2.BBL: Setback for offensively too harmless Vestestädter

At the Ahorn Camp Baskets Speyer, BBC Coburg suffered a clear defeat on Saturday evening. The 83:60 loss against the Palatines also means a setback for Coburg in the fight for playoff spots. BBC presented itself as too harmless and uncreative on the offensive end of the field for long stretches of the game, while repeatedly inviting the Baskets to fast breaks on defense. The top scorer for the Vestestädter was Zach Hinton with 16 points. The American also collected eleven rebounds, recording another double-double.

At the beginning, the game was initially open. However, a 12:2 run in the middle of the first quarter ensured that the hosts could pull away by double digits for the first time (18:8). Nevertheless, BBC stayed in the game after a timeout and fought back to within five points by the end of the quarter with two three-pointers from captain Nico Wenzl and points from Marlon Stephan and Zach Hinton (27:22). After a dunk by big man Ben Diederichs, the deficit was only one point after twelve minutes of play. But that was the end of Coburg's offensive brilliance. The Vestestädter could only score four more points until halftime. The Baskets took advantage of this much too long drought of BBC's offense ice-cold. Especially veteran Daryl Woodmore and his guard colleague Felix Angerbauer got hot during this phase and brought Speyer ahead by 16 points at halftime (46:30). The team around captain Nico Wenzl came out better from this. The ball moved better on offense again, and Coburg found ways to stop the Baskets more often on defense. After a layup by Zach Hinton, the score was 55:45 four and a half minutes before the end of the third quarter. But as in the previous quarter, BBC's offensive output abruptly stopped. No more points were added until the quarter buzzer, while Speyer added nine more (64:45). In the final quarter, it was a matter of running out the clock for the Palatines. Coburg could no longer reduce the now high deficit. In addition to the total of 19 turnovers, BBC was especially too little dangerous from beyond the three-point line. The Vestestädter shot only 14 percent (3/21) from outside, which is not enough to be successful against a top team like Speyer.

Head coach Patrick Seidel already set the direction and focus for the upcoming training week. Now it's time to build on that and get back on the winning track in the home game against the Tropics from Oberhaching, a direct competitor for the playoffs, next Saturday (15.03.). Jump is at 19:30.