Basketball Bundesliga: medi bayreuth deservedly wins 86:72 at Chemnitz

The signs before medi bayreuth's away game on Matchday 3 in the Basketball Bundesliga at NINERS Chemnitz were anything but good. But even without Philip Jalalpoor and Janari Jõesaar, who both had to stay behind in Bayreuth due to a positive Corona test, the Bayreuth team did excellently at the so far undefeated Saxons.

At the beginning of the game, the medi supporters must have been worried, because the home team from Chemnitz was already leading 5:0 after just one minute. Raoul Korner's team, on the other hand, looked nervous and sometimes simply threw the ball away. However, after a while the Bayreuthers remembered their virtues and fought their way into the game. After just under four minutes, the NINERS' lead was equalized and the score was tied at 7:7 with a successful three-pointer by Bastian Doreth. However, Head Coach Rodrigo Pastore's team continued to play its game and regained the lead. The Saxons pulled away until 18:11. However, medi really turned up the heat with a 12:0 run and went into the first quarter break with a 23:18 lead.

The run of captain Bastian Doreth's team continued in the second quarter. The hosts pulled away to a 28:18 lead and forced Head Coach Rodrigo Pastore to call a timeout after two and a half minutes. As a result, the Saxons found their way into the game better. Medi, however, held up well, especially thanks to a very strong three-point rate (60% at halftime), and were able to take a narrow lead (38:34) into the halftime break.

After the change of sides, it seemed at first as if the Chemnitz team would continue its race to catch up. A little more than three minutes were played when Frantz Massenat was able to equalize the score 46:46 with a successful basket. Significantly, it was again a successful three-pointer, this time by captain Bastian Doreth, that gave medi bayreuth the lead again. In an offensively dominated game (30:24 for medi), a lot of support came in this phase from Sacar Anim, who had moved into the starting five for Janari Jõesaar. The US American scored a strong ten points in the third quarter (in the end he was the top scorer with 19 points) and was instrumental in medi regaining a solid lead. The lead was even in double figures again at the end of the quarter (68:58) thanks to a buzzer beater three-pointer by Cameron Wells.

In contrast to the previous period, the last ten minutes were dominated by the defense. In particular, medi defended very strongly (including a monster block by Kay Bruhnke against Darius Atkins) and made it difficult for the NINERS to score again and again. But since they also had difficulties in the offense, Kay Bruhnke's basket at 74:62 started a phase of almost four minutes without points on both sides. Only a successful free throw by Andreas Seiferth four minutes before the end of the game ended this. Since the Chemnitz three-point quota remained weak this evening and medi was able to fend off any attempt to catch up in a calm and confident manner, the Bayreuth team won 86:72 at the Chemnitz Exhibition Center, a highly deserved victory.

"The last few days were definitely turbulent, not only because of the tight game schedule, but rather the fact that we had to do without two players. I'm sure the team agrees with me that we dedicate the victory to those two. As for the game: I am more satisfied with the result than with the game itself. We saw a lot of mistakes on both sides. We were extremely unfocused in the first half, allowed too much defensively and threw away a lot of balls. After the break, we stepped it up a gear. We then finished the game very solidly and came a little closer to the form we had built up recently," said medi Head Coach Raoul Korner.

Next Wednesday, the HEROES OF TOMORROW will be in action for the first time in the regular season of the FIBA Europe Cup. In the first group game, the team will face the Bulls, who are based there, at 7 p.m. in the Walfersamhalle in Kapfenberg.

Source: www.medi-bayreuth.de