The female Würzburg basketball juniors have celebrated two major successes in the past few days. The female U 16 of the TG Würzburg was sixth at the German championship at the weekend, a week earlier the U14 had even won the final tournament in Berlin and can call themselves German champions.
“My girls have surpassed themselves on the field and are now hugging each other with joy. That fills me with pride,” said coach Migo Wiegand, summarizing the successful weekend of the basketball players in Berlin.
For the semifinals against the offspring of Alba Berlin, the coaching team had already calculated a possible success. At a tournament in October, the women from Würzburg won by ten points. In the German championship, after a tight first half, it was even a win with 15 points (79:64). As a result, the Würzburg women qualified for the final, in which another Berlin team was waiting for them with the Basketball Allianz Süd Südwest.
“I would have said beforehand that it was balanced. In the end, it was the form of the day that decided it,” said Wiegand, assessing the game. But the well-established Würzburg team – they have been playing together for five years – and their strong defense made the pendulum swing in their direction in the final (65:53). “It’s really difficult to score against us because we play a damn good defense,” Wiegand commented on the aggressive man defense, in which his team often doubled the opponent in their own half.
Congratulations from Maxi Kleber and Dirk Nowitzki
Not only the numerous fans who traveled to Berlin and the fans who stayed in Würzburg were happy about the success, but also Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas, 8350 kilometers away. He had sent the girls a video message before the Bavarian championship, before the final in Berlin it was Maximilian Kleber, current NBA star from Würzburg, who contacted them. Both also helped the club to cope with the great financial effort involved in participating in the German championship and then congratulated them on their success.
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Played for Würzburg: Liva Schweter, Emilia Rüger, Emilia Escher, Layla Mayer, Clarissa Schneider, Laura Jordan, Leni Holleber, Summer Brauer, Mia Wiegand, Leni Schönhals, Hailey Carlisle.
Last weekend, the U16s competed with seven other teams at the German championship in Hofheim, Hesse. In the preliminary round, the Würzburg women won against TuS Lichterfelde, but subsequently lost to Recklinghausen and Ludwigsburg. Because coach Wolfgang Ortmann’s team was at a disadvantage in the three-man comparison, they were expected in the quarterfinals on Saturday by the group leaders of the parallel group, FV Jahn Munich, who had been defeated in the Bavarian and Southeast German championships.
Coach Wolfgang Ortmann is satisfied with the performance
At the break, the Würzburg women were five points ahead, then all of a sudden nothing worked for them anymore, while the Munich women played themselves into a frenzy and finally won the game with 66:40. “We didn’t hit anything and they hit everything,” said Ortmann, describing the course of the game, which is sometimes so typical of youth basketball.
The coach was still proud of his team because they recovered after the bitter defeat and won the first of two placement games against the hosts. In the game for fifth place, the Würzburg team lost to Alba Berlin at the last second, but Ortmann was satisfied with the result, also because ten of the 16 players in the squad will still be able to play in the same age group next year.
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