A good three minutes have been completed and the score is 9-0. The further path of this ProA comparison seems to be mapped out – but it is by no means. After 40 competitive minutes, the hosts must be happy to have won this game in the first place. In the end, after the last home game of the year, it was 96:87 (45:42), but that sounds clearer than it was and head coach Steven Esterkamp was almost a bit relieved by the tight course of the game.
“Hagen and Trier – that was really not normal. It is normal when you lead with two points and four points behind. Like today against Kirchheim. That was a normal game and I am proud of the boys that they won against very good Kirchheimers, ”said the 39-year-old after a win, the importance of which not everyone was immediately aware of. But it was not only the third in a row for Uni Baskets, but again a series crusher. “Since I’ve been managing director here, we’ve lost every game against Kirchheim. Fortunately, that’s over now, ”said Dominik Meyer. It only worked in the eleventh attempt: Exactly ten defeats in a row lay between Meyer’s entry in 2015 and this first triumph over the feared opponent from Baden-Württemberg.
Ivan Buntic was able to gain a lot of positives from the fact that it was not clear, but rather thin. The captain was already there on February 7, 2015, in the last victory up to Saturday (83:76 in Kirchheim) over the knights, but on December 19, 2020 he was thinking ahead: “That was definitely what a work victory was is called. It is very important for the team chemistry and our self-confidence that we have seen: Okay, we can barely do it. ”
It got tight because the hosts showed themselves to be too flawed over many phases and had their difficulties with the aggressive approach of the guests. John Bryant, the celebrity under the Paderborn basket, knew how to convince again with a double-double (16 points, 14 rebounds), but this time the most prominent actions were produced by others: In addition to top scorer Grant Benzinger (24 points), Drew Cushingberry (19 points , 8 rebounds, 5 assists) and then there was another fearless exceptional talent named Peter Hemschemeier: The 17-year-old set important accents in the first half with five points in a row and it was also the youngster who started the in the final quarter with a four-point game and subsequent assist on Benzinger made for an extremely valuable 6-0 run to 68:67 (32nd). “Since some others didn’t play so well, Peter got his chance again and did it great – both in defense and attack,” said Esterkamp about his shooting star. Until the Trier game, Hemschemeier did not have a single ProA point in his account, now he has collected 13 points twice in a row.
