Brose Bamberg captures first win in the new competition

A weak start, yet a win all the same! Just 48 hours after beating Ludwigsburg in a nail-biting encounter that went into overtime, Brose Bamberg captured its first victory in the Champions League by defeating JDA Dijon 73:64 to move up to third spot in Group C. Yet in particular in the first period, the team of Head Coach Ainars Bagatskis found it heavy going in front of 5,650 spectators in the Brose Arena.

Bagatskis was without Maurice Stuckey, who bruised his ribs in training. Bamberg likely lacked a basketball player in the mold of “Mo” Stuckey, who exudes ambition, desire and aggression in every situation, in the first fourteen minutes against the group leaders. The home side let itself be lulled to sleep by the way the French club played and permitted the visitors to play at a pretty slow pace instead of defending aggressively and with the occasional foul. Bamberg allowed Dijon seventeen very open shots in the first period and could be glad that the visitors only scored off six of them – because it felt as if the home side was missing everything in attack: It had sixteen shots, yet the first points only came after a 0:6 run by Dijon with a slam-dunk by Cliff Alexander, after which Stevan Jelovac added a lay-up to make it 4:8. 4:13 after the first quarter and 11:22 after 14 minutes – Bamberg’s fans had rarely seen such a lax start by their team. However, Bamberg slowly clawed its way back with two buckets from downtown by Stevan Jelovac (9 points) and ten out of 13 free throws, while Cliff Alexander put his side within striking distance at half-time with his lay-up to make it 28:30.

Although Bagatskis’ team was also caught napping in the first four-and-half-minutes of the second half (30:38), the two veterans Tyrese Rice and Nikos Zisis pulled the chestnuts out of the fire for the home side. Both of them often attacked the basket with their quick turn of pace and could only be stopped by being fouled. The two playmakers reliably drained the many free throws without missing a single one, with the result that Bamberg had closed the deficit to 47:48 by the end of the quarter. Bamberg also relied on its two most experienced players after that. Nikos Zisis (14 points) put Bamberg ahead for the first time with his lay-up (54:53), after which Tyrese Rice extended the lead to 63:58 with a three and two lay-ups and then added his third bucket from beyond the arc to make it 70:61 with 65 seconds left on the clock. Despite the fairly weak team performance by Bamberg, there were two rays of light: Unlike in the encounter against Fuenlabrada and Ludwigsburg, Bagatskis’ team did not give its opponents a look-in at the death and were not hard-pressed to play out the game. The second ray of light: Elias Harris, who beavered away tirelessly after being out for a year with knee injuries, was almost the only one to defend toughly from the outset and crowned his display with 13 points.

Ainars Bagatskis commented: “We won, that’s the main thing. How doesn’t matter. After a poor start, we never lost belief in ourselves and our abilities. In particular, our experienced players led from the front today. I’m a little disappointed with the youngsters. They get a lot of time on court, but sometimes have the wrong attitude. It can’t be right that they don’t commit a single foul. Basketball is a tactical game and you have to be clever now and again. Nevertheless, I’m satisfied about the finish we produced after the energy-sapping game 48 hours before.”

Bamberg face their longest away trip in the German league on Sunday, October 21, 2018, when it travels to Bremerhaven Polar Bears for a game that tips off at 3 p.m.

For more information visit www.brosebamberg.de, www.easycredit-bbl.de and http://www.championsleague.basketball/de.