Baskets see no land in Bamberg

In October it was a quarterly 20-0 series, which had its course, especially in the final section. On Wednesday evening it was a 16: 2 in the third quarter, which ultimately ensured that the fairly fixed conditions when the Domstadt residents from Würzburg meet the archbishopric from Bamberg were once again cemented: with 66:81, basketball Bundesliga team s was defeated. Oliver Würzburg at Brose Bamberg, and Baskets trainer Denis Wucherer summed up what happened just as simply as aptly: “At this level we simply can’t keep up.”

The memories of the Würzburgers of the last three meetings with the Upper Franconians were quite ambivalent: Most recently in the cup competition on neutral parquet in Ulm, after that 0:20 run, there was a 68:89 defeat, before that, at the beginning of March, that was it last game of the Baskets before the season break due to Corona, it was similarly clear (77:95). Before that, of course, the Würzburgers had achieved something they had never been able to do: to leave the floor in Bamberg as the winner. A good year ago, on November 26, 2019, the Lower Franconians won 72:69 in Upper Franconia – with captain Felix Hoffmann, Joshua Obiesie and Florian Koch as well as Nils Haßfurther, four players returned who had done the surprise at the time. The Bamberg-born Haßfurther only stood on the floor to warm up – and that in civil clothes. After the removal of his tonsils, which had tormented him again and again since the preparation, he is back in training, but not yet so fit that it is enough for a Bundesliga game.

So usurers sent Tyson Ward, Cameron Hunt, Captain Hoffmann, returnees Alex King and Zach Smith to the jump ball, which Smith won for the Baskets – as in every competitive game of this round, if he was allowed to play. Their plan was then thrown a little over the pile because Ward was chalked up two fouls very early and Wucherer therefore got him off the floor after three and a half minutes – but the Obiesie who came for him, who was obviously on the floor of the Brose Arena feels pretty good, as he had already proven in the last guest appearance, showed a clear increase in form compared to the last game and did his job very well. Like all Würzburgers in the first quarter, in which it went back and forth, the guests took the lead for the first time after just under three minutes (6: 5) and then did not allow the hosts to pull away by more than four points (12: 8 ). The even section ended after Florian Koch’s first and only three-point consistently 19:19.

The lead changed eight times before the break – then not at all

Before the game, Wucherer had demanded a “complete team performance” from his team – and they showed it only once in the second section, which was strikingly similar to the first – with the small difference that the baskets were more often in front. The lead changed eight times in this game alone until the break (40:32). But then not at all, because towards the end of the quarter the Würzburg hosts allowed the hosts a 9-0 run, they lost their concentration a little and they left out simple opportunities at the front.

After the 15-minute break, the Baskets visibly tried to shorten the gap, even if the game then got a little bumpy. But the guests couldn’t get closer than four meters. On the contrary: After a good five minutes in the third quarter, Bamberg was leading in double digits for the first time (51:41), and because Dominic Lockhart was in top form and probably could have thrown from the parking lot in front of the hall – he would have scored anyway! – the game was decided towards the end of the third quarter: With three three-pointers in a row Lockhart completed a 16-2 run for the home side, which was only stopped by Alex King at 45:62.

With this 17 deficit, the baskets then went into the final section, in which the Italian international Michele Vitali pulled the last tooth in front of the screen from the most unrealistic optimist among the baskets and in their appendix with a three-point and then three free throws within 50 seconds : 45:68 – both teams were able to use the remaining nine minutes for a more demanding training game. Which they mostly did and allowed each other a nice move or two. A ray of hope for the Würzburgers: construction player Cameron Hunt, with 20 points top scorer of the game.

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