Too weak a first half

Not much remained of the supposedly promising start that the Uni Baskets experienced. Jens Großmann and Brad Greene gave Paderborn a 4-0 lead, of which an 11-0 run by the Dragons was later no longer mentioned. The hosts dominated the home game of the third from bottom against the table eighth in the first 20 minutes at will and increased the lead to 23 points (41: 18/13.). In the ball losses category it was 10: 3 for Uni Baskets, the numbers for ball wins (1: 6), assists (5:15), rebounds (12:23) and above all offensive rebounds (1: 9) were also barely there Scope for interpretation.

After the restart, Zach Ensminger, the 20-year-old son of the former Baskets-Center Chris Ensminger (48), directly confirmed that the home side was only interested in this one direction and set 56:31 with a three-point game. But like against Nuremberg, the Baskets did not want to be defeated defenselessly in this encounter, despite the sometimes terrible free throw rate (2/11, 19 percent, 26th minute). Led by Chavares Flanigan, Jordan Barnes and Jackson Trapp, the guests now defended much more aggressively and cut down to nine points in the third section (69: 60/28.). After a Trapp triple it was only 80:85 from Paderborn’s perspective with 4:23 minutes to go, but it shouldn’t be enough for the complete turnaround. The mortgage from the weak first half was too big.

Trapp was the best thrower with 20 points

While the winners (25/27, 93 percent) who were almost flawless at the free throw line had their most successful throwers in Ensminger (23 points), Trapp (20), Barnes (17), Flanigan (14) and Peter Hemschemeier (10) were the hardest working Paderborn points collector. Former Baskets guard Demetrius Ward (1/7 off the field) posted six points and four rebounds for the dragons. “If you let the opponent pull so far away, you make life difficult for yourself. After all, the team has shown great morale, but such a race to catch up always takes strength and that may have been missing in the end,” said managing director Dominik Meyer.

See you again on January 14th

The Uni Baskets have the opportunity to take revenge very quickly: the second leg is scheduled for January 14th on the ProA schedule. Before that, the team of coach Steven Esterkamp will have to deal with the Bayer Giants Leverkusen, among others, who will be present on Christmas Day (Sunday, 6 p.m.) at the Maspernplatz sports center. The giants from the Rhine celebrated a 90:76 home win over Trier on Thursday evening and moved up to fourth, while the Uni Baskets are now in ninth place.