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Bamberg

Bamberg defeat at the last second

Bamberg, 01-19-2020

Crunch time is slowly becoming a trauma for Brose Bamberg: The players of Head Coach Roel Moors again squandered a double-digit lead to suffer an 85:86 against Rasta Vechta. Bamberg was unable to hold on to its 78:68 advantage with three minutes to go and is now ninth in the table and so out of the playoff spots for the first time this season.

Brose Bamberg began with a great deal of energy, launched quick attacks on the back of aggressive defending and, after a strong start, surged 8:0 ahead thanks to a three and a lay-up by Chris Sengfelder and a bucket from downtown through Bryce Taylor. Playmaker Paris Lee kept on finding his teammates in good positions and made four impressive assists in the first period. Bamberg could even have carved out a wider lead than 21:13 if Assem Marei and Elias Harris had been more uncompromising in taking their lay-ups below the basket. Two free throws by Harris and a lay-up from Retin Obasohan gave Bamberg a double-digit advantage (25:13), but then Moors’ players lost control of the encounter. Vechta drained four threes to close the gap more and more and then tied the scores at 35:35 shortly before the break. However, the strong Christian Sengfelder secured a 37:35 lead at half-time for the home side with a lay-up, his 13th point of the game without missing a shot up to then.

Back on court, the home side stretched the gap with two buckets from beyond the arc by Sengfelder (43:35), yet Moors’ players were not able to open up a decisive lead. Retin Obasohan and Elias Harris (11 points and 13 rebounds) put their side 59:53 in front going into the final period. Tre McLean (12 points) then displayed flashes of his ability, putting Bamberg 72:60 ahead with two threes and a thunderous slam-dunk with six minutes remaining, but Vechta struck back coolly with two difficult buckets from outside to cut the deficit to 75:68. Paris Lee drained a three to give Bamberg a ten-point lead (78:68), but that seemed to paralyze the home side instead of giving it a boost with 170 seconds left on the clock. Vechta capitalized on two squandered attacks and a needless technical foul by Retin Obasohan to produce a run of nine points without reply (78:77). Bryce Taylor added a three (81:77) and Paris Lee hit the mark with his free throws (83:80), but then Vechta’s Trevis Simpson replied with two more out of his total haul of nine (!) buckets from downtown, after which Elias Harris made it 85:83 with five seconds to go. However, Bamberg was caught napping in the center on Vechta’s final attack: The freestanding Trevis Simpson received a pass in the middle and made the slam-dunk to equalize (85:85). Moreover, Bamberg’s best player Christian Sengfelder (23 points) touched Simpson’s arm as he was shooting – a foul that gave the visitors a bonus free throw. Simpson drained it to give Vechta its first lead of the entire encounter (85:86). Bamberg, which often had problems with its in-bounds passing in the course of the game, was unable to build a good attack in the 2.6 seconds remaining. The Hail Mary three by Elias Harris missed the basket.

Roel Moors, Head Coach of Brose Bamberg, commented: “We controlled most of the game, had a shooting percentage of 42, dominated the rebounding department, and made 25 assists, but we can’t finish our plays. We conceded six turnovers from in-bounds passes; we simply don’t manage to remain consistent over 40 minutes. At the end we didn’t make open shots and Vechta punished us by draining threes. We’re simply making too many mistakes and at the moment we aren’t able to find a way of remedying that problem.”

Brose Bamberg is back on court in the Brose Arena tomorrow, Tuesday, January 21, 2020, against bottom-of-the-group VEF Riga in a game it must win to retain any chance of qualifying for the Champions League playoffs (tip-off: 8 p.m.).

For more information visit www.brosebamberg.de, www.easycredit-bbl.de and http://www.championsleague.basketball/de.