Basketball: Coburg decide Upper Franconia derby no. 2 in its favour

BBC Coburg defeated TSV Tröster Breitengüßbach 83:79 in a thriller in front of more than 1,000 spectators in the HUK-Coburg arena to take revenge for the derby defeat last November. As so often before, the BBC's top scorer was shooting guard Gabriel Kuku with 19 points. Centre Olamide Pedersen added 15, youngster Adrian Petkovic 14, power forward Kolten Mortensen 13 and captain Sven Lorber 12 points. Mortensen also collected a strong 12 rebounds to record his first double-double at professional level.

Head Coach Patrick Seidel summed up the third win in a row: "I was very satisfied with the first half. We did the defensive things we set out to do well and we also managed the new pick and roll defence, in which the big man can drop much deeper, well. Of course, Güßbach also changed that at half-time, but I didn't want to change much for us because we did well with it and you can always swallow one or two shots. We also rebounded very well, and I have to emphasise Kolten Mortensen in particular. The other guys were also there today and we were able to come back from a game that didn't play into our hands and still manage to pull it off in the end thanks to our cleverness."

In a game that was evenly poised to begin with and in which neither team really managed to pull away, the visitors exploited a brief spell of weakness by Breitengüßbach at the end of the second quarter to pull away with a 12:0 run.

However, Coburg's well-played shots stopped falling after half-time. As a result, Breitengüßbach clawed its way back bit by bit and was able to take the lead again after a long time at the start of the final quarter through Marlon Stephan.

However, Coburg's centre Olamide Pedersen then took over in offense and scored eleven of his 15 points in the final quarter to keep his team in front with important buckets. Gabriel Kuku cut the gap to six points at 81:75 with 1:40 minutes remaining, but Breitengüßbach fought its way back to within two points and even had the chance to take the lead with a three with 15 seconds left. However, it missed its target and Adrian Petkovic then decided the derby in the BBC's favor at the free throw line.

BBC Coburg:

Worthy 2, Piprek dnp, Höllerl 6, KUKU 19, LORBER 12, Gerhard, Kazakevicius, Karioui 2, PETKOVIC 14, PEDERSEN 15, Ortelli, MORTENSEN 13

BBC Coburg has its next home game coming up on Sunday, 21 January. Orange Academy Ulm, the next generation of the reigning German champions, will be guests at BBC Coburg.