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Leverkusen / Paderborn. While the Christmas season is entering its final phase, things are getting serious for BAYER GIANTS Leverkusen in the BARMER 2. Basketball Bundesliga ProA. On Sunday, December 26th, 2021 at 6 p.m., the “Giant from the Rhine” will meet Uni Baskets Paderborn on the 16th matchday of the 2021/22 season.
For the Leverkusen basketball players, after the victorious performance against the RÖMERSTROM Gladiators Trier (90:77): Get ready quickly and go to the families. Luis Figge went to his better half to Chemnitz, Melvin Jostmann and Luca Kahl drove home in the direction of East Westphalia and Robert Merz got a visit from the family over the Christmas period. Not that easy a situation for GIANTS with regard to the game against Uni Baskets, as coach Hansi Gnad describes: “We have decided that we will give the boys the opportunity to spend time with their families before the game in Paderborn. The Christmas schedule is unfortunate from my point of view, but we still want to make the best of the situation and will talk to the players in detail about the upcoming opponent. “
With a balanced record of seven wins and seven successes, the Uni Baskets around coach Steven Esterkamp occupy ninth place in the ProA table. The Paderborn recently lost two games in a row (against the Artland Dragons with 89:97 and the Nürnberg Falcons BC with 82:88), but this does not change the fact that the former Bundesliga club is an aspirant in terms of “Playoffs 2022”.
This is mainly due to the three strong Americans Chris Trapp, Jordan Barnes and Brad Greene. The former will certainly be a household name for some GIANTS fans from 2019/20, when he scored 18 points for the Farbenstädter in his own hall. In the current season, the Shooting Guard has averaged 16.1 points per game. The top scorer of the “Red-Whites” is Jordan Barnes. The American moved from Indiana State University (NCAA l) to Maspernplatz in the summer of 21 ′ and immediately made a name for himself as a dangerous basket hunter. In ten encounters, the first player scored at least 15 or more points. TEAM EHINGEN URSPRING already felt its accuracy this year, with 32 points. Brad Greene completes the scoring trio (12.3 pps) as a center, with a highly efficient hit rate from the two-point range (65.0 percent). Jens Großmann has stood out as the best German to date. Despite his only 21 years of responsibility, he has been given a lot of responsibility for the Ostwestfalen and has an average of 9.0 points over a playing time of around 20 minutes. There is a lot of work to do for the “giants”, as Hansi Gnad reports: “With the Uni Baskets, we are facing an opponent who plays very differently than the Trier team last Thursday. As is so often the case, the Baskets have landed a great point guard in Jordan Barnes, who is not only an outstanding scorer but also knows how to stage his teammates. In addition, he secured an average of just under six rebounds. This is an achievement that deserves high recognition. There are also two other Americans, Chris Trapp and Brad Greene, who set important accents in the Paderborn game. With Peter Henschmeier and Jens Großmann, the coaching staff also supports two young, talented actors who receive quite a few minutes. All in all, the Baskets are doing quite well in the league with their balance sheet and are difficult to beat in their own hall. We drive towards the Maspernhalle with a healthy mixture of serenity and tension. Of course it will be a difficult task for us, no question about it. But if we get their “go-to-guys” under control and make the most of our litter chances, we have the opportunity to win. “
The game for Luis Figge, Luca Kahl and Melvin Jostmann, all of whom are from the Paderborn youth program, will be a special game. So the three guys use the opportunity and meet up with some of the basketball players for a “shootaround” before the game.
As always, the game will be played live and free of charge www.sportdeutschland.tv transmitted in the stream. Also the “clef”Opposite the music school in Leverkusen-Mitte shows the encounter on a total of four screens in good company. Anyone who loves statistics should visit the BARMER 2. Basketball Bundesliga (www.2basketballbundesliga.de) at his own expense.
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