Basketball: Vechta II dominates BBC

In the first play-off game of the BARMER 2. Basketball Bundesliga ProB, BBC Coburg suffered a bitter defeat on Saturday evening. Rasta Vechta II rolled over the Coburg team with 61:91 and now has the best chance of advancing to the next round with a home win in game two next Friday.

Although the visitors got off to the better start, Coburg still led by a narrow 14:13 margin after the first quarter. Initially, Vechta were ahead 9:3 after a dunk by Grünloh, but then nervousness became noticeable on both sides, which became clear through some ball losses and careless mistakes. BBC still benefited from the weak throwing performance of the Rasta Farm team. Adrian Petkovic put Coburg in front with one point 15 seconds before the end of the first period.

The low scoring per quarter improved only marginally for the home side as the game progressed. The maximum was reached with 17 points in the second quarter. Coburg was not only unlucky but also lacked the means to embarrass the highly motivated and physically superior front court of the guests. Grünloh and Bedime alone combined for 22 rebounds. In addition, Vechta were now more efficient in their shooting, with Kevin Smit hitting three out of six threes before the break. His triple in the 19th minute put the score at 35:26 for the Lower Saxons, but by half-time BBC were still limiting the damage and had reduced the score to 31:38.

The complete collapse followed after the break. Offensively, the basic idea was still missing, and defensively, the shooters were often given too much space, which they gratefully accepted. In the second half, ten threes were made for the North Germans. Okpara also crowned a 10:0 run by Rasta with a three-pointer. When Noah Jänen scored again from downtown two minutes later to make it 56:43 from the visitors' point of view, BBC head coach Milos Petkovic called a time-out. However, the chest of the Vechta team grew wider and wider and the Coburg heads hung lower and lower. By the end of the quarter, the guests had pulled away to 45:66.

They did not let the unconditional will to decide this game for themselves be disputed in the slightest in the final section. By the end of the match, Vechta had extended their lead by nine points. At times the difference was as much as 35 points, and before the clock ran out Blunt and Carrasco scored five points in a row to make the score 61:91.

"Disappointing performance. We were expecting something before the game," analysed BBC managing director Wolfgang Gremmelmaier after the game. "I can't explain the collapse after half-time. I think there was also a lack of attitude in the game. Now we hope that things will turn out better for us in Vechta."