden should have rang their ears at this moment. After the very intense beginning of the third quarter, Wucherer had to give the exhausted a break. “After that, we made one mistake after the other, especially on the defensive, and pretty much everything went wrong.”
The 47-year-old sees his team in a process and demands: “We have to manage to develop a tactical understanding at some point, especially on the defensive, with which we can be competitive in a game like this into the fourth quarter and play for victory can.” The Baskets couldn’t do that twice. After the two defeats, you now have another friendly against Ulm on Sunday. It is played in front of spectators. The game against Bamberg was a ghost game without a paying audience, because the Baden-Württemberg weekend host Ulm in the Bavarian Neu-Ulm venue was too much for a few tickets sold for a Franconian derby. The hall should have been disinfected again before the Swabian derby in the evening between the hosts and Ludwigsburg. 600 spectators saw Ulm’s 92: 72 success – the maximum number of visitors allowed.
Corona has the cup competition firmly under control not only in terms of spectators: Due to two positive cases at medi Bayreuth and one at Telekom Baskets Bonn, their games were postponed to unknown dates at the weekend. Like the Final Four tournament planned for the beginning of November, which was called off last week due to six Covid 19 cases with defending champion and champion Alba Berlin.
With the cup, the Baskets got a foretaste of the new season in at least two ways, which they would like to start on November 7th at home against Ulm. On the one hand: what it is like to play in front of few or no fans, which can be a mental problem because “fans always bring emotions in,” as Wucherer says. “Be it your own cheering you on, or your opponent’s who don’t like you.” In the meantime, in the third quarter, the Würzburgers managed to push themselves a little – but it didn’t last long. The second foretaste: the realization of how big the gap is currently (still) with experienced Bundesliga clubs and hot play-off candidates.
The statistics of the game
BBL-Pokal, Group C, 2nd match day:
s.Oliver Würzburg – Brose Bamberg 68:89 (20:23, 18:22, 18:17, 12:27)
Würzburg: Smith 15 (5 Rebounds), Persons 12 (7 Assists), Ward 10, Koch 7, Obiesie 6 (3 Steals), Hunt 6, Downs 5, Albus 5, , Ogden 2, Hoffmann.
Bamberg: Vitali 21, Fieler 18, Ogbe 12, Hundt 10, Kravish 8 (14 rebounds), Lasisi 5, Odiase 5, Sengfelder 4, Plescher 3, Lockhart 3, Larson, Grüttner.
Rebounds: 27 – 44
Assists: 13 – 23
Turnovers: 15 – 18
Hit from the field: 42 % (25/60) – 49 % (34/69)
Dreier: 24 % (4/17) – 39 % (12/31)
Free throws: 74 % (14/19) – 90 5 (9/10)
Those:
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