BBC Coburg loses to Gießen in the tussle for a playoff spot

BBC COBURG is running out of steam on the finishing straight in the battle to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in the BARMER ProB South 2nd German Basketball League, crashing to a clear 91:68 (46:34) defeat on the road at Depant GIESSEN 46ers Rackelos on Sunday evening. The BBC was especially out of sorts in defense.

Slips in concentration by Coburg, in particular in defense, enabled the home side to post a hefty 30 points on the board and a princely total field goal percentage of 56 in the first period. In the second quarter, the visitors were able to reduce the deficit to 36:29 at one stage thanks to Steffen Walde’s reverse lay-up, but Gießen was far superior in terms of athleticism and managed to open up a double-digit margin again by half-time (46:34).

The club from Upper Franconia managed to stay in reasonable contention after the break, but then finally slipped irrecoverably behind shortly before the end of the third period (70:52 in the 29th minute). A poor field goal percentage of 36% thwarted all thoughts of a comeback, despite the fact that Coburg snapped up 16 offensive rebounds and so had enough chances to score at the second attempt.

The clear defeat at the first-division club’s farm team means BBC COBURG has dropped to the thankless ninth place, which would mean it would have to participate in the unpopular playdown series. It still has a minimal chance of finishing 8th by winning its two remaining games. However, that would require a monumental improvement in performance if Coburg wants to pull off a shock win against Bayer Giants Leverkusen at home this Saturday.