Basketball: BBC Bayreuth clinches victory with a buzzer-beater three

What a thriller in Bayreuth's Oberfrankenhalle: BBC Bayreuth won 91:89 against Phönix Hagen in the BARMER 2nd German Basketball League Pro A on Sunday afternoon thanks to a buzzer-beater three by Moritz Plescher.

The BBC started the game with Shane Gatling, Moritz Plescher, Marco Rahn, Kristian Sjolund and Aaron Carver. Hagen quickly took a 5:0 lead before Shane Gatling scored Bayreuth's first two points with a jump shot. The game continued briskly and a three by Selim Fofana gave Bayreuth the lead for the first time in the 7th minute. After many points and quick moves on both sides, the BBC finally went 27:26 in front after the first ten minutes.

The game continued to go back and forth in the second quarter. Hagen began with a 30:27 lead, then Bayreuth went 33:30 in front through Esa Ahmad. Brock Mackenzie equalised for Hagen with a three. Bayreuth then made it 40:34 after a jump shot by Kristian Sjolund and the home side made it 41:39 with three minutes to go before half-time. Kristian Sjolund then stretched the gap to 43:39. Free throws by Moritz Plescher and Shane Gatling put the BBC 46:39 in front, after which Kristofer Krause cut the visitors' lead to 41:46. Bayreuth went in at half-time with a five-point advantage.

Bayreuth initially extended its lead to 51:43 in the third period. However, the visitors then caught up and even went back in front through Bjarne Kraushaar. Esa Ahmad then equalised again and Brock Mackenzie put Hagen 56:53 in front again with a three. The game remained tense and the score was 65:65 with 59 seconds left in the quarter. Siler Schneider with a free throw and another three by Brock Mackenzie finally gave Hagen a 69:65 lead at the end of the third quarter.

The final quarter then finally turned into a thriller. Bayreuth initially went 72:69 in front again after a three by Shane Gatling. The BBC then went 79:73 and 88:83 in front. Brock Mackenzie then drained a three to make it 86:88 from Hagen's perspective. Marco Rahn drained an attempted three for the BBC with nine seconds remaining. In Hagen's counter-attack, Kristofer Krause scored from beyond the arc with 1.7 seconds remaining to give Hagen a supposed 89:88 victory. However, Bayreuth still had one more: After a timeout by Head Coach Mladen Drijencic, a throw-in in the opposing side's half had to be taken quickly - the ball came to Moritz Plescher and he drained a three at the buzzer to give the BBC a 91:89 victory. The 2,507 fans in the arena went wild: Bayreuth had secured its fifth win in its ninth game in the BARMER 2nd German Basketball League Pro A. The BBC thus remains in eighth place in the table.

The BBC's Managing Director Friedrich Hartung commented: "That was an absolute moment of shock at first and I don't even know what to say when the buzzer sounded to give us the winning three. You can sense a spirit of optimism, the fans are enthusiastic and basketball fever has broken out again in Bayreuth today at the latest. Anyone who was there today will be back for the next home game. Both teams played a good game. But the league is so tight that you always have to think from game to game. We still have six games left this year and a lot of work ahead of us."

The next game is scheduled for Saturday, 2 November in Bremerhaven.